Sheraton Hotel
New Orleans, LA
3/22/2012 8:00 AM - 3/24/2012 10:00 PM
Joining the American Marketing Association and attending AMA International Collegiate Conference two years in a row, was one of my best investments during college, money wise and time wise. The theme of the 34th Annual International Collegiate Conference was “Marketing: Always Evolving.” The main purpose of the conference and the workshops was to demonstrate students how marketing the 4 P’s has evolved and changed over the years. For example: products are more advanced, prices are cheaper, placement is now online, and promotion is done through social media. For this reason, new tools for marketing are changing the way marketers do business, and this conference was helpful to teach students how to keep up with social media and new technology tools that are extremely important now a days for the success of a business. Speakers that presented ranged from McDonald's, YouTube, Google, Pearson, Carnaval Cruise Lines, Enterprise, Macy's, Harrah's, to Northwestern Mutual. Topics ranged from social media, to landing a career in marketing, to the changing landscape of marketing.
On Thursday, March 22nd, we started the conference by going to the T-Shirt Social Scramble where students from all the participating AMA chapters had to wear the t-shirt from their university, socialize with other students and sign their names in little cards with dots of different colors in order to submit that card and participate in the raffle of an iPad. However, the real main purpose of this event was to socialize with students from other universities and learn from them in order to expand our network. Then we went to the “Parade of Chapters Line-Up;” this was the official kick-off event where a representative of each university had to walk on stage and cheer for their chapter. Then, the keynote speaker, John Militello, Head of Creative Innovation at Google/YouTube, showed us videos in YouTube that demonstrated how the advertising behavior has changed, and how the traditional advertising does not work anymore due to the fact that everything is moving faster in the digital revolution. Nevertheless, Google/YouTube is using this as an opportunity to fuel innovation in the digital world. Then, we went to the “Collegiate Chapter Exhibits” where some of the AMA Collegiate Chapters had the chance to be creative and present in a tradeshow fashion style all of their accomplishments of the past year. After looking at their exhibits we had to vote for our favorite booth on a ballot card that came in our badge holder.
On Friday, March 23rd, we woke up early to pick up the official AMA Collegiate Conference t-shirt. At 10:00am I attended the Carnival Cruise Lines workshop, the theme was “Evolution at Carnival: Fun Ship 2.0” and was presented by their Vice President of Customer Marketing, Rob Borden. He explained how Carnival’s approached changed over the years. They realized that Carnival needed to update and modernize. One of their decisions included hiring George Lopez and had him choose the comedians that would work on their cruises. At 11:00 am I attended the “Beyond Green Marketing: Why Today’s Environmental and Social Challenges Demand More” workshop presented by Rich Bruer, President of his own company, R. Bruer Company. This was my favorite workshop because he introduced a new concept of green marketing that made more sense than the one given by the American Marketing Association. He mentioned that marketers sometimes mislead consumers by making them believe that consuming environmentally friendly products is enough to become “green” but in reality it is not because at the end of the day, you are still consuming, and that is the main issue. The new concept of green marketing includes sustainability; he explained that sustainability is not a market but a way of doing business. Some early green leader companies include Nokia, Nike, and Patagonia. All of these workshops were helpful because marketing professionals shared with us their wisdom and experience about the way they achieved success in marketing and this would help us to prepare for careers in specific marketing fields. Then, we went to the career fair luncheon, and at 1:00p we attended Jim Reed’s workshop called “Maintain Your Chapter Synergy!” where we learned about improving our teamwork skills and build a spirit of cooperation in our chapter. At 3:00pm I attended Nate Riggs’ workshop called “12 Disruptive Technology Trends that are Changing How Marketing Works.” Nate Riggs is the Director of Social Business from The Karcher Group, Inc. He taught us how to use new social media tools for brand communication and how to use disruptive technology to our advantage. At 4:00pm I went to the workshop called “Marketing to the New General Market – How the Changing Demographics of America Are Challenging Everything We Knew About Marketing” presented by Carol E. Koepke, Senior Marketing Director of McDonald’s USA. Carol explained us how McDonald’s has changed its marketing strategies in order to stay relevant to today’s consumers. In the United States only, McDonald’s has 59 million consumers, for this reason it is important for them to know very well the market that they serve, lead with ethnic insights, and grow the business by being better instead of bigger. In order to reinvigorate the brand, McDonald’s decided to introduce a modern menu with healthier options, and they launched the global campaign “I’m loving it” translated to all the languages where they operate. What I found interesting about this workshop was that McDonald’s tried to do a joint venture with Starbucks because they wanted to offer their coffee to its customers. But, Starbucks rejected McDonald’s so they launched McCafe. In addition, Carol taught us the things winning brands have in common: to listen carefully, move emotions, speak honestly, and tell authentic stories.
On Saturday, March 24th, I had to attend the 9:00am mandatory meeting for all the participants of the Northwestern Mutual Sales Competition. I competed at 9:20am. The product I was selling was a “laptop support” and the slogan was “thin, flexible, and mobile.” My customer was Alexandra Sankey and the scenario took place at her office, where I met her after scheduling a meeting. I was selling my last 10 laptop supports, and I was giving her a 66% discount on the retail price. The main advantages of the device were that it was ergonomic so it helped improved the posture of her employees, saving them time and money since they were going to take less breaks to rest; it helped the laptops to have a natural airflow since the device did not let the laptop get in touch with the desk, making it last longer due to the reduced heat; and it was mobile so employees could work from their office, home or other places if they travel. I got a very positive feedback from the judge; she really loved my presentation and the product, and asked me if that product really existed. I told her it is in the market but not too many people know about it. Also, she liked that I told the customer that I would come back with a new product and give it to her at a cheaper price if she referred me to her clients. I did not make it to the top five, but a friend of mine from Florida International University did. At 9:30am I attended the workshop “Tips for Hosting a Regional Conference” presented by Ferris State University, SUNY New Paltz, and San Marcos University of Wisconsin – Whitewater. At 10:30 I attended the “Enhancing Your Programming to Maximize Your Chapter” presented by Ferris State University and SUNY New Paltz. At 11:30am I attended the “Social Media 101” workshop presented by Jeff Zelaya, Florida International University alumni, and previous winner of the Northwestern Mutual Sales Competition. Jeff is an AMA Young Professional Member and Social Media Marketing Consultant. At 12:30pm I attended the workshop called “Tips for New/Revitalized Chapters” presented by our college, SUNY New Paltz, and Western Connecticut State University. After that, I finally had time to rest and walk around the French Quarter, so I went for lunch with Kristin and Alexandra to the French Market and ate crawfish. At 6:00pm we attended the Awards Banquet where our chapter, SUNY New Paltz, made it to the Sweet Sixteen, and won the Bronze Collegiate Chapter Award out of 152 universities.
This was an amazing experience, it was great to see people that I met a year ago in the same conference, it was great to work so hard on the Northwestern Mutual Sales Competition, it was great to network with students from other universities and learn about their chapters, it was great to attend the workshops given by marketing professionals and be reminded of how technology is advancing so fast, and the importance of keeping up with those changes in order to be successful at the workplace. It was just great to be part of the 34th American Marketing Association International Collegiate Conference and share those moments with my peers, faulty advisor, Dean of the School of Business, and their wives. I feel privileged to have attended this event at New Orleans.
