CES Case Competition - Concours de simulation de la SCE

CASE COMPETITION RULES AND FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Overview

Teams of three to five students compete in the analysis of an evaluation case file that is available in English and French. English-speaking and French-speaking students from all disciplines, all levels of post-secondary study are welcome to participate. There is no limit to the number of teams from a given institution.

In a preliminary competition, all teams receive on the same day the key to an evaluation case file that has been hidden on the Web. They have five hours to prepare an analysis then submit it by e-mail for judging by a bilingual panel of experts. The three best teams are invited to participate in a final round, held at the Canadian Evaluation Society's annual conference, in which they must analyse a new case and present findings and recommendations before a live audience.

The team that makes the best presentation takes possession of the Case Competition Trophy for a year, receives prizes and is given visibility in various publications.

General rules

There must be at least three and no more than five members to a team.
All team members must be registered in a university or college program (undergraduate or graduate, full or part time). A student is defined as an individual enrolled in a Canadian university or a Canadian or permanent resident of Canada enrolled at a non-Canadian university. Team members may be from any academic discipline.
Teams may be coached prior to the competition but coaches must not communicate with their teams once the teams have received the case.
In preparing their submissions, teams are at liberty to explore any public information source such as would be accessible by a management consulting group. For example, they may consult books or articles, search libraries, use the Internet, and so forth. Team members are free to leave the work-site and take refreshment as they wish but they may communicate only within the team.
Teams have five hours to prepare their submission.

Suggestions: Have fun! Share responsibility and control within the group. Remember, it is not important whether you win or lose, but how you play the game.

Preliminary round

For the Competition each team must organize: a place to work, an Internet connection to enable downloading of the case and a printer to produce copies of the case for each team member.
Teams must select a contact person and a time between 9:00 a.m. and 12 noon (Ottawa time) to receive a telephone call from the Organizers revealing the hidden location of the case file on the web.
Teams will be given 1 hour to download the case and make photocopies for each team member.
Teams may spend no more than five hours on the case. Submissions must be sent by e-mail to (a designated adress) with copies to (a list of designated addresses) in Word or WordPerfect format no later than 6 hours after the call from the Organizers revealing the location of the case on the web.
Submissions should be concise. Judges will look for quality, rather than quantity, in the advice from teams.
Judges must not know the real identity of the teams. Thus, throughout their submission, teams should identify themselves only by an imaginative, non-revealing code name, such as Noble Consultants.
In the e-mail message to which their submission is attached, teams must provide the following information. (This information will be removed when submissions are sent to the judges.)

Code name for the team
University or College of the team
School, Department or Program
Team Coach (if applicable)
Names of team members

Judges may take up to one month to select the best three submissions and draft feedback for all teams.

Criteria for the preliminary round

The following table provides teams and judges with the general basis of assessment. However, the uniqueness of each case necessitates flexibility in the evaluation process.

AREAS	CRITERIA	WEIGHTS
CONTENT	Relevance of material selected for case submission	10
	Presentation/rationale for material	5
	Use of evidence: supporting points made	15
	Use of evidence: awareness of limits of evidence	5
	Innovation regarding methods/techniques proposed	10
	Rationale of recommendations	15
PRESENTATION	Clarity of presentation	10
	Organization of points (cohesive idea flow)	15
	Persuasive strength of argument	10
OTHER	At the discretion of judges, to award teams for ideas or detailed practical suggestions that go above and beyond the questions	5
TOTAL		100

Final round

Teams should bring their own computer (laptop) loaded with MS PowerPoint software for preparation of their presentation. It is recommended that members bring snacks and drinks in case such cannot be found near the case preparation room.
Organizers may interrupt teams briefly to take pictures of members at work preparing their presentation. Teams should consider recording themselves on film too!
Teams will be guided by organizers from the case preparation room to the presentation area.
The presentations may be recorded on video.
Presentations should be no longer than 15 minutes. A time-keeper will give warning as the end of the presentation period approaches.
Judges and the audience will have five to ten minutes after the presentation to ask questions of the team.

Criteria for the final round

The following table provides teams and judges with the general basis of assessment. However, the uniqueness of each case necessitates flexibility in the evaluation process.

AREAS	CRITERIA	WEIGHTS
CONTENT	Relevance of material selected for presentation	10
	Evidence presented: support for points made	15
	Evidence presented: awareness of the limits of evidence	5
	Rationality of recommendations	15
PRESENTATION	Clarity of presentation	10
	Organization of points (cohesive idea flow)	15
	Persuasive strength of argument	15
	Team participation (all team members are involved with and contribute to the presentation)	10
OTHER	At the discretion of judges, to award teams for ideas or detailed practical suggestions that go above and beyond the questions	5
TOTAL		100

FREQUENCLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Is there a video of past case competitions? How do I get a copy?
There is a video for the 2001 and 2002 competitions available to coaches and evaluation instructors who wish to use it for teaching purposes or for coaching. A few copies are available at no cost, and may be ordered by e-mailing casecomp@evaluationcanada.ca. Please include your mailing address in your email order.

Can student submissions include colour?
Submissions will not be viewed by judges in colour, so all submissions should be sent to the case competition organising committee using colours that can be seen in grey scale (black, white, and various shades of grey).

Can a coach enter many teams from the same university and faculty?
Certainly! We are happy to have many interested teams enter, regardless of their coach or faculty. Start times and cases for round 1 will be set depending on the needs of the student teams and coaches. However, as per the rules, teams will be given 1 hour to download the case and make photocopies for each team member, and may spend no more than five hours on the case. Also, coaches must not communicate with their team(s) once the teams have received the case.

Are teams allowed to substitute team members for the preliminary or final round of the case competition?
Yes, you can. For the preliminary round, you can change or include any team member, provided that the new team member is a student under the definition of the case competition, and that you have no more than five team members participating in the first round.
Under extenuating circumstances, you are permitted to substitute an alternate team member if they cannot be part of the final round, provided that there is at least 3 original team members on your team during the final round. For more information or clarification, please discuss this with the case competition organising committee.
Once you have decided on your replacement, you can either email to the committee or change your registration on the Case Competition Web site.