Ulysses contest – digital student competition on family business

The Ulysses Contest is a digital student competition which is based on the solution of case studies compiled about family businesses. Project partners assemble an exciting and challenging collection of case studies that present practical real-life problems of local family firms which shall be solved by the entrepreneurship competences of students in higher education.

The Family Business Center is organizing the first European contest in which students solve practical problems of local family firms. Together with institutions from Austria, Italy, Germany and Hungary, it is hosting a digital competition, in which university students from all over Europe can participate. Participation is worthwhile for both sides:  Students have the chance to apply their theoretical knowledge from the university. Family businesses benefit from the proposed solutions and can establish contacts with future graduates and promising specialists.

Preparations for the contest are in full swing. The first family businesses e. g. touristic companies, wineries and even woodwork firms have already confirmed their participation. IN Innsbruck, the Family Business Center is now reaching out to family firms to discuss their obstacles and determine those challenges that could be used as a basis for the digital competition. Once the family firm connections are established and family firm members are interviewed, so-called case studies are formed based on their real-life problems. The case studies will be the problems to solve during the Ulysses Contest. Registration is possible for individual students as well as for groups. The Contest itself is scheduled to start with the application phase in February 2023. By the end of May 2023, the winning team will be announced and rewarded.

The contest addresses issues that continue to be a challenge in the business world. It is an effective link to transfer university knowledge into practice, from which local companies have a real added value. At the same time, it trains students' entrepreneurial, digital, and intercultural skills, which will help them in their future careers. The Ulysses project unites six partners from experienced entrepreneurship education institutions and communication networks from four countries in the EU. Their experience and expertise provide an ideal foundation to achieve the project’s objectives. The project leader is the University of Szeged, partners include MCI (Austria), Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (Italy), University of Vienna (Austria), Univations GmbH (Germany), and marketing agency Agentur fundus GmbH (Austria).

A pan-European competition of this kind is being held for the first time. It is funded by the European Union and its Erasmus+ program with a duration of 2 years.

For more information, please visit our webpage, social media channels, or reach out to us via email and phone number below.

For more information, please visit the Ulysses Contest website https://www.ulysses-contest.eu.

Contact:

Prof. MMag. Dr. habil. Anita Zehrer
Head of Family Business Center
+43 512 2070 – 7100
anita.zehrer@mci.edu