On March 27-28, eight Mercyhurst students attended the Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) Competitive Intelligence Boot Camp in Baltimore, Maryland.

This year marks the first time Mercyhurst students were given the opportunity to work hand-in-hand with competitive intelligence professionals at an educational boot camp. Mercyhurst’s Competitive Intelligence Club is the only SCIP-affiliated student organization in the country, with SCIP being the largest competitive intelligence trade association in the US.

It was this unique relationship that provided this opportunity.

The two-day conference was intended to provide both undergraduate and graduate students with learning, interaction and professional development to prepare them for their future careers. The conference workshops have a mix of leaders within the competitive intelligence industry who travel from all around the world to do boot camp activities in one location.

It is this practical application process that students saw as critical to the event.

In addition, the attendees were given the opportunity to network and develop mentorship relationships with industry professionals.

Representatives from Mercyhurst included Ryan Brooks, senior Intelligence Studies major; Young Hoon Choi, junior Business Intelligence major; Logan Ford, junior Intelligence Studies major; Connor Jones, junior Business Intelligence major; Bryant Kimball, graduate Intelligence Studies major; Thomas King, graduate Intelligence Studies major; Annabel Klatil, sophomore Intelligence Studies major; and Jeffrey Sisk, junior Business Intelligence major.

“I wanted to learn about applications of competitive intelligence in the real world in a different industry,” Choi said. “We learned about CI and about advanced strategic intelligence techniques with CI professionals. Some were things we learned in class, and some weren’t, which was helpful.”

In May, nine competitive intelligence students will be traveling to Orlando, Florida, to attend the SCIP International Conference & Exhibition. Here they will be able to attend as some of the only students invited to the event, so long as they volunteer to help the event organizers. At the conference, they will interact with thousands of CI professionals.

It is hoped that they will learn key skills and meet people who can advance their careers in intelligence.