It is hard to believe that our fall semester is almost over. Pitt AMA general body meetings have ended, but to officially wrap up the semester, we want to congratulate our November member of the month: Madison Tanczos!
As a sophomore majoring in Marketing with a certificate in Digital Media, Madison has been an amazing asset to Pitt AMA, specifically in the Public Relations Committee. From unique Canva designs to constantly stepping in for other members when needed, Madison has done an AMAzing job of being a Public Relations committee member.
Some of Madison’s experience comes from her Marketing internship this past summer at Reform Wellness, in which she helped brainstorm content, managed social media, increased brand outreach, and more!
Madison’s favorite thing about Pitt AMA is the ability to get involved. She loves being able to use her creativity to make social media posts for LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook, along with being able to bounce ideas off of others!
Want some top advice from a top Pitt AMA member? Madison’s got you covered! She advises students in Pitt Business to “get involved and see all of your classmates as your supporters, not your competition! We are all here to help each other succeed.”
Outside of Madison’s professional life, she was a competitive Irish Dancer before college. She also loves to channel her creativity into crafting! To learn more about Madison, connect with her on LinkedIn below.
Now that the Halloween season has come to a close, we are giving thanks to our AMAzing AMA members! One member that makes it super easy to be thankful for is Josie Mills, our October Member of the Month! Josie is a freshman majoring in Marketing who is super involved in our Consulting Committee.
Currently, Josie is creating content for Key Creations’ rebranding. She has always had an interest in writing, so this opportunity was perfect for her to execute her ideas. Josie has “grown so much in such a short amount of time and can’t wait to see what comes next!”
Her favorite part about Pitt AMA is that everyone is kind and willing to share their knowledge, which makes for a positive atmosphere. Josie is also grateful for being in our wonderful organization - we are grateful for you, too!
Something Josie encourages everyone in Pitt Business to do is to make sure you have a creative outlet and volunteer whenever you can! Josie embodies her own advice; she is a volunteer at a therapeutic horseback riding center. Make sure to connect with Josie below!
We wrapped up Marketing Week 2021 with a fun and interactive event! Our Vice President of Public Relations, Vianne Chang, led a Canva workshop. She gave helpful insight and lots of tips and tricks to keep our media looking sharp.
Canva is a FREE platform with templates, designs, and images that allow you to communicate effectively through creating presentations, social media posts, and blog graphics. They have preset dimensions for different platforms such as Instagram. There are grid templates so you can have perfect spacing every time. They also have tons of graphics, shapes, and pictures for you to choose from, with the ability to edit the colors to match your brand.
Throughout the night, Vianne gave several tips. “You can use shapes to spice up the page, break up the text, and represent your data in a pleasing way,” she stated during the event. Another useful hack is just to change the transparency of a shape and overlay it over a photo rather than editing the photo directly.
At the end of the night, AMA members broke off into groups and put these tips to the test, check out some of our favorite!
On Tuesday, we were lucky enough to hear from Katie Schuchman who is a Pitt Business Alumni and is currently an Assistant Account Executive at Zeno Group, a global, integrated communications agency! After graduating Pitt in 2019 with a degree in Marketing and Certificates in Public & Professional Writing and Digital Media, Katie jumped into the job market unaware that a global pandemic was just around the corner. After being forced to reevaluate what was important to her in a job and go through the hiring process once again in March 2020, Katie shared with us what she learned on her journey. Her first piece of advice was to “Take inventory.” She shared that when looking for a job you will be making a big change, and it is vital you know what is important to you before you commit to a company. Her next piece of advice was “Don’t underestimate the power of prep,” where she reinforced the idea that a strong resume, cover letter, and interview skills are the key to landing any position. Her last piece of advice was “Set goals,” where Katie shared the importance of physically writing down what you hope to accomplish in your new role and start working towards achieving them right away. Pitt AMA wants to thank Katie for sharing her story and advice with us! If you would like to contact Katie, she would be happy to answer any questions you have!
​Email: katie.schuchman@zenogroup.com OR kschuchman97@gmail.com
Pitt AMA's March 2021 Member of the Month is... Vianne Chang!! Vianne is currently a freshman majoring in Marketing as well as BIS - with a minor in Economics, and certificates in Digital Media and Business Analytics. She is currently on the PR Committee and also serves as a key member of the Consulting Committee, specifically tasked with upgrading the Pitt RAS website. With a culmination of joy for both designing and marketing, she has loved the opportunity to create content for Pitt AMA’s social media, and is consistently a reliable resource - quickly taking the reigns when a team member needs help!
"My favorite part of AMA is that I get to listen to Pitt alumni - I find it super inspiring to hear how they used Pitt Business to get where they are in their careers!"
Outside of AMA, Vianne is actively involved in the Women in Business organization, and Pitt's Phi Beta Lambda chapter (both of which she highly encourages other students to join!) As for some advice on how to succeed in Pitt Business, she stated, "..take advantage of all the opportunities Pitt Business has to offer. There are events every week that can help any student with their future plans!" A major final thank you to Vianne for all she does with Pitt AMA and elsewhere in her endeavors; we cannot wait to see what else she accomplishes in her future years at Pitt!
​Congratulations, Vianne!!
Connect with Vianne on LinkedIn below!
Reflecting on Pitt AMA’s 2021 Regional Conference: the planning process, the event itself and the aftermath.
Written by Alex Falzone and Marissa Pritts
Let’s set the stage. You’ve just been elected to be a Co-VP of Regional Conference for the University of Pittsburgh’s chapter of the American Marketing Association. This is their largest event of the year in which professionals from various companies and students from numerous colleges attend. Clearly this is an exciting task, but there is one major concern: you are in the middle of a global pandemic. That is the exact situation we found ourselves in last May. Overcoming a severe level of uncertainty while still trying to take Regional Conference to the next level was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
The Planning Process
The planning process as a whole was an absolute rollercoaster. Given that this process was started over six months ago, the level of uncertainty was quite high. Would we be able to have the conference in person? What would be the constraints if we did? How would the conference look if we took it virtual? Is it even possible at all to do it virtually? These were all of the thoughts whizzing around in our heads for months as we tried to gain some clarity as to how we should proceed. Eventually, we decided that the safest bet would be to transition everything into an online setting. While this was a scary decision to make, it also provided some exciting opportunities. As our regional conference committee began brainstorming themes, it became obvious that a theme around the new virtual environment would work well. This is how the theme “Going Viral” was born. Additionally, this major change meant that we were now able to invite professionals and students from all around the world to attend. And that is exactly what we did. We began reaching out to an extensive network of individuals and AMA chapters in hopes that they would be able to make it out for the big day.
Our next big task was to structure the event. We decided that we would stick with the signature parts of the day: keynote speaker, panel of professionals, networking session, and workshops. The tricky part was figuring out the logistics. First up was the keynote speaker session. When Jess Druga, Pitt Business’ student engagement manager, connected Rachel, our AMA chapter president, with a professional from Zoom, we immediately saw an opportunity! Having a keynote speaker from Zoom, the fastest growing online communication platform during the pandemic, would fit right into our theme. This professional, Scott Esser, then connected us with two other professionals that he thought could fit into the keynote speech. The thought of having three keynote speakers was strange at first, but once we realized that a common thread ran through all of their experiences, it became apparent that this was the perfect fit for the conference. And that was when “Cause Marketing in the Viral Age: Corporations Doing well by Doing Good for the World” was born.
Initially we had planned on having one panel session, but as we quickly watched the number of professionals who were RSVPing grow, we realized that we would be better off splitting this part of the day into two sessions. Once we prepared some questions to ask, the panels were ready to go.
Next up, was networking. This whole part was pretty self explanatory - just students talking one-on-one with professionals. The only logistics to figure out were how to set up breakout rooms to make that happen, but after a quick meeting with Jess Druga and an IT worker, we felt fully prepared to make it happen.
Finally, we were on to planning workshops. We began by brainstorming general topic ideas and pairing which company we thought would best fit each one. This is how “Building your Brand Before your Business” and the Tik Tok workshop came to be. Scott, from Zoom, then also connected us to another professional from Zoom, Anaiis, who lives in the Netherlands. She had a ton of international experience, so we decided that “Lessons Learned from Working Abroad” would be a great topic match for her. For our fourth and final workshop, we reached out to Saxby’s. The girls who would be attending as representatives of Saxby’s indicated interest in hosting a Digital Portfolio workshop, which we absolutely loved the idea of!
Once all of those major events were planned out, we just had small day-of things to hash out and then we were ready to roll.
Regional Conference
The day of Regional Conference finally came around and we could not have felt more prepared. With the help of our e-board, keynote speakers and strong connections with professionals that we had made prior, there didn’t seem to be too much room for error. We had spoken with professionals in advance and conducted trial runs to ensure the Zoom session we had prepared was possible.
We opened the event up to registered students half an hour early. By doing this, we were able to start discussions and have a rotating reel of slides to provide information and start conversations. Next, after a brief “welcome speech”, we handed it off to our Keynote Speakers, Michael, Scott and Cheryl.
Directly after our Keynote speakers, we began our panel of professionals. This panel consisted of representatives from 15 professionals from different companies ranging from local agencies to larger, in-house companies. The panel was split into two sections, each with two moderators from AMA. They asked both pre-planned questions and audience questions.
After a brief break, we jumped right into a networking session. The session had breakout rooms unique to each company, where students could ask questions and chat with the professionals. This allowed students to hop between each room, which mimicked the tabling sessions we would participate in in a pre-COVID 19 world.
Our last event for the day was our workshop sessions. We had professionals from four different companies attend to conduct four different half-hour workshops. The topics were Lessons I Learned from Working Abroad, Building Your Digital Portfolio, Building Your Brand Before Your Business, and a Tik Tok workshop. Each workshop was unique to the company and individuals presenting it.
The Aftermath
Regional Conference 2021 was one of the best experiences we have ever had. From the planning to the event itself, we both learned so much and met so many amazing people. This year’s Regional Conference has had the largest recorded number of companies to attend to date. We had representatives from 16 different companies and students from 10 different schools. If we had to choose one word to describe this year’s conference, it would be… SUCCESS!
And on that note, thank you to everyone who helped to make this event as awesome as it was! We cannot wait to see how next year’s conference will grow and develop to something even bigger! The biggest thing we learned this year is that persistence is key and that there is always a way to make things happen. We hope that future Regional Conference planners continue to have this drive and passion for the event and keep this mentality alive.
​
Until next year!