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(L to R) Chris Bull, Matt Winnitoy (Queen's) and Eric Down (Queen's)

It was a weekend of shock and pride for Christopher Bull, competitor and campus ambassador for Dalhousie at the 2016 Queen’s University Sports Industry Conference (QSIC). Bull, with 10 classmates from the Bachelor of Management and Bachelor of Commerce programs, traveled to Kingston for the event, which is run by Queen’s Commerce students.

While part of the weekend is a case competition, there is also time for students to hear keynotes by and network with academics and sports industry professionals. Executives from companies such as Gatorade, MLSE, Adidas, Sportsnet and the Toronto Argonauts were there to meet students and judge events. Bull, a fourth-year Commerce student majoring in finance and Sports Representative on the Dalhousie Commerce Society, wants to enable participation in conferences like QSIC. “I wanted to open the door to an industry, sports business, that students may not have much knowledge of, but take a major interest in,” he explained. “The keynote speakers, panels, workshops, case competitions and networking sessions of QSIC are invaluable experience you can’t get anywhere else.” Bull says that the Dalhousie students’ diverse interests, from commerce to management to recreation management, sparked conversation among delegates from other universities wondering about the Rowe School’s programs.

The Gatorade Win from Within Case Competition saw delegates separated from their school groups. “Everyone was randomly assigned to a group of four and had to present,” explains Bull. “There were upwards of 20 teams competing. Presentations took place in two rooms with Gatorade executives in attendance. They selected the best two presentations from each room to join the final, which was a 10-minute presentation in front of the entire conference.”

Three Dalhousie students from different teams made it to the final: Bull, Christopher Dyer and Lisa Odland. Bull was named winner of the case competition; as such, he will be attending a Toronto Raptors game in a box with Gatorade executives. Bull also won accolades during “Simulation Saturday,” in which delegates were assigned roles as players, agents or teams in a simulation of a draft event. Bull was assigned the role of agent and had to represent two players in the draft. “I was named Top Agent on the merit that I provided,” he explains, “maximizing the contracts of the players I represented as well as considering their preferences.”

For his outstanding work throughout the weekend, Bull was named Most Valuable Delegate at the conference. He was not the only Dalhousie student to win a top prize: Jamal St. Lewis, a Bachelor of Management student, was named Best Social Media Presence at the conference for his frequent and engaging tweets and Instagram posts about the weekend.

While Bull was “shocked and grateful” to have multiple wins, he speaks more about the team as a whole. “The team from Dal made a great impression by having the most external delegates of the conference,” he says. (The team accounted for 11 of the 43 external delegates, the remaining 77 being Queen’s students.) “Being the campus ambassador, I had a lot of pride in knowing that Dalhousie had such a strong showing. I’m really proud of the people we brought.”