JMU's MMA "Minted its Future" at the 2016 AMA Collegiate Conference
News
Courtesy of the Madison Marketing Association Members
Since the spring of 2015, the members of the Madison Marketing Association (MMA) have been anxiously waiting to attend an event many consider the highlight of their academic year: the American Marketing Association’s (AMA) Annual Collegiate Conference. Members of MMA, James Madison University’s chapter of AMA, further their marketing education through guest speakers, community events, social events and open forums with JMU faculty and marketing professionals. Their mission is to provide opportunities for students to learn and implement marketing principles through fundraisers, the annual networking banquet and the annual AMA Conference.
This year’s conference, which was hosted in New Orleans, La, gathered over 350 collegiate chapters to compete. JMU’s Madison Marketing Association set a chapter record this year sending 32 student members and two marketing faculty. The conference consisted of professional development events, marketing and sales competitions and numerous opportunities to network with marketing professionals.
After arriving in New Orleans on March 16, 2016, the members worked as a team to set up MMA’s booth in preparation for the AMA Exhibit Competition. This particular event allowed each chapter to display its annual theme and promote itself to the other chapters. MMA’s theme was “The Godfathers of Business”, a play off of the movie The Godfather. The booth was decorated with a banner representing JMU, and followed a black and red theme. One member was hidden in the crowd dressed as “The Godfather” and students were told to find him, get a poker chip and receive a prize.
The first night concluded with an opening ceremony, welcoming a total of 1,695 attendees. This ceremony introduced many of the AMA staff and featured Peter Horst, Chief Marketing Officer of the Hershey Company, as a keynote speaker. Horst spoke about his rise to success and provided students with tips on how to drive marketing excellence, lead global innovation and stated that marketing is “the best job ever”. Following the opening ceremony, AMA kept chapters busy on Friday and Saturday, providing various professional events and competitions. Some of these included speakers, who spoke about how to make the college to career transition, establishing your target market, branding yourself and networking.
The conference hosted 17 corporate sponsors including The Hershey Company, Ebay, Sawtooth Software and Aerotek. Keynote speaker, Monica Skipper, presented at the competitions ceremony on Friday night. Skipper is responsible for brand experience marketing for FedEx and discussed her strategies on helping to take her brand to six continents. Many of our MMA members attended a Career Fair Luncheon and two participated in the ABC Supply Company Sales Competition. One MMA member, Alex Glaum, placed third out of 65 student participants!
On Saturday, March 19, it was time for the American Marketing Association’s Collegiate Conference to come to an end. The closing ceremony honored chapters with awards varying from Top Small Chapter to Student Marketer of the Year. The Madison Marketing Association’s members enjoyed a dinner with the other chapters and anxiously waited to hear their standing. JMU’s chapter has a long-standing history of placing as a top chapter at the conference based on the AMA’s judging of our success compared to other chapters. Members of the executive team this year worked hard to uphold these high standards of excellence and as a result, placed as a top collegiate chapter of the AMA, ranking within the Top 25 chapters.
The MMA looks forward to upholding their ranking at next year’s conference and will continue to provide students with opportunities to advance their knowledge and their future careers.
