By Pichaya Angkatavanich BBA#15

After around 2 hours long flight, the all-girls Thammasat team consisting of 4 senior girls: Pichaya Angkatavanich, Jeannie Sthavornmanee, Paramee Smittinet and Jiraya Boonyasait accompanied by Ajarn Satjaporn Tungsong arrived at Singapore to compete in the NUS-DBS International Case Competition 2009.  This is the first time National University Singapore hosted this case competition to mark the 45th anniversary celebration of its Business School.  The team was very excited to compete together for the first time, but also nervous at the same time.  This is because the competition format will not be announced until the day before the case is released.  After arrival, we were able to meet with students from top 12 business schools around the world spanning across 8 countries.  For the first two days of the competition, the organizing committee held activities allowing participants to fully experience the very unique Singaporean culture including Mambo Jambo@Zouk and an Amazing Race around the city with visits to Little India and China Town.

The competition format was then announced early in Thursday morning to be a 24-hour competition, where only 2 laptops will be given, and no textbook or notes are allowed.  There will be two divisions consisting of 6 teams each, and only the top 2 teams from each division will advance to the finals.  Another curve ball was thrown again where the committee announced that finalists will be given 30 minutes to work on a new management issue that will be addressed before the final round presentations.  In the evening at Sentosa, an opening dinner was held and team divisions were drawn.  We were in Division B and had to compete against Seoul National University, University of California Berkeley, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Chulalongkorn University, and University of Hong Kong.