Students across the Global Network for Advanced Management are invited to participate in a video competition exploring the causes and management of worldwide financial crises.

“The Yale-Geithner Challenge: Visualizing Financial Crises in the Modern World” is open to entries from student teams through February 24, 2015. Timothy Geithner, the former U.S. Treasury Secretary, will chair the judging panel.

“The contest allows students to utilize their creativity on a very important topic in finance and policy,” said Jaan Elias, the director of the Yale of Management’s department of case study research and development, which worked with Geithner’s staff to create the contest. “Our hope is that these contest entries will be useful for people who want to understand financial crises, whether they’re policymakers or curious members of the public.”

The video competition is part of Geithner’s yearlong partnership with Yale SOM. In 2014, he delivered a series of lectures on the global financial crisis of 2007-2009. The lectures were part of a course that Geithner co-taught with Yale SOM deputy dean Andrew Metrick.

The competition asks student to create short video presentations explaining an aspect of why financial panics happen and what can be done to break them. Teams should pick a limited area of focus and explain it in terms that will provide clarity to a viewer with no financial expertise. Submissions should be between four and seven minutes. 

Teams must be comprised of currently enrolled students of schools in the Global Network for Advanced Management. Each team should include no more than five individuals. Both undergraduate and graduate students from throughout the university are eligible to participate on the team, but at least one member must be a student in an MBA or economics program.

The videos will be judged on the following criteria: 

• The team’s ability to determine a topic of relevance that can be explained in the time allotted
• Use of data and examples to explain the topic
• Creation of original metaphors and visuals that help explain the topic to a person outside of finance
• Accuracy and fairness in describing events and concepts
• Ability to clear up popular misconceptions in the wake of the financial crisis

Entries must be uploaded to the contest website by February 24. Finalists will be selected by March 22, and will be invited to travel to Yale for an event on April 24-25, at which Geithner will provide feedback on their videos and the winning team will be announced.

Finalists will receive free travel to New Haven and lodging during the finals. Yale finalist teams will receive a trip, including travel and lodging, to a European city that hosts a Global Network school.

Watch Timothy Geithner discuss the competition: