General FAQ
PEN Worldwide is a non-profit civil society association of interconnected Practice Enterprises from around the world. Our Coordination Center, who also manages this website, is the international office of PEN Worldwide. Our team connects the worldwide network and ensures the promotion of our innovative learning-by-doing business and entrepreneurship training in schools, universities and training centres around the world. To find out more about our team, see our association team page. To find out more about the Practice Enterprise concept, check out the Practice Enterprise training concept page.
Trainee-run company that runs like a real business silhouetting a real enterprise’s business procedures, products and services. A Practice Enterprise resembles a real company in its form, organization and function. Also known as a Practice Firm, Training Firm or Virtual Enterprise in some countries.
This PEN Events website is intended to support all events organized for trainees and trainers of the Worldwide Practice Enterprise Network.
Enterprise Competitions FAQ
A competition between different Practice Enterprises for putting the practical Practice Enterprise knowledge to use. Examples include social media, elevator, viral video, sales pitch, business plan competition. A Practice Enterprise competition can be held in-person or online.
Becoming a judge in a Practice Enterprise competition is a rewarding opportunity to mentor aspiring professionals, share your expertise, and stay engaged with innovative business ideas. It allows you to contribute meaningfully to a global educational community, expand your professional network, and gain recognition for your insights.
You can also use this oportunity to highlight your career path and the company you work for or your business. You can potentially also gain motivated future interns or employees and use it for employer branding. You can think of these activities as giving back to society and it can become a part of your CSR activities.
A sales pitch is a short presentation that attempts to creatively persuade the customer to purchase a certain product or service.
An elevator pitch competition is a short sales pitch competition which usually lasts around 60 to 90 seconds. It gives you the time equivalent to an elevator ride during which you should be able to give your clear and brief pitch.
A Business Plan Competition tests the entrepreneurship innovative ideas of trainees. A business plan is a written document that describes the characteristics of the business and sets business goals and how it aims to achieve them.
Team Challenges FAQ
Trainees representing different countries work in multinational teams on an international case study. During the preparation time, teams have to identify the challenges, opportunities, and risks involved in a global business by examining a real-world business case study. Teams present their findings to a panel of judges, where they compete against other teams in two different rounds of presentations. These challenges can take place either in-person or online.
A case study refers to the analysis and description of a particular case involving real-world company’s practice or product. The key parts of a case study are analysis of the situation, identification of the key issues and making of recommendations. Case assignments require trainees to develop a solution to an open-ended problem with multiple potential solutions.
The competition is a great opportunity for trainees to apply the knowledge and skills they have acquired in the Practice Enterprise program. Trainees rely on their abilities and put their rhetorical, analytical, and communication skills to the test.
The GEC has proven to have participants end the day building capacities around real-world business scenarios and improving their communication and presentation skills, while making new acquaintances and contacts from around the world.
Basic information on the challenge event, the structure of the presentation and general information on the real-world company is sent in advance to Practice Enterprises that participate in the challenge.
Trainees have the option of researching the enterprise in advance of the competition. There is nothing formal to plan or prepare in advance, only to study the company. Trainees may choose to organize ideas in advance to offer to their group as time and curriculum allows.
Teams are chosen at random. Trainees are informed of what team they have been assigned to prior to the event and are given the opportunity to introduce themselves and start preparing for the case study. Trainees who are not a part of a Practice Enterprise may not participate in the challenge.
Commercial Trading Events FAQ
An exhibition of Practice Enterprises where trainees have the opportunity to put their skills to practice, such as trade fair preparation, sales pitches and commercial order processing, as well as to interact with other national and international trainees. There are regional, national, international trade fairs held each year around the world. Trade fairs can be held in-person or online.
A Practice Enterprise trading event is an event that has the primary goal of increasing transactions and connections between Practice Enterprises. It differs from a trade fair in that there is no physical stand. A trading event can be in-person or online including videoconferencing, order taking and marketing.
A Commercial Trading Event can help to boost the volume of transactions and can also introduce you to new international commercial partners.
There is no limit to how many visitors can register for an event. Keep in mind the number of exhibitors in proportion to the number of visitors – so that the exhibitors do not get overwhelmed by a large number of visitors.
For a Trading Event, we encourage and promote trading between Practice Enterprises to boost international trading volume. However, external visitors can also register and create a visitor account to access the event. It is important to think about how to make payments for the purchases so please refer back to the national offices in your country regarding that matter.
Social Media Events FAQ
A Social Media Event is a social media activity or a competition that takes place across different social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. The main aim of these events is to create engagement, generate likes and highlight specific content among followers.
A word or phrase preceded by a # symbol is used to categorize and identify content and posts on a certain topic. For example #penworldwide refers to content that is related to our Practice Enterprise Network and the activities our network carries out. Hashtags allow you to make your content more discoverable and thus ensures that it reaches more people.
Your social media handle is your public username used on social media accounts. On Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, it is the @ symbol followed by the user name. For example: @penworldwide on Facebook. Your handle is used to tag you and thereby, connect to you in posts done by others.
Your handle might be autogenerated but it can usually be adjusted in the settings of the respective media. It is recommended to choose a representative, short handle and at best, the same one for all social media accounts (if possible). This makes it easier for your followers to tag you.
In the Worldwide Practice Enterprise Network we work in a community that is respectful and appreciative of diversity. Therefore, everyone in the PEN Worldwide community commits to operate by these values. The most important ones for Social Media Events are combined in the Social Media Events Etiquette.
A Social Media Event can test your ability with different social media channels. It can also help promote your enterprise and brand, market a specific service or product and increase the number of followers of your page or account.
Social Media platforms already provide tools and options to edit and publish posts. These are generally sufficient for modern and professional content creation. In addition, we suggest Canva for editing photos, creating visuals and short clips. Canva is an external tool so please check the user requirements and conditions, also depending on your location.