Arranged by the Student Development Society, the New Zealand International Business Case Competition was arranged by the Student Development Society.
Six New Zealand teams from the Universities of Massey, Auckland, Auckland University of Technology, Waikato, Canterbury and Otago competed alongside four international teams from Maastricht University, the Netherlands, Shantou University, China, Queensland University of Technology, Australia, and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
On the morning of each of the three competition days, the teams were given a case. They had five hours to deliberate, then present their solution to a team of judges from the Queenstown and Wanaka business communities, who were playing the roles of boards of directors of the case company.
The competition was arranged to give the students opportunities to build confidence and develop team-leader skills, and to create important peer and industry networks.
At a gala event at the Skyline complex on Saturday evening, the team from the University of Waikato was crowned as the winner.
Daniel Stevenson from the Waikato team said it had been a great experience to compete against the international teams.
"It is the first time our business competition has had international teams, and it has taught us a lot about how things are done in other countries. It also added to the social aspect of our week in Queenstown," Mr Stevenson said.
From the Dutch team, Claudia Woest said the long trip had been worthwhile, with many great experiences both in the competition and at the time off.
"Compared to the competitions we had done before, this one had a shorter timeframe both for research and presentations. It has been an interesting and valuable experience," Ms Woest said.
The teams were in Queenstown for a week, but competed for only three days, so everyone found time for some action-filled fun.
While the Waikato team went snowboarding, luging and on a trip on the Earnslaw steamship, the entire Dutch team went skydiving.
