The 15th annual Okner Symposium continued the legacy of bringing together students, professors and professionals for our full-day of career learning. Adam Kempenaar, Senior Director of New Media for the Chicago Blackhawks served as an excellent keynote speaker for the group. Adam highlighted how this iconic team has leveraged social media to connect with fans. Adam showed how campaigns such as the popular "What's Your Goal" movement serve both to connect fans with players, and to create meaningful experiences on and off the ice. Watch the video below to see how this movement helped a little girl's dream come true.
After hearing from Adam about the possibilities of using Social Media to create an iconic brand, the group heard from this year's career panel. Cyndi Greenglass, SVP of Strategy for Diamond Marketing Solutions moderated a panel of experts. Kristie Heins Fox, VP at Edelman Chicago provided agency perspective, David Martinelli, Director of Digital Strategy at McDonalds USA gave insights from the corporate side and Eric Ozarowski, creator of Oh! Social, rounded out the panel with an entrepreneurial input.
Following the career panel, students from the eleven universities represented had the opportunity to eat lunch together, sponsored by the DePaul University Kellstadt Marketing Center. From there, 15 marketing practitioners joined for the speed networking roundtable portion of the day. Students sat in groups of 10 and were given the opportunity to hear in a small group setting what these practitioners do on a day-to-day. There were experts in Social Media represented, B2B side and Hospitality all provided an idea of what to expect while navigating their careers.
To see the full list of participants download the program bios here.
We owe an immense amount of gratitude to our hosts for the day, Aurora University. The entire day was also a success because of the support of the participating universities. Over 140 students demonstrated the utmost professionalism throughout the program. We had eleven universities participate including; Aurora University, Benedictine University, Carthage College, Columbia College Chicago, DePaul University, Lake Forest College, Loyola University Chicago, Northern Illinois University, Purdue University Calumet, Saint Xavier University and University of Wisconsin Whitewater. We are extremely grateful for the faculty who orchestrated the students from their respective schools.
Finally we are very grateful for our sponsors. The Okner family has supported this event for 15 years in memory of the iconic marketer, Sy Okner. We are also grateful for our meal-time sponsor the DePaul University Kellstadt Marketing Center which provides continuing education in the most cutting edge marketing fields. Finally, ULINE was a Silver level sponsor, giving a great amount of support to the students and also providing details on the many opportunities for employment with their growing company.
Thank you to all of the 2015 Okner Participants!! Contact us if you would like to learn about participating in the future at mmefgroup@gmail.com
Following the career panel, students from the eleven universities represented had the opportunity to eat lunch together, sponsored by the DePaul University Kellstadt Marketing Center. From there, 15 marketing practitioners joined for the speed networking roundtable portion of the day. Students sat in groups of 10 and were given the opportunity to hear in a small group setting what these practitioners do on a day-to-day. There were experts in Social Media represented, B2B side and Hospitality all provided an idea of what to expect while navigating their careers.
To see the full list of participants download the program bios here.
We owe an immense amount of gratitude to our hosts for the day, Aurora University. The entire day was also a success because of the support of the participating universities. Over 140 students demonstrated the utmost professionalism throughout the program. We had eleven universities participate including; Aurora University, Benedictine University, Carthage College, Columbia College Chicago, DePaul University, Lake Forest College, Loyola University Chicago, Northern Illinois University, Purdue University Calumet, Saint Xavier University and University of Wisconsin Whitewater. We are extremely grateful for the faculty who orchestrated the students from their respective schools.
Finally we are very grateful for our sponsors. The Okner family has supported this event for 15 years in memory of the iconic marketer, Sy Okner. We are also grateful for our meal-time sponsor the DePaul University Kellstadt Marketing Center which provides continuing education in the most cutting edge marketing fields. Finally, ULINE was a Silver level sponsor, giving a great amount of support to the students and also providing details on the many opportunities for employment with their growing company.
Thank you to all of the 2015 Okner Participants!! Contact us if you would like to learn about participating in the future at mmefgroup@gmail.com