Students from around the world are congregating on campus this week for the Global Business Case Competition (GBCC), hosted by the UW's Business School for the ninth year. Sixteen different teams from 13 different countries will be participating.

At its core, [GBCC is] an undergraduate case competition," said Andrea Gomes, assistant director of the Global Business Center and program manager for GBCC.

Today, the four-person teams will be given a live business case, which is international in content. The situations given students are real, up-to-date problems current businesses could be facing, Gomes said.

The teams will have 48 hours to analyze the case and come up with the best possible solution. Previous cases have involved companies such as Weyerhaeuser, Cyberspeed Technologies, Starbucks and Neopets.

Students are judged based on creativity, content, quality of analysis and presentation, Gomes said.

The students will be here for the entire week and will have the opportunity to get involved not only with local business leaders, but also the community, said senior Lanna Wei, co-chair of the event.

This year, two new components have been added to the competition. One of the participating teams will be a global team consisting of students from the UW, Singapore, Brazil and Denmark. The students on this team have been corresponding via e-mail and met for the first time on Monday.

Another new element of the competition is the "Corporate Track," which gives young business professionals from the Seattle community with less than five years of experience the opportunity to analyze the same business case as students, Wei said.

This will help students see where their futures may be; it can also provide a great networking opportunity, Gomes said.

"Students get a real sense of what it's really [going to be] like when they get their first jobs," Gomes added.

The event involves about 40 student volunteers and 70 student organizers, Wei said.

"All of the people involved have worked really hard on it, and we're excited to see what the week's going to turn out like," said senior Pamela Zavecz, a competition manager.

GBCC tries to provide all business students with opportunities, Gomes said. For those who don't get to study abroad, this event gives them the chance to meet students from all over the world.

"The world is becoming more and more global, and this is one of the exciting ways students can get a sense of that before they leave the UW," Gomes said.

The final competitions will be this Saturday in Mary Gates Hall. Preliminary rounds for students begin at 8:45 a.m. and last until 11:45 a.m.; final rounds are from 1:30 – 4:30 p.m. The "Corporate Track" component will be from 9:00 – 11:40 a.m.

Reach reporter Shauna Nuckles at news@thedaily.washington.edu.