Business students gathered once again for a speech-filled day of networking at the SUNY New Paltz chapter of the American Marketing Association’s 19th Annual Business Day Conference on Wednesday, Nov. 12, in Van den Berg Hall.
Business professionals delivered speeches on marketing and helped guide many students who attended towards their future careers in the business world.
This was the fourth year guest speaker, John Tinghitella, founder of the company Humble Confidence, Inc. spoke at the event.
“I think this program is terrific,” he said. “It really gives students and faculty a chance to interact, network and focus on the content, negotiation and training. I give SUNY New Paltz an enormous amount of credit. I truly believe this is a great program.”
Another business professional who spoke at the event upon invitation was Debra Pearlman, creator of the SHARP Sales Training Program. This is her third year speaking and she refuses to use powerpoint or paper to present her speech to students.
“This gives students interactive and actual training to experience real life scenarios that help apply lessons in the real world,” she said.
Business student Michael Graziano came to this conference because he heard about it in Internship Practical Class where the event was mentioned and he became very interested. He said he did not attend the event last year since he is a transfer student but he had high hopes and thought this would be an interesting seminar to learn a few new things not taught in class.
Another student who attended was graduate student Sharron Barodawala.
“This is good for networking since I am pursuing a path in the marketing field,” she said. “I have not been to this event in past years, but I believe this can benefit me in many ways.”
Elizabeth Sydney, who graduated in May with a degree in marketing and is currently studying for her MBA, has been coordinating this event since 2010. She said this event brings students many benefits since there are a variety of speakers involved in many different career industries. She said there have been many internships obtained by students due to this event and this seminar provides students professional development for all students involved in marketing.
The chapter was started in 1987 by business professor Theodore Clark and then-student-leader, now lawyer, Steven Klien. Clark has been advising the chapter since then but will be replaced after he retires in 2015.
Sydney said this year is special to her since it is her last year to win the gold medal in the collegiate chapter for the association. Last year the chapter won the silver as a collegiate chapter but with this being Professor Clark’s last year after 27 years of being the advisor, this could be her chance of winning gold as a team.