TEAM STRUCTURE

The 2023 competition will accommodate teams in three divisions: undergraduate students; graduate students, or early career professionals. Early career professionals should be under 35-years old. Teams can have from 3-5 members.

Undergraduate teams must be comprised of only undergraduates. Mixed teams are allowed among the graduate and young professional levels; however, the team must largely be comprised of members within that category.

Universities may also send multiple teams. Individual student applications are also accepted, and teams can be formed with students from multiple universities (IFAMA can assist in this pairing if needed). A current IFAMA membership is required before team members can participate.

COMPETITION STRUCTURE

Each team must have either an academic or industry advisor. The advisor will be the key point of contact between IFAMA and the team prior to the competition. Although advisors play a major role in helping students prepare for the competition, students must work independently from their advisor during the competition. Students and advisors will be given the scoring rubric in advance that will to be used by the judges.

PRELIMINARY ROUND

All teams will gather for group meeting prior to the start of the preliminary competition. Exact start times and complete details will be provided in advance of the competition. Teams will have four hours to analyze the case and submit their PowerPoint slides and another hour before their case presentation in front of a panel of industry and academic judges. It is expected that team members will have comparable speaking roles and significantly contribute to their team’s presentation.

Team presentations will be open to the public but participating teams may not attend the presentations of other competing teams. Approximately 30 minutes will be allocated for each presentation, five minutes for set up, 15 minutes for the presentation, and ten minutes for a question-and-answer period with the judges. The judges will evaluate each team based on their presentation and responses to the judges’ questions.

SEMI-FINAL AND FINAL ROUNDS

The top five teams selected by the judges in each division will be invited to advance to a Semi-final Round of the competition on Sunday, 18 June 2023. Although complete details are not yet available, teams advancing to the Semi-Final Round can expect to complete one of the following scenarios: 1) Revise their Preliminary Round presentation after receiving further guidance from the Student Case Chairs; 2) Prepare a revised presentation after receiving a short addendum to the preliminary case; or they may receive an entirely new but shorter case in which they are required to analyze and develop a presentation.

The top two teams selected by the judges in each division will be invited to advance to a Final Round that will occur during the first day of the Forum on Monday, June 19, 2023. Fifteen minutes will be allotted for the presentation and 10 minutes for questions and answers. Judges will assign scores based on the presentations and responses to the judges’ questions.

The winners in each division will be formally recognized during the IFAMA Presidential Banquet and awards ceremony.  Cash awards and other prizes to be announced.

HOW TO REGISTER A TEAM OR TO JOIN AN INTERNATIONAL TEAM

Every team member must be an current IFAMA member to participate in the Student Case Competition.  

If you are not currently an IFAMA member, go here: www.ifama.org/join-now  ($25 USD membership fee).

All teams must complete the Team Application Form and upload it into the Application Portal:  http://ifama.submittable.com/submit   Submit only one application per team.

Individuals (either students or early career professionals) who are not currently on a team but want to join an  international team need to fill out an Individual Application Form. Every effort will be made to accommodate all unaffiliated individuals. Preference will be given to applications with the earliest submission dates.

Upon acceptance, all student team members and their advisors are expected to follow the normal registration process for the IFAMA conference. Early Bird registration ends April 26. The deadline to register a team or as an individual is June 11, 2023. Registration fees include all four days of the congress, June 17-20.

REGISTRATION FEES

 PAY REGISTRATION FEE HERE 

DOWNLOADS 

Student Case Competition Team Call Poster

Student Case Competition Team Guidelines

Student Case Competition Application Form for Teams

Student Case Competition Application Form for Individuals

REGISTRATION 

Pay Registration Fees Here

QUESTIONS?

Contact: Elena Garnevska: E.V.Garnevska@massey.ac.nz

or Kathryn White: mkwhite@ifama.org

2023 STUDENT CASE COMPETITION COMMITTEE

Chair: Elena Garnevska, Senior Lecturer in Agribusiness, Massey University, New Zealand,  E.V.Garnevska@massey.ac.nz

“It’s such a privilege to be involved with the IFAMA Student Case Competition. The ideas and visions applied to real world problems that come out during this intense competition underpin my belief in the next generation of agricultural leaders. They are the ones who will bring the agricultural innovations of tomorrow to the cutting edge of food and value chain sustainability. Supporting the talents and skill sets of these young leaders and watching them flourish is why Bayer sees the IFAMA student essay challenge and case competition as such engaging and valuable initiatives."                                                                                   

— Ronald Guendel Gonzalez, Global Head Partnerships, Food Value Chain, BAYER

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