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ICBC 20 during Ice Storm '98 1998

The 20th annual Intercollegiate Business Case Competition (ICBC) was a resounding success, made even more so considering the external factors which the organizing committee (pictured), had to overcome.

While most students were engaged in a mass exodus from frozen Kingston in early January '98, a batch of hearty Commerce students stood up to the challenge of hosting the 20th anniversary of ICBC, in great spirit. Thanks to blackouts from the ice storm of 1998 shutting down the entire campus, every event needed to be moved, meals needed to be re-planned and absent judges needed to be replaced by members of the organizing committee, many of whom were without power in their own homes.

"It was only by working together that we pulled it off. Each member put in 150% doing jobs that they didn't sign up for and tackling problems with a determination to succeed," said Stephanie Tjon, committee chair. Other students volunteered, faculty scrambled to fill in the gaps and two local hotels pitched in, housing displaced students, providing rooms for competition events and organizing dinner for all 200 participants with only three hours notice.