I was recently invited by Lecturer and Small Business Program Specialist, Alan Hauf, to speak to his "Management of Promotions," class on Monday, January 30th. I was very honored by Alan's invitation and worked hard to prepare a professional presentation for the very bright students (mostly marketing majors) in his class.
I've made hundreds of business presentations since 1984, but for some reason, I was extremely nervous about this opportunity. Luckily, PowerPoint kept me from rambling on and once I opened my big mouth... it was clear sailing from there. I talked mostly about marketing issues that couldn't be found in college text books... like the fact that a marketing position is truly a sales support position and that virtually every position at a given company is a sales support position. Without sales, companies cease to exist and so do their respective positions.
The students seemed to enjoy the visual walk-throughs of promotional campaigns and the step-by-step directions for organizing promotions. (Their next class project is to break up in groups and work with four (real) area businesses to develop promotional campaigns). With that said, it was only natural that some serious note taking was taking place during that phase of the presentation.
There was a lot of information thrown at them in 90 minutes and they were very receptive to the "real life" examples of promotional marketing. As everyone knows, it can be difficult for students to focus on the inflexibility of text books, no matter what the subject. I found the students to be very polite, very attentive and they asked good questions. Today's college students are a pretty impressive group and I was privileged to share a little insight with them.
Thanks for the invitation Mr. Hauf. I'd be happy to do it again some day.
Steve Erdelen
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