Every year our East Carolina University AMA chapter attends the American Marketing Association International Collegiate Conference. During my first year involved with this organization, I was invited to join a group of students to travel to the conference. Unfortunately, I was unable to go. This year, however, I was able to attend. Being my senior year, I was so ecstatic that I was given this opportunity and was fortunate enough to travel with my organization.

The Conference

The 2017 AMA ICC was the 39th collegiate conference in AMA history. In preparation for the conference, our group downloaded the AMA Event App. Through it, we were able to see the agenda, connect with other students, and read about the speakers.

The conference had a full agenda set for each day. This schedule included a variety of sessions for students to learn and obtain knowledge from many successful business professionals. Outside of the sessions, there were also competitions and other events at the conference such as Mix ‘N Mingle where students could meet people from other AMA chapters.

Sessions

There were many different kinds of sessions. Some were designed specifically for faculty advisors and others for students. In terms of the student sessions, these topics related to creating a successful career, organizational development, and general marketing topics. Each individual was able to pick exactly what interested them and attend any sessions of their choosing.

To give you an idea of session topics, here is a list of a few:

• Promotional Marketing | The Industry. The Community. The Careers.
• The Power of Story Telling
• A Social Media Double Shot!
• How to Brand Yourself and Win the Interview
• Chapter Planning for a Successful Year
• Tips for Successful Fundraising

As you can tell by the titles, there were many beneficial presentations. Our members split up, attended a variety of sessions, and obtained a lot of great knowledge to share with the rest of our chapter. There was also a career fair featuring many of the conference sponsors.

What I Learned

Our ECU team learned a lot at the conference. Some information that was shared during sessions was already known by some of our members due to our chapter meetings and some of our ECU classes. However, there were still quite a few things that we were able to bring back to campus to share that we have never learned before.

In particular, one really neat thing that I learned was during the session with Mary Kay representatives. At this session, the presenter discussed a very successful template to go by when composing emails. She told us to always remember the acronym, “MADE.”

• Message
• Action
• Details
• Explanation

This acronym can be used as a guide to properly set up an email. For example, the message is what you are trying to get across to the person who receives your email. The action section is referring to the steps you are asking the receiver to take. The details are specifics relating to how they can complete the action. Lastly, the explanation tells the reader why they should complete the action in order to fulfill the sender’s message.

I really enjoyed learning about this email tip, and now I often think of this acronym when composing my own emails. This was just one of the many things that our group was able to bring back from the conference. In fact, besides this new knowledge, our chapter brought back something else that we are very proud of… an award!

It’s a Major Award

Our chapter was awarded, “Outstanding Chapter Planning and Communication” for the 2016-2017 school year. We were so excited about this accomplishment that our group cheered very loudly when our chapter was called out. It is such an honor to achieve this award, and we were thrilled to be recognized for all the hard work that our members have completed this school year.

I had a blast at the American Marketing Association International Collegiate Conference and am so glad I was blessed with the opportunity to attend. Thank you, ECU AMA, for providing me with a great experience for my first marketing conference and most importantly, a great year within the organization. It has been awesome serving as the ECU AMA Executive Vice President for the 2016-2017 school year.