Interior Design Concept Competitions Offering Real-World Practice

In my quest to transition into a career within the interior design industry, I've been attending several info sessions and open classes at Harrington College of Design in Chicago. For now, it's one of a few options that I'm currently looking into, but it was quite an interesting glimpse into what my world as an ID student may look like.

The presentations that I attended this evening were semester-end presentations from a creative collaborative studio course. The students were assigned to groups of two or three and asked to find, prepare designs for and submit to an open ID competition.

(Real-world application is something I strongly value in educational settings, so I rather liked how students had to develop entire concepts for these actual competitions)

This experience resulted in a couple of things:

A) Now I'm all intrigued - what kinds of interior design-related competitions are even out there? How does one find them?

B) Just for shits and giggles - I would like to try my hand putting together something that at least "fits" the qualifications (I'm not saying I would submit it...). In case you (read: I) was wondering, the 2014 IIDA SDC conceptual competition to evolve the idea of open offices:

The 2014 IIDA SDC invites you to evolve the concept of the open office to offer employees’ a workplace that encourages health, well-being, collaboration, and productivity... (more)

C) A new understanding of just what interior design covers (i.e., everything). Case in point, this 40th Annual Interior Design Competition (2013) winner for a mausoleum:

Lakewood Cemetery Garden Mausoleum, Minneapolis, MN - HGA Architects and Engineers, Minneapolis, MN via IIDA

Yes, it's somewhat morbid, but it's definitely something I had never even thought of before.

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What aspects of Interior Design shock you, if any?

-LG