And.....We're Stuck

So we had a fun time at the airport today. :) We are stuck in Boston till Tuesday morning. Under normal circumstances, I would say there are worse places to be stuck, but with the wind and rain howling outside our windows, I am not so sure. Perhaps the weather will be better tomorrow.

We plan to SLEEP LATE! and figure out the bus and train system to head downtown to hang out and see the sights (Maybe a Celtics game???). There really is no better place to be than Boston this close to Saint Patrick's Day! So everyone please pray for SAFE travels, when we finally get to travel, and pray against the Ides of March...

Friday Semi-finals, Finals, and Banquet

Might as well catch you all up on our last few days since we are delayed a little while longer.

Friday was a relaxing day for us. We got to roam around town and see the semi-final rounds of competition. As previously mentioned, the teams in the finals were Memorial, Bishops, Dublin, and Leuven. The Canadian teams dominated the semi-final rounds of competition and competed head to head in the finals. The case was on New Balance shoes.

Before we discovered the results of the competition, it was time to get gussied up and head to the castle. The banquet was held at Koldinghus which was a castle next to our apartments, overlooking the Queen's lake. We enjoyed a fabulous buffet of many different foods and a dessert buffet of a delicious chocolate torte with ice cream and raspberry sauce. After dinner, we discovered that Bishop's was the winner of the competition. They had a great presentation, but the competition was really very close. The Dublin team won the "Most Spirited Team" as awarded by vote of the rest of the teams. Our team received gold metals and certificates of participation.


The team, with a few additions! (The most notable of which, The Queen!)

After the awards and certificates and official ceremony, it was time to party! We did a little exploring in the castle and then came downstairs to dance! The TTU team has got some moves... They were a hit on the dance floor. :)

Early the next morning, we hopped the train to Copenhagen (even Adam and Jessie, who nearly got left...). After lots of dragging suitcases up and down stairs and down streets, we arrived at our hotel, which unbeknownst to us was in the formerly red light district! Although some shops in the area were a bit risque, the area was very safe. After a brief rest, we decided to go get some lunch. Guess where we went... KFC! We know, we know... we were just glad to have something hot, cheap, and familiar. :) Then most of us spent a few hours at the National Museum (Sara was feeling a little sick so she stayed in to rest. She came out with us later that night and she is fine now). The museum was really great. We only had a couple of hours and I know we only saw a fraction of the exhibits. Places close very early in Saturday in Denmark for some reason. After a brief rest at the hotel, we headed out to eat at the Hard Rock Copenhagen. We would have liked to spend more time out in the city, but we were too cold, too wet, and too tired, so we headed back to be bright eyed and bushy tailed at 5:30am when we had to leave.

Copenhagen to London, London to Boston, now Boston to Nashville! (Hopefully!)

Back in the US of A!

Hi Everyone! Just so you know (if you haven't already talked to us on the phone just now!) we are in Boston, a little delayed, but should be on the plane to Nashville, via Washington DC. Apparently, our plane is on its way in but the captain is still in LaGuardia? Not sure how that is happening, but I think it is safe to say we have no idea what time we will arrive in Nashville. I think all of us are very confused about what time it is, so please excuse the confusion. We think maybe we started traveling around 10am last night CST. It's been quite the long day. Everyone is in good spirits and is excited to be on home soil.

This next week keep watching our blog; we plan to post pictures, an entry about our last couple of days in Denmark, and some notes from the team. Thanks for your comments and support. We are glad to be (almost) home back to our friends and family, even though we have enjoyed being "family" of 8 while we were traveling.

Last Day of Competition and Free Day

Wednesday was our last day of competition. We are so proud of the team! They really reached that next level of success: they walked in for the last presentation (which was on Netflix) ready to rock and roll, so to say. They had remedied the weaknesses from earlier in the week and did a great job. They were poised, confident, and had an excellent strategy.

Yet, the scores didn't reflect the excellence that the TTU team exhibited and they received a five out of 11 yet again. The team was disappointed, but knew they had done well. The TTU team represented the USA proudly and we are so pleased with them.

Last night was the NIBS Olympics where the students were charged with making traditional Danish smørrebrød, which are open faced sandwiches with some pretty weird stuff on them. They also had to navigate a ball through a large labyrinth in which they had to work together to tilt the board to get the ball through. But the team dominated everyone in the music trivia challenge (thanks to some help from Dr. David Barger!).






Today we went to Arhus which is about an hour north of Kolding where we are now (Arhus is pronounced something like "Ourhoose" and Kolding is pronounced "Kolling"). We stopped at the "Old Town" which is a collection of traditional houses and stores from all over Denmark which they moved to make a little historic village. It was really cool! It looked exactly like what you think of when you think of Denmark. Then we had a few hours to shop around town.



On the bus ride back to Kolding, we stopped at what "used" to be the highest point on Denmark. There was dispute about which of these two hills were the highest point and when they finally got around to measuring, it turned out neither one was the highest! But the pretty cool part was that you could see Germany from the hilltop (Northern Germany looks strikingly like Southern Denmark). ;) Also when Germany and Denmark were fighting each other in the old days, they would light a fire on this hill to let the citizens know that the "Germans were coming" or that the "Danish were coming" whichever the case happened to be at the time. Honestly, it was not too exciting in and of itself, but the captivating part is the way in which the Danes tell stories. They are wonderful and very funny storytellers and can make even the most uninteresting location seem important and mysterious. Of course it is the land of Hans Christian Anderson.

Tomorrow, the team will attend the semifinal and final competition rounds to support their favorite teams. The teams in the competition are Memorial and Bishops (from Canada) and KH Leuven (Belgium) and the Dublin team (Ireland). Then the banquet will be held in a 13th century castle which is just around the corner from where we "live" this week. We are VERY excited to party in a castle. We plan to travel to Copenhagen to spend the night on Saturday night and will be ready to head home on Sunday morning. With the traveling and partying, this may be the last official trip time entry, but we will get our loyal readers caught up when we return to the states.

Please pray for safe travels!

Competition Day #2

Today was a LONG day for the team: Up early, a three hour case, presentation, another three hour case, presentation, then feedback. Our scores are still good, but we haven't been able to dominate the matches. We got a 5 out of 11 for both matches today. We went against Helsinki first, a very tough team, and then against Concordia, a Canadian team that is also very tough.

The team seems to be learning a LOT but are just worn out today. Tomorrow is the last day of the competition, except for the semi-finals. We go head to head against Rotterdam tomorrow.


We have a dinner in a few minutes here at the school where hopefully the team can relax a little and meet more friends. Please keep sending good thoughts as they will need confidence tomorrow. I KNOW they can do it. We are very proud of our team. Wish them well as we continue tomorrow!

Competition Day #1

Today was the first day of competition and the students did a great job. They were up very early, trudging through the fog, slush, and snow to the school to begin preparing for their presentation. The case today was about the Vestas Company, a main producer of wind energy here in Denmark. The students had an excellent strategy and suggested that the company employ a multi-domestic strategy. They went head to head against the team from Dublin, who are also a talented, experienced team. The competition was very close with the scores of Dublin: 6 and TTU: 5 on an eleven point scale.

The judges listed the team's strengths as confidence and progressive thinking. There are some areas that are areas of opportunity for our team though, such as a limited knowledge of the wind industry and the team ended a little short of the presentation maximum.We are proud to see the team is improving exponintially. They are learning a lot, very quickly.

After the presentation, it was time to relax! We caught the bus to go bowling and we think we have figured out at least one of the bus routes. :) Bowling was great! Sara dominated the game. Tonight, we ate at Joe's Diner and had some of the biggest hamburgers we have ever seen! The team is continuing their team building skills by making memories together and making new friends.



Tomorrow is a VERY early day and the longest day. The team will have two cases and two presentations tomorrow. We compete against the Helsinki team (Finland) and Concordia, a team from Canada.

Send them good thoughts and best wishes!

Adventures in Denmark!

Sunday, the team embarked upon several new adventures. The day began with an almost train ride, but we ended up on the bus. After meeting some nice people at the bus stop, we decided to go shopping "with" them. They were probably worried that we would literally go with them. The shopping mall is very nice and very large, with several restaurants, stores, a Wal-mart-type super center, and a movie theater. After a couple of hours of shopping and a fun experience at a Subway-esque store, we hopped back on that bus like old pros and came back to the apartment.

The students took the afternoon to rest and visit the fitness center/swimming pool, which is pretty impressive, and engage in some epic snowball fights.



At 5pm, some students from IBA came to meet everyone and we walked to the school as a group to meet and greet and get familiar with the school. The school is about a 15-20 minute walk around the lake, under the train tunnel, and down the street. The school is quite beautiful and modern, very impressive. We saw the preparation and presentation rooms for the week. The team has met many students from the other teams. The students also met their Room Monitor, or assistant, who will be helping them all week with things they need. Her name is Nanna and she was participant in last year's case competition in Tennessee.



Tomorrow the team will leave the apartment and be on their way to school by 7:45am. They will spend 4 hours preparing for their case presentation, which will take place around 1pm. After their presentation, they will receive some feedback and be finished for the day. They will compete against the team from Dublin, which they have already dominated in Foosball. :) We hope for the same result in the real competition. We will keep you updated on their progress throughout the competition.

We're Finally Here!

After what feels like weeks of traveling, we are finally here! We had no trouble on the way here (except a problem with the plane in Brussels, which I think most of us were not conscious enough to care about) and after several planes and trains, we have arrived. The train was a wonderful opportunity to see the countryside, the old homes, and windmills, which are here in abundance.

We are staying at the Kolding Byferie, which is beside a beautiful frozen lake. There is still quite a bit of snow here, and it is definitely cold enough to snow more this week. Today was sunny and very nice, but COLD!




The apartments are nice, very minimalist. The Danish people are very into clean, modern designs (and do not design closets for Americans who bring everything they own). :) We hope to post pictures soon, but the camera cord seems to be the old thing that did not make it into the bag. So we may have to keep you in suspense until we return.

We also celebrated Aaron's 22 birthday today with a loud rendition of "Happy Birthday" on the train, which may or may not have prompted an announcement about being quiet on the train. We ended the night at a nice little Pizzera/Turkish Restaurant. We are learning some Danish words for pizza ingredients and learned the only word that we may remember all week, "Tak", which means thank you in Danish.

Tomorrow we plan to take the train to a nearby town (we aren't sure where yet). About an hour away is the home town of Hans Christian Anderson (writer of fairy tales) and in another town is a Viking Museum. Tomorrow night is the "opening ceremony" for the Case Competition. We will meet our hosts and all of the other teams tomorrow. More updates later on our adventures.

Just as an update, none of our phones work here. We do have access to email so if you need to get in touch with any of us, please use our regular emails.

Ready to go!

Passport...check!

Suitcase...check!

We are ready to go!

This blog will chronicle the Tennessee Tech NIBS Case Competition Team as they travel to Denmark to compete in the NIBS 2010 Case Competition. Please follow us for the next couple of weeks as we detail our journey, successes, and adventures! Here will will post updates on how we do in the competition, pictures, and students' thoughts and experiences.

Here's the team: pictured from left to right

Back Row:

Aaron Allbrooks is a senior Finance major from Franklin, TN. He enjoys playing sports, the outdoors and traveling. He loves to cheer on his favorite teams, the Tennessee Titans and the Atlanta Braves. After graduation Aaron plans to enter the work force as a financial analyst.

Daniel Tubb is a senior Accounting major from Sparta, TN. He considers himself a sports enthusiast with his favorite being golf. Daniel also enjoys traveling, playing the guitar and watching a good movie.

Front Row:

Dr. Bonita Barger is the TTU case competition faculty advisor this year. She is an Associate Professor of Business Management with a focus on developing global talent and has coached, judged and participated in multiple case competitions.

Megan Farris is a senior Finance major from Sparta, TN. After graduating in May she plans to return to Tennessee Tech and pursue an MBA. She enjoys singing, working with students, doing mission work, traveling, and spending time with family and friends.

Sara Taylor is a senior Accounting major from Goodlettsville, TN. She enjoys exercise, travel and spending time with her family. Her free time consists mostly of school and work, which she also happens to enjoy.

Also tagging along with the team is Jessie Daniels, TTU MBA Productions Manager, her husband Adam, and also Dr. Barger's husband David.

Wish us luck with the journey! We leave Friday morning March 5th at 12:55pm, heading to Chicago, Brussels, and Copenhagen. Our final destination is Kolding, Denmark (a couple of hours west from Copenhagen by train). We should arrive in Copenhagen around 11:30am the next day. Please pray for safe travels and locatable luggage!