Monday, August 24, 2020 – Hagatna, Guam
JA Asia Pacific presented the 10th JA Asia Pacific Company of the Year competition – the first ever virtual competition hosted by JA Guam. The in-person event originally scheduled for March 15-18, 2020 was pre-empted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Beth Lizama, JA Guam Executive Director(outgoing) said, “After several months of discussion, JA Asia Pacific and JA Guam agreed that this is the best solution to provide the student companies an opportunity to showcase their business structure and products as well as skills they developed during their tenure with the JA program in their respective locations.”
Seventeen student company teams representing eleven JA member countries from Asia Pacific are competing for top honors along with the FedEx Global Possibilities Award. The teams and their respective JA location include: BruFiniti (Brunei), Green Forest and REBEL (China), Isla I Lina’la and Pasiadot (Guam), Lovables (Hong Kong), Aaraam LTD. and ShinobiTECH (India), Emi Student Company and VISCO Student Company (Indonesia), UP and UP (Korea), STARGAZERS ENTERPRISE (Malaysia), Eco.mmunity and Mayari (Philippines), Revival and The UPERA Co. (Singapore), and beeLights (Turkmenistan).
The Welcome and Opening event streamed through Facebook Live on Monday, August 24, 2020. The event was produced in partnership with KUAM.
After the Welcome and Opening, competing student companies participated in the FedEx Global Possibilities Seminar through the Zoom platform. Over the next two days, the competitors will go through a Q&A session with Guam business and education executives, and FedEx judges.
The competition will wrap up on Wednesday, August 26, 2020 at 6:00 p.m. Chamorro Standard time with the Awards Ceremony streamed through Facebook Live on both JA Asia Pacific and JA Guam pages. The FedEx Global Possibilities Award, Young Entrepreneurs’ Choice Award and top 3 teams will be announced during the event.
JA Guam is a member of JA Worldwide through the JA Asia Pacific region. JA Guam celebrates its 45th anniversary serving our community through programs that instill work-readiness, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy.
JA Guam teams were selected through the 2019-2020 Company of the Year program which pitted nine high school student companies who learned the structure of building a company, developing, marketing, and branding their product and liquidating their assets. The student officers represented their companies in the JA Guam COY competition held earlier in the year as they presented their company platform, answered judges’ questions, and performed a business presentation on stage.
“This years’ program will mark the first time JA Guam will introduce a virtual platform. Times are changing and the challenges are upon us. Many businesses have shifted to the virtual reality and this format would provide our students an opportunity to continue developing and learning new skills through the pillars of JA Worldwide. The format will also ensure the safety of both our students and mentors from the ongoing pandemic.” – Joey Miranda III, JA Guam Board Chairperson
The JA Asia Pacific Company of the Year competition is brought to us in part by our regional partner FedEx Express; Diamond partners: Guam Economic Development Authority, Small Business Development Center Guam, Bank of Guam, Bank of Hawaii, Triple J Enterprises, GTA, and United Airlines. The Organizing Committee expresses our appreciation to KUAM for their assistance in streaming the event live, Inetnon Gefpa’go for their performances and JA Asia Pacific for their support in ensuring the hosting of the annual event through this virtual platform.
JA Guam 