Alpha Kappa Psi, AU's professional business fraternity, held its first Pentathlon event Saturday in an effort to take the business skills they have learned in their Kogod School of Business classrooms and apply them to real life situations, according to the fraternity's President Myca Ferrer.
The Pentathlon incorporates five business elements - marketing, accounting, finance, philanthropy and presentation, according to Jay Weingast, a junior in Kogod and one of the event coordinators.
The event, which was open to all students on campus for a $10 fee per team, started at 10 a.m. The eight participating teams arrived at the Kogod building and were immediately given the challenge to sell 72 water bottles to people they could find on AU's campus.
Teams had to construct a marketing plan that would make their water bottles stand out among the other teams and that would allow them to pull in as much revenue as possible. At the end of the event, all of the money was pooled together and divided among the top three teams to go to each team's chosen charity.
The second half of the event involved creating and presenting a marketing scheme to a panel of judges.
"For the presentation, the teams will have to show accounting - how they will continue to make money in the future if the business were to continue, they will have to prep a financial statement, and they will have to explain why they chose each charity that they decide to donate the money to," Weingast said.
Three Kogod professors - Robert Edgell, Sue Marcum and Jennifer Oetzeo - judged each team. The five aspects of the Pentathlon were given a point value and the teams were rated accordingly. For example, teams were rated from one through 20 on how clear their presentation was and one through 10 for how professional and persuasive it was.
At the end, the three teams with the most points placed first, second and third. The first place team received 70 percent of the income made from the water bottles, the second team got 20 percent and the third team got 10 percent. All together, the eight teams pooled in more than $1,200 from the water bottle sales.
"It was a great success, it was more successful than we had ever imagined," said Danielle Cifelli, a senior in College of Arts and Sciences and one of the event coordinators. "It combines every aspect of Kogod and they are doing it for a good cause, they are raising money for charities."
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