14th June, 2023
Marking the 9th year of the challenge, students from across Australia and New Zealand can now register to compete in this year’s MYOB Digital Challenge and showcase their innovative tech solutions.
The annual MYOB Digital Challenge is back in 2023, with registrations open now until 28 June.
Co-ordinated in partnership with the University of Auckland Case Club (UACC), the competition offers university students the opportunity to develop a tech solution that addresses a common business problem.
Registered participants have just over a week to develop their solution to the problem, sharing their concepts in a video for preliminary judging.
Six finalists are then selected on Wednesday 12th July (by a judging panel of MYOB and UACC executives), to move to the final stage — receiving tailored mentoring as they further refine their ideas ahead of the MYOB Digital Challenge Trans-Tasman Final, to be held on Thursday 20th July.
During the final, each team will pitch their idea to MYOB executives including, Chief Financial Officer Caroline Rawlinson, Chief Product & Technology Officer Darren Smith, and General Manager for Enterprise Kim Clarke, as well as an external judge.
In previous years, representatives from companies such as Microsoft, Uber, AWS, EY, Grant Thornton, NZTech, Fonterra, and ANZ have joined the judging panel for the Trans-Tasman Final.
The winners of this year’s MYOB Digital Challenge will take away a share of the $8,500 prize pool, remunerated in their local currency.
However, in addition to the winnings, the unique experience of the Challenge offers other benefits for both students and education providers.
Students benefit from the opportunity to apply what they’re learning, showcasing their skills and creativity to potential employers, and giving businesses a clearer idea of their potential as future employees. Meanwhile — for education institutions — these opportunities tie into overarching objectives to provide students with practical, real-world experiences, making them job-ready.
The Challenge isn’t just rewarding for the participants, but the judges too.
MYOB Chief Financial Officer Caroline Rawlinson, explains: “The MYOB Digital Challenge is a brilliant opportunity for any budding tech entrepreneur to develop and show their skills. As a judge I really enjoy seeing younger people from across Australia and New Zealand applying their smarts in creative ways. It’s inspiring.”
MYOB General Manager for Enterprise Kim Clarke adds: “Supporting local talent that are digitally curious and savvy, is integral to creating a resilient economy. This generation is leaning in to build the new ‘new’ — they’re the curious problem solvers and builders creating a brighter future — and we should all be nurturing their efforts.”
From 2022’s winning team, team member Sumanth Meenakshi says that when posed with last year’s challenge to create a novel solution to a problem that SMEs across ANZ face, the team reflected on their personal experiences with some of their favourite small hospitality businesses, to inspire their idea.
Commenting on the team’s experience, Sumanth Meenakshi, explains: “The MYOB Digital Challenge enabled us to get exposure to real challenges and understand how we go about finding a solution. Being a trans-Tasman competition, it helped us to learn from a mix of students we wouldn’t normally be competing against.
“We also learned a lot about SMEs, their operations, and current gaps in the ANZ market, and gained some different problem-solving and teamwork skills which you typically don’t learn through lectures and will be extremely valuable to us when we enter the workplace.”
As MYOB’s Chief Product and Technology Officer Darren Smith points out, the calibre of the competition is often high and their innovation efforts, encouraging.
“Seeing local, emerging entrepreneurs and future leaders in the MYOB Digital Challenge stretching their skills in so many different directions — from creativity to technology and commerciality — gives me a real energy lift,” he says.
Since its launch in 2015, more than 1,700 students have entered to participate in the Challenge.
Last year’s competition alone saw more than 220 students from 77 teams register to compete for a chance to win a share of the prize pool.
Many of these students go on to begin their careers in the technology industry, while others follow their entrepreneurial mindset towards a career in the startup space.
Regardless, the MYOB Digital Challenge offers students a practical opportunity to flex their skills — and that means a better results card for everyone.
Registrations for the 2023 MYOB Digital Challenge close at 11pm NZST / 9pm AEST Wednesday 28th June 2023.
For more information and to register, visit: https://myobdigitalchallenge.com/