The American Marketing Association hosted their fourth annual Regional Conference on Nov. 11.  The purpose was for students from multiple universities to come together for networking and to hear real world speakers.

“Although a primary goal is to expose students to real world marketing, the networking opportunities students have with businesses and other students is equally important,” AMA faculty adviser Jimmy Peltier said.

The conference’s theme was “Branding in a New Age.”  At the start of the conference, there was a “Career Corner” session where 19 companies spoke to and interviewed students.  Trey Schwab gave a presentation of the National AMA Service Project.

Speakers including Target, AT&T, Palermo’s, Brannigan, Apple, Milwaukee Bucks, Green Bay Packers, GMR Marketing, Northwestern Mutual Land’s Designs, MG designs, and Grainger spoke about branding in terms of advertising, social media, sports marketing, in-store marketing, internet and e-mail marketing, and trade shows as well as a variety of other branding topics.

“This has been such a rewarding process for me,” chair of the 2011 regional conference Katie Marty said. “I am really fortunate that I had this opportunity to bring so many business professionals and students together in one place.”

The conference gives AMA members a chance to develop interpersonal skills as well as a learning opportunity of how to be professional.  There were 13 speakers, 19 recruiting companies, and around 600 students from 23 schools.  Videos of the conference were sent to between 50 and 60 students from four different universities.

The two key sponsors of the conference were Milwaukee Tools and Federated Insurance, each donating $1,000.

“We couldn’t have put this conference on without the support of COBE’s IT staff,” Peltier said. “Aaron Schuett and Joe Kokott really stepped up for us.  They had to video tape the sessions and then beam them out to the off-site universities.”

Peltier said the conference gave all of the attendees a rewarding experience.