The final list just came in from Yale SOM. 17 teams have signed up for Firenze which makes up 36% of their first year MBA class. A very flattering number, especially given that there are lots of case competitions that happen on campus these days. None ofcourse are as cool as Firenze, but maybe I am biased ;-)

25% Female participation, and  16 countries represented: Argentina, Australia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Canada, China, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea, USA, Zambia, UK, Israel, Hong Kong. 40 participants from the USA while 6 are from India.
This is the first year we have had participation form Zambia and Belarus if i remember correctly. Awesome :)

Also what really gets me excited is the names the students come up with for their teams. And I end up wondering what the inspiration was for the team names. Here are the Yale SOM team names - and my take on what it could be. I am sure i will get 80% of them wrong, but that is not going to stop me from attempting to have some fun. I do urge the team members if they are reading this blog to put in their word if i did get the names horribly wrong or letting me know if i didnt :). Enough disclaimers - here are the team names from the Yale School of Management:

1. The Phoenix : Rising from the ashes seems to be a common student theme. References to the phoenix is something that I have seen in the past 2 years quite often. Dumbledore wasnt the only one who liked this bird of fire.
2. The Sachem Four : Quite unique. I think this has something to do with a native american leadership reference.
3. Fellowship : What is common in a team of Belarussian, Israeli and American man and woman? A fascination with the Lord of the Rings ofcourse. Precious. Very Precious.
4. Black Knight : A monty python reference from the Holy Grail? The more serious definition of this talks abt non-allegiance to any flag, but The Monty python reference is far more exciting :)
5. switch(state) : Clever! Definite reference to change of mindset/paradigm. But possibility of another reference to switching circuits giving the engineers on the team - or maybe also a reference to some function subroutines from C/C++ programming?
6. Buena Vista Business Club : A reference to the lake from Disneyland? Or to the latest windows software? or maybe just the great wine from Buena Vista? I would never know,
7. Thinking Outside the Xbox : Clever and quite Cute.
8. Nick of Time : Team "last minute" ? I can relate a lot to this name :). But then there is also an AC/DC song by the same name, and a not too great Johnny Depp movie by the same name.
9. MacroSolvers : Big picture thinkers showcasing their analytical prowess?
10. inSOMuch, inc. : LOL. The capitalizations were quite unique here. Maybe the team members who dont have an engineering/tech background are venting out against the strong analytics in a a biz prgram and the fact that they are going out of their comfort zone to participate in a competition witha high-tech firm! "In So Much" indeed. I am sure they will do well - ppl who put themselves in situations that are a "stretch" always do, when they are committed and persistent.
11. Bulldog Blue : Ofcourse the university football team! The Yale Bulldogs.
12. Office Space : Classic. Aahh, now, are you going to go ahead and have those TPS reports for us this afternoon?? ;-)
13. The Effectivators : And so a new word gets added to the lexicon. Some Terminator fans in the team?
14. SOM Solvers : Ofcourse the team that wants to showcase the School. Analytical branding :)
15. TheraB : Interesting. A Homophone to Therapy but with some wordplay of different first and last names of the team members??? if yes - very clever! If not - i need to get off redbull :)
16. SOM Tigres : Another team showcasing the School and spelling Tiger in a diff language.
17. 3 Men and a Baby : I still remember the tagline for this movie - "They changed her diapers. She changed their lives.".