Go Green in the City

This audio was created using Microsoft Azure Speech Services

For the second year in a row, I have had the pleasure to be a part of Go Green in the City, an international case challenge for university students. Last year, the first year of the contest, I was one of the judges that narrowed hundreds of entries down to 25 finalist teams. This year, I did the same and participated as a judge of the finals in Paris.

Each of the two-person teams was tasked with creating a solution that solves an energy problem, and the ideas were from a variety of topics. Some dealt with harnessing energy from gyms—one even had an energy-capturing dance floor!—while others focused on water reduction strategies, green public transportation, and capturing energy from sound waves.

As a judge, I was incredibly inspired to see how these university students, all in their last two years of their degree programs, endeavored to solve energy issues the world faces today. After a full day of learning from these future leaders, my fellow  judges and I had quite the task in front of us: selecting a winning team.

The following day at a VIP reception at our corporate headquarters—the Hive—I had the opportunity to mix and mingle with the teams before the results were announced. If I had been impressed on the previous day, I was blown away after my individual conversations with the students. They were passionate, knowledgeable, and savvy about the energy dilemma.

And some were a little nervous…a trip around the globe and a guaranteed job offer were on the line. After naming two runners-up, our Chief Marketing Officer, Aaron Davis, named Marcellye Miranda and Igor Soares of Brazil the grand prize winners. From my vantage point across the room, the faces of all of the contestants (not just those that were named victors) were jubilant and thrilled. I shouldn’t disclose that this judge got a bit of a tear in her eye, yet the collective spirit was quite catching.

I was honored to be a part of this global challenge and am encouraged to see such innovation coming from these university students. What an amazing competition of which to be a part! To learn more about the winning teams, please click here.