Tag: AMA St. Louis

By: Raven Collins, Kourtney McKinnney, Ryan Orio, William Scott
The first UMSL Marketing Club meeting of the semester and year served both food and fun! The event was packed with guest speakers that made students aware of the advantages of being a member of the club and the exciting benefits that come with becoming a member of the American Marketing Association (AMA).
Q: Why join the marketing club?
A: The first item on the agenda for the meeting was to make attendees aware of the benefits of the marketing club. President Lingru Kong spoke to the group about the ample opportunities to socialize and network with the marketing community. Kong cited numerous reasons why participating in the market club would benefit students including: industry visits, providing a resume boost, and developing networking skills. She stressed that the student organization is not only for marketing majors because it is crucial in today’s world to be able to market yourself in order to get a job in any field.
Q: New UMSL Developments with Dean Hoffman
A: After the introduction to the club, Dean Charles Hoffman of the UMSL College of Business spoke about the latest news affecting UMSL business students. Dean Hoffman called for more members to be a part of the Dean’s Advisory Committee. The committee will allow Dean Hoffman to communicate with students about important developments pertaining to the university and the business college. The first meeting of the year will be announced in the coming weeks. Dean Hoffman also informed meeting attendees about the groundbreaking celebration for the new business building that is happening October 29^th from 4-6 pm. The Dean explained that the affair is a chance for UMSL to thank the donors who enabled the Business school to turn the dream for the new building into a reality. Anheuser-Busch, the company that the building will be named after, is donating drinks for the reception. If we are lucky, the world-famous Clydesdale’s will even make an appearance!
Q:What is AMA and Why Should I Join?
A: Angela LaRocca, another speaker at the meeting, represented the American Marketing Association. LaRocca is a board member of the St. Louis chapter of the AMA, in addition to heading collegiate relations for the association. She also serves as Brand Manager at Unidev, so she is really someone you would want to network with. LaRocca explained that in marketing you need the people around you and what you learn in class in order to be successful. This is the purpose of AMA – to connect students with marketing professionals. The organization holds events that provide students the opportunity to network and socialize with area professionals. The organization also encourages student participation at their board meetings. Another important event for AMA is Old Newsboy Day, at which students can volunteer to participate to help sell newspapers in exchange for donations to children’s charities in the area. Marketing club Vice- President, Chase Koehler, discussed his experience with the organization, emphasizing that the members of the AMA actually want to talk to students and take an interest in what students have to say.
Do you want to join the American Marketing Association to get access to all these amazing benefits?! Membership is normally $285 for professionals, but for students the cost of membership is dramatically lower-only $47! This low price makes joining while a student at UMSL a great choice!
Networking (and Eating) at the Meeting
Of course, no marketing club meeting would be complete without free refreshments and networking! After hearing guest speakers talk about all the great reasons to get involved, meeting attendees were told to take 20 minutes to go get some refreshments and network with one another. At the meeting, numerous varieties of pizza and sodas were served. They even had Fanta as a soda option! There was certainly something for everyone!
After helping yourself to some refreshments, the networking and socializing began. Students could speak with meeting attendees including Dean Hoffman, Angela Rocca, Marketing Club Faculty Advisor – Perry Drake, Marketing Department Chair – Dr. Haim Mano and the Associate Dean of the Business College – Michael Elliot.
Games and Prizes
At the start of the meeting students were given raffle tickets for a chance to win five attendance prizes. Possible prizes included a coffee mug from St. Louis favorite Kaldi’s coffee, a bumper sticker from twitter with UMSL pen, marketing club flash drive, a journal from Creatives on Call with UMSL Digital Conference pen, and UMSL keychain printed with a 3-D printer. More of the same prizes were given after playing “Google Feud”, a game in which participants had to guess what the first Google query to show up on the list depending on the first part of the phrase. Highlights include participants being given “Kanye West” as a starting query. The full first suggestion on Google is “Kanye West all day”. In another round, everyone was given the starting phrase “UMSL parking” and the answer was “UMSL parking pass”. For each correct answer players were given a raffle ticket to win the remaining prizes. Just when you thought the momentum was over, a new activity was proposed.
Next Meeting: November 19 at 3:30
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