Structure
Each university sends a team of 50+ participants. Each student participates in either one of 10 Academic Competitions, Debate, Athletic or Challenge Competition. Points are awarded and accumulated towards a team being declared "School of the Year".
Academics
There are 10 core Academic disciplines. In addition, an organizing committee may add any number of additional academic cases. Each discipline has 3 students from each team participating. In each academic discipline, teams of 3 students have a 3 hours to review the case and prepare, before presenting to a panel of judges.
Current and past academic disciplines for JDC West include:
Debate
Schools also compete against each other in parliamentary debate, with each debate team composed of 4 students. For each motion, teams are designated either Team Government, who argues in favour of the motion, or Team Opposition, who argue against. Teams are given 30 minutes to prepare (with the exception of finals and consolation finals where teams are given 45 minutes), during which they have no access to the internet or any outside resources.
With Team Government speaking first and the teams alternating, three speakers from each side deliver 7-minute speeches. This is followed by a 2-minute break and then two 4-minute speeches delivered by the student who hasn't spoken yet on each team. Prior to 2026, the debate concluded after the 7-minute speeches, with one team member on each side remaining silent throughout the entire debate.
Athletics
The hosting school chooses the sport each year. The teams include both male and female competitors.
Challenge
Each Challenge team has four students - two males and two females. The Challenge portion of the JDC West competition is arguably the most arduous on its competitors who are on-call for ten social challenges to be completed in less than 48 hours at any time of day or night. These challenges are known to include spirit, mental and physical challenges that bring the students together. These challenges test students' adaptability, enthusiasm and team work.
Additional awards
Participation
Focuses on the spirit of each school during the competition weekend. The team that cheers the hardest, shows up for the most events, and is the life of the party takes the prize.
Charity
Has two awards. One for the number of hours that school commits to their charities of choice and the second for the amount of dollars raised for their charity of choice.
History of the games
The original Jeux du Commerce, French for "Commerce Games," started as a Business Student Competition in Eastern Canada. In 1988, students from HEC Montréal wanted to strengthen links between students studying business administration throughout the province of Quebec. The student co-founders included Patrice Bourbonnais, Patrick Bérard and Benoît Lessard, and others. In January 1989, HEC Montréal was the first institution host of the Games (Sets) of the Business. Over time, Jeux du Commerce grew and became one of the largest events hosted by REFAEC.
In 2003, Yannick Denis-Trudel, the then-president of REFAEC sought to expand "the games" to the rest of Canada. In an attempt to unify the country under the Jeux du Commerce banner, he took on the task of inviting a group of delegates from across Canada to visit the games and see what they were all about. Students returned to their schools, but lacked direction to establish the games in their own regions.
In 2004, Yannick made another attempt to get the rest of Canada involved and created a competing team called "Team Rest of Canada" or "Team ROC". The intention was to allow those visiting the games to actively take part, rather than just watch from the sidelines. Student's went back to their respective schools with an excitement to bring Jeux du Commerce to their regions.
At Roundtable 2005, one bid was made to host the event in the Western Region by students from the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia, co-Led by Jeff Potter and Nik Laufer-Edel. Another bid was put forth for the Ontario region by Guelph Humber. The Western bid was approved by the presidents of the western business schools of the Canadian Business School Council, which allowed JDC West to take its first steps to be actualized.
In 2006, over 1,200 business students from 13 Eastern universities in Canada chose to compete in Jeux du Commerce. Like JDC West, JDC consists of Athletic, Social, Debate and community involvement components.
In 2009, JDC expanded to Ontario schools, in a competition branded as JDC Central.
In 2010, the JDC West Business Competition was incorporated as a not-for-profit, prior to JDC West 2011.
In 2011, a volunteer Board of Directors was elected by the Presidents of the participating business schools' students societies in collaboration with their JDC West Team Captains. This board is composed of active JDC West alumni and the current Organizing Committee's External Co-Chair. The board's main roles are to oversee the long-term strategy, risk mitigation, relationship management and high level financial health of the competition to ensure its long-term sustainability.
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