Students Edward Hogan, Angus Scanlan, Nigel Turay and Anthony Whyte have just returned from Las Vegas where they represented UQ Business School in the Cornell ICSC Retail Real Estate Case Competition, an invite only case competition that includes just six university teams from top real estate programs across the world.
“The experience itself was brilliant, albeit intense. The retail format was very specific to local conditions which showed in our presentation and placing,” said Edward Hogan, speaking about the teams valiant effort in the international competition.
Students receive a case study and are given five days preparation, allowing them time for analysis, industry research and local market analysis before delivering their final presentation to a panel of industry professionals and representatives.
The intense competition provides an opportunity for the students to practice the skills they have learned throughout their undergraduate program at UQ and gain experience in showcasing themselves to leaders of the industry.
“The judges were from non-core markets, focusing heavily on leasing rather than the financial aspects of the case. The industry exposure was very strong, with several CEOs and REIT managers in attendance,” said Edward on behalf of the team.
“On the whole, people were impressed with the UQ standard and the judges noted that we did surprisingly well for a foreign team.
“The team worked together really well in an extremely pressured time-frame. We felt as if we pulled together a great case in a few days that met the standards of the other teams.”
Edward said that he is looking forward to mentoring future participants in the competition.
“Moving forwards, we've taken our experience and recorded areas we can improve on for future UQ participation in the Cornell Competitions,” he said.
The team was accompanied by Associate Professor Clive Warren, an expert in property studies, who assisted the team in preparation for the competition.
The competition which is held annually, took place during the ICSC RECon which is the world’s largest retail real estate convention in Las Vegas, USA.
