JMU Visits the Gartner Symposium in Orlando

Three College of Business (CoB) students attended alongside close to 30,000 business professionals, the Gartner Symposium, a professional development conference focused on information technology.  This event, hosted by Gartner Inc., a world leader in information technology research,  serves as a summit for the leaders of this critical business sector. 

David Bruce, Alonso Mena, and Kayla Rasmussen--along JMU lecturer Richard Tate, Director of the CoB’s Center for Professional Sales--were among a select group of 33 students and faculty members from across the nation.  Gartner sponsored and paid for the students  to attend the event, which was held in October in Orlando, Florida.  All of the students were grouped into small teams and spent about an hour each day creating a technology business plan. They also had opportunities to network and gather advice from leaders in information technology. 

“I was impressed to learn about the wide variety of sales programs offered at the other represented universities,” Rasmussen says. “Even though each student was unique in their sales presentation approaches, we all were extremely like-minded, driven individuals. I was proud to represent JMU and felt that my CoB classes, along with my Professional Sales class, prepared me for the event.”