Wright State marketing club honored at international conference

Wright State’s chapter of the American Marketing Association was ranked among the best student clubs at the AMA International Collegiate Conference in New Orleans.

John Adams, president of Wright State’s chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMAWSU), was expecting to do well, but he didn’t expect his student club to be named the second best small chapter in the country.

But that’s what the marketing club achieved at the American Marketing Association International Collegiate Conference April 5-7 in New Orleans. During the annual conference, chapters from all over participate in competitions, listen to keynote speakers and network with other chapters from other colleges.

AMA chapters compete in various areas such as a pitch competition, where students participate in a mock interview, similar to an elevator speech about themselves; a case competition in which students look at real-world marketing problem-solving; and a t-shirt design competition. Each chapter of the AMA creates a chapter plan throughout the year, and they report on the plan at the end of the year, which is judged as another competition.

To prepare for the competition, Adams reviewed previous award-winning reports to build Wright State’s in a similar manner.

“We felt like with the resources we had at Wright State and the 20 members that we have, we were doing some of the stuff that chapters with 100 members were doing,” he said.

At the awards ceremony, the chapters were listed by how many awards they received. Adams said he was concerned, as Wright State’s name had not yet been called a long way through the ceremony.

“If you haven’t been called after there were three awards, that means you got more than three or you didn’t get any awards, so I got nervous,” Adams said. “Then they said here’s the top five chapters and we were the second best chapter in the nation, it was surreal.”

Samantha Andrus, the future president of AMAWSU, said the conference was a learning experience for her.

“I had the opportunity to meet so many incredible people from all over the country that have the same passion for marketing as I do, and it was really cool to build those relationships and have that network for the future,” she said.

Tyler Pike, the future vice president of AMAWSU, said he hopes to bring the inspiration he felt from the conference back to the Raj Soin College of Business to share with incoming club members.

“To have that experience to talk to other people to see where you can improve and help them improve is so important for a well-rounded marketing perspective,” he said.