The SUNY New Paltz chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA), recognized as one of the top chapters in the nation, invited business leaders from around the region to speak on campus at the 22nd annual Business Development Conference (BDC).
The conference featured professionals with diverse backgrounds and unique work experiences, for a roundtable discussion that opened into a Q&A with students. The speakers at this year’s BDC included:
- Heidi Reale, Founder of SparkShoppe, LTD
- Rebecca Carlson, President, Full Circle Networking LLC
- Kathy Prizzia, Executive Director of the Chamber Of Commerce
- Jesse Hicks ’15 (Management), Entrepreneur
“This year’s conference is special in the sense that it features speakers addressing a common question: ‘How do I get a job when I graduate?’” said Russell Zwanka, faculty advisor to the New Paltz AMA. “It gave our students a unique opportunity to engage with top industry leaders on ideas of how companies cultivate talent, develop the necessary skills in their teams to be successful, and what they look for in graduating college students.”
For the student members of the New Paltz AMA, organizing the annual BDC presents challenges that demand the organizational skills and creative problem-solving that are highly sought-after by employers.
“Putting on large scale events such as these allows us to gain ‘real world’ experience,” said Elizabeth Muzyka ’17 (Marketing), current president of the New Paltz AMA. “The Business Development Conference requires planning over the span of four months: speakers need to be contacted, rooms need to be booked, forms need to be filled out and approved, all by certain deadlines. Being able to juggle all these small but crucial details is key for our Executive Board and everyone else involved, and seeing the conference run so smoothly makes all that effort worth it.”
About the SUNY New Paltz American Marketing Association chapter
The SUNY New Paltz AMA has grown to become the largest student club in the School of Business, with an average membership of about 80 students per semester. AMA membership gives students the opportunity to connect with regional business leaders, participate in professional development conferences and complete AMA Certificate Programs, which supplement their education and make them more attractive to prospective employers after graduation. Over the years, the chapter has completed dozens of market projects for regional organizations including Families of New Paltz and the New Paltz and Ulster County Chambers of Commerce. In 2015 the New Paltz AMA was named the eighth-ranked national chapter at the AMA International Collegiate Conference, from a field including AMAs from more than 350 U.S. colleges and universities.
