Throughout the month of February, six college teams from schools with Risk Management programs competed for cash prizes in the first-ever PriSim Agency Management Competition. The competition was hosted by InVEST and generously supported by Chubb Insurance and PriSim, home of Business War Games. The competition was designed to help students learn more about business decision making and to work on teams as well as learn more about insurance and risk management.
The college teams were supported each week by six state associations as well as independent agency mentors. Students, supported by mentors, participated in the four-week long program with the goal of improving key metrics for an "insurance agency." Students chose the metrics that they wished to impact. PriSim War Games from Chicago donated the online software platform and provided technical support and Chubb Insurance Company provided support to the competition as well. The colleges that participated included: Eastern Kentucky University, Illinois State, Appalachian State, Florida State, Olivet College and the University of Georgia.
The first place winner was Olivet College in Michigan. The team received a first place cash prize of $3,000.Coming in second place was Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C. receiving $1,500 and in third place Eastern Kentucky University received $500.
After the competition ended in February, InVEST and PriSim hosted a webinar where student teams detailed what they learned from the competition as well as gave feedback on their experiences. The teams said they valued the experience of working with a real simulation and noted they learned a lot about how making one decision in an insurance agency has impact on another part of the business.
Student surveys were generally positive about the experience of competing in the inaugural PriSim Agency Management Competition and ranked the involvement of the mentor agents ranked very high in their surveys. Eastern Kentucky has called for a rematch!