Inside The Econ Games

The NKU Haile College of Business team at The Econ Games, with faculty advisor Dr. Sami Al Farhan and Faculty Mentors Jose Saveedra Torres, Cris Biazzin, and Jing Liu. Team Members: Maddux Hoffman, Claire Maddox, Princess Nworah, Frannie Staley, Jack Marx, Elaine Chan, Linh Nguyen, Dylan Fogt, Emma Rademacher, Becca Stanley, Wilfried Gaetan, Aidan Staley.

I spent Thursday and Friday of last week organizing the Econ Games with my good friend, Dr. Darshak Patel, at the University of Kentucky. What an amazing experience. We had 29 universities, 40 faculty members, and 240 students participate this year, and I am incredibly impressed by what our students accomplished. Let me share a few highlights.

The Prompt

Bank of America was the naming partner this year, while Equibase served as the data partner—both were fantastic to work with. Equibase challenged our students to use their proprietary data to identify new market segments for growth. It’s a great economics prompt: identify new markets and build future demand for Equibase and its data.

The Challenge

Students had 24 hours to understand the prompt, analyze the data, identify new product opportunities, create a presentation, and pitch their ideas to Equibase.

They had to leverage their understanding of economics, industry analysis, data analysis, teamwork, communication, critical thinking, and storytelling—all while working under pressure.

University of Tennessee team working in their breakout room after the Data Drop

The Preliminary Round

The data was released on Thursday at 1 PM during the “Data Drop.” Students then had 25 hours to prepare before presenting at 2 PM on Friday.

The first round of judging took place in breakout rooms, with six teams in each of five rooms. Judges evaluated each presentation and selected one winner from each room.

The Finals

We all gathered in a large auditorium to watch the final presentations. Each room winner was announced, presented, and then we moved on to the next.

The finalists were:

1. Virginia Tech

2. University of Cincinnati

3. Denison University

4. Berea College

5. Saginaw Valley State University

After the final presentations, the judges deliberated and announced the winners. It was a fantastic event. I’ll share the winners once the press release and photos become available.

Decode Econ at The Econ Games

Decode Econ is the official economics newsletter of the Econ Games. This year, we introduced the Student of the Year award. The award went to Dylan Fogt from Northern Kentucky University for being the first student to compete in four Econ Games. He joined as a first-year student and returned every year.

My Reflection

The Econ Games conference has grown tremendously over the past eight iterations. What started as a student project has evolved into something much bigger through the work Darshak and I have invested over the years.

Darshak and I built this program to help students apply their economics training to real industry opportunities, while also increasing industry awareness of the value economics students bring to the labor market.

I’m proud of what we’ve built, and even more excited about where it’s going. If you’re interested in participating next year, be sure to complete our 2027 interest form.

If you want to support students and the program, please reach out to me.

Some More Pictures