It might have been called off entirely, but the students at Aarhus University’s International Business Communication programme were having none of it.
This year, the programme will put on the first edition of an annual case competition called Stay Relevant. The students will do real-life troubleshooting for local businesses of the Ringkøbing-Skjern Municipality.
Normally, this would entail meeting with representatives from the companies and being presented with a case, to which they then work out a solution based in their academic discipline. COVID-19 of course made this process impossible, but rather than cancelling the competition, the students and the university reformatted it to take place online. With separate digital meeting rooms for the teams working on their projects for the eight participating businesses.
Thinking globally about local business
“The cases range from creating a communications strategy for a small start-up to building a branding platform for a sustainability company. I am thrilled that our local businesses are getting valuable input from the students at Aarhus University, and we are all looking forward to seeing what innovative solutions they come up with”, says Susanne Trip-Nielsen who represents the Business Council of Ringkøbing-Skjern Municipality.
The students study business communication specializing in a foreign language – either English, German, Spanish or French – so much of their work has an international outlook.
“Internationalization and business collaboration are part of the Aarhus University strategy, so the Stay Relevant competition is a great fit for our ambitions. I am very proud that the students and companies have met the challenge of digitizing this competition with such short notice”, say Dean of Aarhus University’s Faculty of Arts, Johnny Laursen.