At this very moment, reams of eager undergraduate and MBA students are hunkered down in Vancouver, racing to put together presentations for a complex investment banking case study.

The students, from schools across North America, awoke before dawn. After six hours of rampant research and financial modelling, they will present their ideas to a panel of judges. From there, the top teams will fan out across the city to present to regional heads of Canadian investment banks in Vancouver board rooms, and an elite group will then be invited to present at a gala dinner tonight.