CSUN AMA BRINGS HOME AWARDS FROM THE AMERICAN MARKETING ASSOCIATION 2016 INTERNATIONAL COLLEGIATE CONFERENCE

Thanks to the David Nazarian College of Business, CSUN Associated Students, a Digital Trust Foundation grant, and Bill Imada (Chairman and Chief Connectivity Officer of the IW Group), nine students from the American Marketing Association (AMA)
traveled to New Orleans to attend the annual AMA International Collegiate Conference (AMAICC). The 2016 attendees included Ilya Albert, Katrina Beltran, Sebastian Blanc, Collin Glueck, Daniel Lawson, Summer Malone, Andres Nieto, Heather Ticzon, and Nickolaus Violin.

This year’s students took note from previous attendees and came prepared, ready to win. They participated in more events and won more awards than last year. “I see the improvement in our chapter. In order for us to become a platinum chapter, we need to send our members every year and
learn from other chapters. The more consistent we are with our presence, the more we will learn”, said Andres Nieto, a second-time AMAICC attendee.

In addition to showcasing the chapter’s achievements, the students competed against 1,464 students and 202 chapters, attended numerous workshops and guest speaker presentations, and networked with professionals and peers from other schools throughout the nation.
The CSUN AMA chapter placed second in the “Most Educational” category for the chapter exhibit competition and received “Exemplary Collegiate Chapter Performance with Outstanding Professional Development and Communications.” Another star achievement included marketing major,
Ilya Albert, becoming a finalist in the “Perfect Pitch” competition. Ilya remarked that, “it was both a thrill and an engaging learning experience which aided in the improvement of my business pitching skills.” In addition to the competitions, students who worked on youth privacy protection campaigns as part of a grant project were able to present their research and findings in the poster session. Summer, Andres, Daniel, and Sebastien shared their work with other AMAICC attendees. During the poster session, Daniel Lawson was able to “exercise his communication, planning, and marketing skills” while Sebastien Blanc was “inspired to get out of his comfort zone and learn with others”. As project manager, Summer Malone even got the opportunity to gather data on business students’ opinions of online privacy for their campaign.

Without the guidance and motivation from advisor, Dr. Kristen Walker and the support of the David Nazarian College of Business, the CSUN AMA chapter would not be as strong as it is today. “It was wonderful to see our chapter earn so many accolades after all their hard work”, said Dr. Kristen
Walker.

With the shared knowledge of this year’s AMAICC attendees, the chapter will be much stronger and the David Nazarian College of Business will soon be known for having a platinum AMA chapter. The trip was an AMA-zing learning experience and will definitely aid toward the future success of our
CSUN marketing majors/minors and the CSUN AMA chapter. AMA President, Collin Glueck is looking forward to “bring even more substantial value to members and the college” as CSUN AMA “gains a stronger reputation and becomes one of the top AMA chapters.”