Humber OCMC Students are the Best of the Best

Half way through the semester, it’s becoming apparent why only the best Business students were chosen for Humber’s OCMC team. While maintaining our practice schedule, we are balancing other classes, major assignments and studying for midterms. The team is feeling the burn. But is it worth it? You bet!

Back in the spring when we attended tryouts for the OCMC teams in which we were interested, we had little idea of what to expect, other than it was a prestigious honor to be selected to be a part of the team. We were told that the best Marketing students from across the province would be competing against each other, which is how Humber’s team was devised - with the best from the school! We knew that the cost of this honor was the work we would have to put into the team, but I don’t think we realized how much work it would actual take. It seems like the Quiz Bowl team may be feeling the brunt of this work because of all of the concept understanding we have to memorize on top of studying for our numerous midterms - but of course this is a biased opinion.

Our coaches are giving us an outstanding amount of knowledge and experience, and we are now getting a taste for what the other teams are up to.

Nancy Ryan, the outstanding coach of the Quiz Bowl team, gave the rest of the students of Humber’s OCMC team a taste of the “Quiz Bowl Life” this week by challenging the students to participate in a “Lightning Round”. It was a completely different vibe then our private practices because after every question was answered correctly, the team cheered. This was a great way to showcase how much work the Quiz Bowl team puts in.

Nancy Ryan in the midst of the Quiz Bowl Lightning Round with other members of the OCMC team!

Anthony Saraco, our Job Interview representative (more info on the Job Interview challenge here http://ocmc.ca/events/job-interview/), also gave us a taste of what his challenge was like and asked the team for input on his resume. As well, Shawn Manahan gave the team some insight on what the Sales Presentation challenge was all about (again, more info on the Sales Presentation challenge here http://ocmc.ca/events/sales-presentation/). Over the next few weeks, the case study challenges will be presenting a case analysis with a panel of judges every practice, to get them in the right mindset of how the competition will feel.

With the constant practicing and constructive feed back from both coaches and team members, the students of Humber’s OCMC team will surely be the best at this year’s competition.

Humber OCMC Case Study Challenges

As the weeks fly by, it's obvious to see that the hard work is paying off for Humber’s OCMC team.  Practices are becoming more fun, getting more intense and the students are becoming more close-knit. You can see that the connections between our smaller teams, like the case study challenges and Quiz Bowl (more info on the Quiz Bowl team here http://humberocmc.blogspot.ca/2014/10/an-inside-look-at-quiz-bowl-team.html), are getting stronger, which I'm sure will show when it comes time for the competition!

The entire OCMC team practices every Tuesday afternoon. This practice is geared towards enhancing our analysis and performance skills. This is great because the majority of the team will be presenting a case study analysis at the competition, of which there are 8 challenges:

•       Marketing
•       Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)
•       Marketing Research
•       Retail
•       Entrepreneurship
•       Direct Marketing
•       International Marketing
•       Prospect Pitching

At the competition, these teams will be put into a room and are allotted 30 minutes to dissect a case and create a 15-minute presentation for a panel of judges that they have never met before! (The IMC team is given 60 minutes because of the difficulty of their field). I'm freezing up during class presentations, so kudos to these teams for doing it in competition! Hopefully my skills will improve throughout the semester for my own benefit! For more information on each of the challenges, visit http://ocmc.ca/events/cases/. 

Coach Christine and James, from the IMC challenge, with his crazy hair!

It's nerve racking for sure, but I have no doubt that Humber’s OCMC Team will do very well in all elements at this year's case study competition.

An inside look at the Quiz Bowl Team!

The annual OCMC Competition is getting closer and practices are flying by! Humber's OCMC Team is comprised of 4 sections: Case Study, Sales Presentation, Job interview and Quiz Bowl. The Quiz Bowl is a segment of the competition where teams devised of 4 students, each from different schools, race to answer questions in order to earn the most points. I am lucky enough to be a part of our Quiz Bowl Team!

 

Quiz Bowl isn't like the other sections of the OCMC Team. We don't analyze or present cases, persuade someone to buy a product or sell ourselves to a prospective employer. We sit in front of a huge audience... And press a button... Oh and answer questions. Seems easy enough, right? Think again. We are expected to know 8 chapters of content front to back and 3 complete issues of Strategy Magazine! We have to understand hundreds of concepts and terms and we're only going to be asked 7 questions in each round? Wow.

 

Don't get me wrong - I love being a part of the Quiz Bowl Team. I believe that we get spoiled a bit. We have awesome practices preparing us for the Quiz Bowl competition, but on top of that, we also get trained on our presentation and case analysis skills just like everyone else. It's the best of both worlds!

 

However, I do have to give props to the other sections of the OCMC Team. They're expected to read, analyze and present a case study in only 30 minutes! From experience in the OCMC class, I know it's not easy. But it seems like the coaches are really preparing their teams and the students are improving every week. We’re all on the fast track to the podium at this year’s OCMC!

Students of Humber’s OCMC team attend IAB CANADA conference…

The IAB Canada MIXX Conference is an annual event that is held downtown Toronto at the Carlu on Yonge Street, a fantastic and very unique event venue. The students of Humber’s Ontario Colleges Marketing Competition Team (OCMC) were given the opportunity to attend this event, and what an honor it was! They were greeted by fantastic volunteers upon their arrival and quickly made their way to the first of a few presentations. Derrick Li of comScore, one of the leading companies in their field, wowed the students with fantastic research on leading trends in society and detailed information on demographic trends regarding mobile/electronic advertising. 

The students were lucky enough to see presentations from professionals at the top of their industry, like Marie Josée Lamothe from Google and Martina Martinez from AOL. The conference really showed how amazing and interesting the industry can be. The information that the students of the OCMC team received was an invaluable asset that can and will be used during their preparation, and even presentations, for the annual OCMC Competition held this year in Blue Mountain, ON!