Participation in VISTA 2012-2013 has experienced a dramatic increase, breaking its previous record by over 3000 participants. When registrations closed at midnight last Friday night, exactly
16,802 people, forming 4443 teams, had signed up – making this easily the biggest VISTA in the competition’s 55-year history.
“We set ourselves a target of 14,000 participants, which would have been a new record. Not only have we met this target, but we’ve beaten it by nearly 3000 participants, so it really is an incredible achievement,” says Johanna Lundberg, VISTA project manager. “Well done to all the staff out there who have dedicated themselves to VISTA, and of course to all of you who signed up! This certainly bodes well for the rest of the competition.”
Even before breaking their own record last week VISTA was already the largest competition for aftersales personnel in the world. VISTA 2011 attracted over 13,000 participants from 75 different countries, however this year’s registrations exceed this by over 3000 participants. Latin America, Asia and the Nordics are the three biggest regions, each recording more than 2000 participants each, however ever region surpassed their targets.
“The reason why VISTA is so popular, and keeps getting bigger, is because it’s such a fun and effective way of learning new skills and developing,” adds Johanna Lundberg. “As we keep stressing, it’s more than a competition – it is a mass training event.”
Round One of the competition began on Monday, with all teams receiving their first set of theoretical questions. They have been given three weeks to submit their answers. This will be followed by two more rounds of theoretical questions in November and January.
The best performing teams will then qualify for regional semi finals, where participants will have their practical and theoretical skills tested in workshops held in Curitiba, Sydney and Madrid.
Finally the best 32 teams will qualify for the World Final, which will be in June 2013, in Volvo’s hometown Gothenburg, Sweden.
