Aimed to support and grow the skills of upcoming local tech talent, the MYOB Digital Challenge offers tertiary students from both sides of the Tasman a chance to demonstrate their abilities as they create technology-centric solutions to address 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 finalist teams are then chosen to move through to the next stage of the Challenge, tasked with bringing their ideas to life and presenting these to a judging panel, evaluated on their creativity, the business case for the idea, financial planning, marketing strategy and more.
A judge of the Digital Challenge, MYOB Chief Product & Technology Officer - Darren Smith, explains: “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.
“This year I’ll be looking for the whole package. A novel idea that targets a true pain point for a specific audience and how the teams plan to go from concept to cash – but grounded in reality. Essentially, a lean startup mindset!” he adds.
Hosted in partnership with the University of Auckland Case Club (UACC), submissions are judged by a panel of MYOB executives and UACC representatives, with three teams from Australia and three from New Zealand selected for the MYOB Digital Challenge Trans-Tasman Final on 20th July.
Each finalist will have one-on-one mentoring with senior leaders at MYOB to help refine their solution before presenting to the final judges, and the winner will be decided and revealed during the live event. The winners crowned on the day of the final will take away a share of the $8,500 prize pool.
More than 1,700 students have entered the MYOB Digital Challenge since it launched nine years ago, with last year seeing nearly 80 teams register from all corners of Australia and New Zealand.
Registrations are open from today and teams eager to be part of this year’s cohort will have until 11pm NZST/9.00pm AEST on Wednesday 28th June to sign up. For more information and to register, visit: https://myobdigitalchallenge.com/
ENDS
Selina Ife
Media Manager
About MYOB
MYOB is a leading business management platform with a core purpose of helping more businesses in Australia and New Zealand start, survive and succeed. MYOB delivers end-to-end business, financial and accounting solutions direct to businesses employing between 0 and 1000 employees, alongside a network of accountants, bookkeepers and consultants. For more information visit myob.com or follow MYOB on LinkedIn.