Videos about business that are entertaining to boot were found aplenty at the award ceremony of Videoblogger Economics, the video competition of the educational initiative business@school of the international consulting firm Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The best submissions from the youths, visibly excited about business, were awarded last evening in Frankfurt am Main.

Students from all over Germany submitted videos; the four winning teams, the winner of the Audience Award and the winners of the Youngster Award were presented with their awards. Their creative approach to business issues won over the judges and the online community. In addition, three teachers from Bischof-Neumann-Schule in Königstein were given the Teacher Award for a joint video project.

Carsten Kratz, Managing Director Germany and Senior Partner, Boston Consulting Group, was enthusiastic about the abilities of the young participants: "The students have shown in the competition that creativity and business know-how work well together. With various ideas, they've explained what makes companies today successful. And it became clear that the youths are curious. They scrutinize business processes and are excited about new technologies. If they maintain that curiosity—whether for videos or apps or even algorithms or artificial intelligence—they will be successful in a digital world driven by data."

Acquiring business know-how and working effectively with digitalization is becoming increasingly important for students. They should be able to understand, analyze, and assess business topics. In addition, they are expected to be able to work productively with new media and critically evaluate information.

In order to bridge the gap between business and digital know-how, the educational initiative business@school launched the Videoblogger Economics competition. It provides an opportunity for students from all types of schools between the ages of 14 and 20 to select one of four companies, analyze the reasons for its success and failures as well as risks, and present their results in four-minute videos.

The winners in the four competitive categories:

Joshua Bach (16), Julius Schenk (15) (Friedrich-Ebert-Gymnasium, Bonn)

Jakob Bornhäuser, Yakup Celik, Nils Fett, and Paul Safran (all 18) (Gesamtschule Gießen-Ost)

Maximilian Brückweh, Luke Jenniches (both 17) (Städtisches Siebengebirgsgymnasium, Bad Honnef)

Nik Abend, Lotta Bachmann, Charlotte Sophie Mommsen (all 17) (Erzbischöfliche Liebfrauenschule, Cologne)

Audience Award presented

In addition to four company awards, the Audience Award was also presented at the award ceremony. Between September 12 and 19, all website visitors were called upon to vote for one of the twelve nominated videos. The video by Joshua Bach (16) and Julius Schenk (15) from Friedrich-Ebert-Gymnasium in Bonn was selected for the Audience Award. In their video, the two students analyze how the online fashion retailer ABOUT YOU can improve its online shopping experience and give tips as to how the company can become more attractive to male customers.

Dr. Babette Claas, Director business@school, presented the students with their awards. She handed over a voucher to the winners on behalf of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE for a joint event with mydays.

Youngster Award goes to Hockenheim

For the first time, the Youngster Award was presented at the 2018 award ceremony. After all, there are also talented video makers in the 8th and 9th grades who enjoy working with a camera. business@school wants to spark an interest in business issues especially among younger students with this special prize. René Braun (15), Davina Gorelenkov (16), Jan Hilbert (17), Felix Kahl (15), Julian Lerch (15), and Valerie Schenk from Carl-Friedrich-Gauß-Gymnasium in Hockenheim were honored with the award.

The winning students received an invitation from ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE to a joint event with mydays, such as a survival weekend. There, the students can learn together how to make a fire, set up a camp, find sources of water, or use a map and compass.

Teams from the following schools were represented in the online vote:

Dominic Dehmel, Dr. Marc Philipp and Gerhard Spitz from Bischof-Neumann-Schule in Königstein received the Teacher Award at the award ceremony. They were given the award because they showed that participating in a competition even with a lot of young students can be done in a short time frame.

The Teacher Award is presented to teachers who exhibit particular commitment in the context of the video competition. Because although the students can also participate in the competition outside of class, it's often the committed teachers who encourage the students to take on new challenges and engage with topics not on the curriculum.

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