The UW-Whitewater American Marketing Association is hosting its annual Regional Conference titled “Branding in a Viral World” on Nov. 11 in Hyland Hall.

This is the fourth year UW-Whitewater AMA has hosted this conference. However, UW-Whitewater AMA President Liz Bartlein said this year promises to stand out among the rest.  Keynote speakers at the conference include representatives from AT&T, Apple, and Harley Davidson.

AMA will kick off the event with the Career Corner in the morning, which is aimed towards connecting students with potential employers from companies such as US Bank, Kohl’s, and Sherwin Williams, among others.

Representatives from the Green Bay Packers and the Milwaukee Bucks will speak in the afternoon on sports marketing as well.

Bartlein said this year’s conference stands to be the best.

“This is our fourth annual [conference], and I’m thinking it’s going to be the best one that’s going to be out there,” Bartlein said. “We’ve worked so hard and we have such a great following of people interested in us, and we have some great companies [coming] that know branding and have succeeded at branding in the marketplace.”

Students from other schools are also invited to go to the conference and Bartlein said a variety of schools from other states will be attending.

“We have quite a few schools from Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa and a school from Missouri coming [for the conference],” Bartlein said. “We also have a school from Florida that is sending two of their representatives.”

Jimmy Peltier, AMA faculty adviser, said because of the size of this year’s event, the different companies will have the opportunity to reach a broad range of students.

“This will be the largest AMA Regional Conference ever held and we are hopeful that students will take away many positive learning experiences when they head home,” Peltier said. “The fact that we will have so many students at the conference allows the different companies to make an impact on the lives of hundreds of students.”

Bartlein said the theme of this year’s conference is fitting for the future of the student organization.

“Branding is a very large topic in the marketing world these days, and our AMA chapter in UW-Whitewater is currently rebranding itself,” said Bartlein. “We’ve been a great chapter throughout the years, and rebranding ourselves and reorganizing the structure of our organization will help us excel even more in the AMA world.”

The conference begins with registration and the Career Corner continental breakfast at 7:30 a.m. in the Hyland Hall Atrium.  Registration costs $20. For more information students are encouraged to  visit www.uwwama.com or [email protected].