On Feb. 9, the Walker College of Business took 12 students to the University of Pittsburgh for their AMA 5th Annual Regional Conference.

The Marketing majors were led by Lee Anna Belovarac, MBA, assistant professor of Business and Business Club faculty adviser.

The day included a panel of professionals from the Pittsburgh area who talked about their jobs in the field of marketing. They discussed their own stories and passion for their jobs, what it is like transitioning from college to the workplace, finding a professional mentor and how to effectively communicate with job opportunities.

The panelists from 321 Blink, ADP, UPMC Health Care, Merkle and Ethics Marketing, as well as representatives from other businesses, gave the students the chance to partake in a networking hour. The networking hour gave students a chance to ask further questions and connect with businesses for potential job and internship opportunities.

There were several breakout sessions that students could attend, including a presentation on color marketing by a representative from PPG Paints, a discussion on agency life from 321 Blink and a presentation on the importance of business analytics from Bounteous.

The day ended with a case competition in which teams were given a fictitious marketing case and then had to propose recommendations to a panel of student judges.

Sneha Kc, senior Marketing major, and Daisy Le, senior Marketing major, took first place for their proposal, receiving a $100 cash prize.

Mikayla Bond, junior Marketing major, Hannah Park, junior Fashion Merchandising major, Dominick Funari, junior Sports Management major, and Larry Staub, junior Marketing major, took home the third place title in the case competition.

Overall, the students were able to gain valuable networking and workplace tips. Belovaric and the Marketing department hope to continue attending the conference in the coming years.