Collegiate Leadership Academy: What are you doing?

2011-11-09

There’s only one week until the 2011 Collegiate DECA Leadership Academy conference! Let the countdown begin! I want to take this opportunity to talk about all the exciting tracks that this year’s CLA has to offer!

The 2011 tracks that the students have to choose from include:

• Sports & Entertainment Marketing
• International Business & Finance
• Fashion Merchandising & Retail Management
• Hospitality & Culinary Arts
• Madison Avenue Advertising

Each track is bringing something fresh and exciting to the table this year and to give you the inside scoop, each of your national officers have written a short blurb to paint you a picture of this year’s opportunities:

Sports and Entertainment Marketing Track

Take me out to the ball game! This year the Sports and Entertainment track students will be given the opportunity to get a tour of two of the most famous stadiums in America: Met Life Stadium (formerly known as Meadowlands Stadium), and a special tour of Yankee Stadium!

During the Met Life Stadium tour, you will visit some of the premium spaces, such as the Commissioners Club, Toyota Coaches Club, and their luxury suites, as well as taking a walk on the field where some of your favorite athletes play each week. The MetLife Stadium VIP Tours offer both an exciting and educational experience for every sports fan! Met Life Stadium will also be giving a presentation on their marketing for the Met Life Complex!

If that isn’t exciting enough, students will get to experience for the first time ever a tour at legendary Yankee Stadium! During the tour, you will be visiting Monument Park, New York Yankees Museum presented by Bank of America, the Clubhouse/Batting Cage Area and the Dugout. This is not only something baseball fans will enjoy, but every student looking for a career in the Sports and Entertainment field will benefit from this exciting and eventful tour.

With your exciting case study built around your business tours, I promise you that this is one tour that you will not want to miss!

-Em Dziatlik

International Business & Finance Track

The International Business and Finance Track at the Collegiate DECA Leadership Academy 2011 is going to be nothing short of awesome! When you think of New York, one of the first things you think about is often Wall Street, so on the International Business & Finance track, students get to actually go behind the scenes at Wall Street!

Students in this track will be taking a tour of the Federal Reserve vault to kick it all off! In the following two days, they will have the opportunity to hear from speakers at SIFMA who actually WORK on Wall Street. On top of that, they will go on a Gallery Tour of the New York Stock Exchange and finally, receive a presentation from the Wall St. Training Company. This will be a great experience and provide a lot of insight to anyone considering a career in International Business and/or Finance.

-Clayton Bradshaw

Fashion Merchandising & Retail Management Track

Students who choose to participate in the Fashion Merchandising & Retail Management track are among a select group of students who get unheard of opportunities. The Gotham Fashion Tour in itself has tons to offer, including discussions with fashion designers, a behind the scenes look into Mood Fabrics (used by Project Runway designers), and discounted shopping at World’s Largest Trim Store. Students will also see the Fashion Walk of Fame, High Fashion Designer studios, and multiple Project Runway sites. This is only one small piece of the pie.

We are fortunate enough to have The Fashion Institute of Technology as a chapter of Collegiate DECA. This has helped in providing Academy attendees with the opportunity to tour the legendary FIT Museum. This is a terrific track that fashion students are going to love!

-Dakota Dale

Hospitality & Culinary Arts Track

This year Hospitality & Culinary Arts track is going to be incredible! Students will be hosted by Marriott International and the New York Marriott Marquis, where they will take tours and hear from management personnel and national sales management about the industry - from operations, to marketing, to culinary and more.

Students will then learn how to plan special events while working with representatives from MDA’s New York Office. You will learn how to organize and market an event: from hotels, to food service, to hosting VIPs, to working with volunteers.
On top of that you will get a tour of the Radio City Rockettes, a NY tradition unlike any other. If you’ve chosen to attend the Hospitality & Culinary Arts track this year, you will not be disappointed!

-Ronald Schoolcraft

Madison Avenue Advertising Track

This year, we have the absolute pleasure of introducing a BRAND NEW TRACK! That’s right, the Madison Avenue Advertising track has been added to the mix to enhance the conference and give more variety to the students. After all, NYC is an advertising hot spot - There’s no better example than seeing Times Square lit up at night!

Hundreds of billions of dollars are spent worldwide on advertising each year, making it an absolutely vital part of business. Whether you want to be in account management, on a creative team, a researcher, media planner, or any other part of an advertising firm – this track is for you! It’s designed to be well-rounded, fun, and most importantly capable of giving you insight into the industry and a chance to make professional connections with top firms in NYC.

To give you the best quality track possible, Collegiate DECA has teamed up with The Brand Union who has brought on board JWT Advertising, Hill & Knowlton, and Mediacom - all of them helping to provide you with the ultimate hands-on advertising learning experience. Students will get a tour of JWT Advertising along with presentations by all four companies. Throughout the day, students will be absorbing information relative to a case study that will be given to the students at the end. Students will get to work on both branding and traditional advertising (target market, positioning, etc.).
As if that isn’t enough, The Brand Union will also be judging the competition! After all students have competed, The Brand Union will show them their actual pitch that they made to the customer named in the case. This is an awesome opportunity and a great chance to exercise your advertising, branding, and creative skills. If you plan on attending the Madison Avenue Advertising track, look up the companies named and get yourself pumped up for the professional experience of your life! We hope to see you there!!

-Paige Eldridge

So, now that you have the inside scoop of what you will be doing in New York. I personally can’t wait to see all of you out and about in New York City frantically running around trying to get to your next destination! Make sure that while you are on your tours that you are asking questions and paying attention to what each track has to offer. You never know what career offers you’re going to encounter!

See you there!
Emily (Em) Dziatlik