Students from Geisenheim, Hanau, Hannover, Niederalteich, Nuremberg, and Wiesbaden were honored yesterday afternoon at the award ceremony for the video competition b@s videochallenge. The winning teams’ videos convinced the judges with their creativity and business acumen. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the award ceremony was held virtually.

Munich, March 17, 2021. Analyzing one of four companies based on four questions in a four-minute video: That was the assignment of the b@s videochallenge, the video competition of the educational initiative business@school. Between January and October 2002, students aged between 14 and 20 at all types of schools proved their creativity, media competence, and business acumen with their company analyses in the form of videos. The best videos have now been announced in the award ceremony. Next to the four first prizes sponsored by the four partner companies, there was also an Audience Award for the video that received the most votes from visitors to the website. In addition, the Youngster Award went to the best video by students in grade 7, 8, or 9.

Among the first to congratulate them was Elke Büdenbender, jurist and wife of Germany’s Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who has assumed patronage of the competition. “As a result of the pandemic, two things have suddenly become more important than ever in the past year: For one, learning on your own, and for another, working with digital media,” she explained. “The students have proved their ability to do both with their amazing videos.” Elke Büdenbender spoke to the finalists about their experiences while participating in the competition amid school shutdowns and other COVID-related restrictions. “Instead of meeting in person, we initially had to coordinate through video conferences. As a result, we weren’t able to stick strictly to our timeline,” reported Thomas, student at Leibnizschule in Wiesbaden. His teammate Béla added: “Overall, we learned a lot by participating in the competition. This type of teamwork, of focusing on a project together over an extended period of time, was certainly a new experience for us. Carrying out extensive research, learning to work with new software, and jointly mastering challenges—there’s a lot there that will help us in the future as well.”

The winners in the four competition categories are:

Leonie (16) from Sophienschule in Hannover

Christian (18) and Julian (18) from St. Gotthard-Gymnasium in Niederalteich

Julian (16) and Robin (17) from Dürer-Gymnasium in Nuremberg

Paula (19) from Internatsschule Schloss Hansenberg in Geisenheim

Special prizes for the teams from Wiesbaden and Hanau

In November 2020, all visitors to the b@s videochallenge website were able to vote for the nominated videos. The video about the compensation platform Compensaid filmed by Béla (14) and Thomas (14) from Leibnizschule in Wiesbaden emerged as the audience favorite with 27 percent of all votes. 

The Youngster Award is meant to encourage interest in business topics and fun working with a camera among younger students in particular. This special prize was awarded to Amelie (15) and Clara (15) from Karl-Rehbein-Schule in Hanau for their video about the ecological search engine Ecosia. 

Both teams can look forward to a shared day with an experience of their choice. 

You can see all the winning videos and the other nominated contributions on the website.

The teams in the finals came from the following schools: 

New round of the competition until August 1, 2021 

With the b@s videochallenge, the educational initiative business@school has created an offer for students from all types of schools. Four companies, four questions, and one video no longer than four minutes: In the video competition, 14- to 20-year-olds can prove their business and media mettle—and win great prizes. The next round of the competition is already underway, with the submission deadline on August 1, 2021.