Wharton's Baking Retailing Center holds annual 24-hour Ideathon sponsored by Spirit Halloween

The Wharton School's Baker Retailing Center hosted its annual 24-hour Ideathon event for undergraduate and graduate students, who competed in teams for prizes sponsored by Spirit Halloween. 

The Ideathon, held at The Inn at Penn on Sept. 20 and 21, featured case challenges, mentorship sessions, and Halloween animatronics and decorations to fit the sponsor theme. The winner of each case was awarded a $10,000 prize, with second place receiving $5,000. 

The Baker Retailing Center, Penn's research hub for the retail industry, hosts the Ideathon to allow students to work on brand challenges and present to industry executives. In previous years, event sponsors have included Five Below, Ralph Lauren, and MCM Worldwide. 

Spirit Halloween presented two case challenges for participants this year. One of the challenges asked student teams to enhance the brand’s identity and establish it as a go-to destination for Halloween and beyond. The winners of the challenge came up with the solution of capitalizing on the costume market for pets for Halloween and potentially year-round. 

“I'm learning marketing in class, and this is a great way to actually experience marketing in action,” Wharton junior Justin Shnayder, one of the winning team members, said.  “I think we basically stayed up all night here at The Inn at Penn, grinding out Excel numbers, making calculations, eating the fries that they had here. I had a good time and it was definitely a good bonding moment.” 

Wharton junior Cindy Zheng said that she really enjoyed the creativity and freedom provided by this event. Zheng and her team won second place with their solution for the challenge on developing actionable recommendations to enhance sustainability.  

“I think advice for people is to always think about numbers,” Zheng said. “I think the hardest challenge was to make sure all the costs lined up. I think what probably had the judges lean towards us was because we had the numbers to back up the fact that this would not cut into their profit margins.”

Managing Director of Baker Retailing Center Mina Fader said that Spirit Halloween “wants to know what the younger generation is thinking, what they want, and what's interesting to them."

“What we hope to get out of this is that students have a way to put into practice what they've learned in school, do it creatively, do it for fun,” Fader said.

Steven Silverstein, the Chief Executive Officer of Spirit Halloween, echoed Fader's sentiment about the event.

“It was more about giving students a platform rather than something that I looked at as a benefit to the company,” Silverstein said. “We brought probably 10 to 12 executives in and I got feedback from them that was so positive. They really just enjoyed the intellectual exercise of imagining what [the students] were doing.” 

Fader encouraged Penn students to participate in next year’s Ideathon. 

“[My favorite part is] seeing the smile on the students' faces when they walk into the room and [they see] how we've transformed the space and immerse themselves in the environment that we want them to be in. It's really helped in terms of creativity, the excitement and knowing that the companies are impressed with our students,” Fader said. “I love showing off our students and I'm very proud of what our students do. That's the reward for doing this."