Conestoga’s business marketing students had a chance to put some newly acquired skills to work by hosting a fundraising event at the Conestoga College Doon campus on Oct. 17.
“We are all business marketing students, and we are in an event marketing class that actually requires us to run an event,” said student Gavin Breen.
The event was held in F Wing of the college. Breen explained that the space was rented out by their professor and reserved for business marketing students.
“For the event marketing, we are doing a SickKids raffle, so with a minimum of a dollar donation, anybody gets a raffle ticket to put into a draw to win one of various prizes,” said fellow business marketing student Elsa McPherson.
McPherson said the event had a very positive outcome, as the students raised over $300 for The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, so the donations have gone to a very good cause.
“This event is during our regular class time, so we ran a promotional draw for SickKids,” said Breen. “We had to get some major sponsors on our own and we ended up getting Best Buy as our major sponsor and Mountain Warehouse as a secondary sponsor.”
Breen talked about the various prizes that were offered though the draw.
“We have some Beats headphones to give away, as well as Mountain Warehouse package and a $50 Visa gift card,” said Breen.
Breen believes the event was very successful.
“It was definitely a good event and it had a great turnout. We made upwards of $300, so it was a really successful event for sure.”
McPherson talked about how the event not only benefited Sick Kids but it also allowed students to gain some work experience.
“It was a great experience because it actually taught us how to run an event and it was a decent-sized event, considering we only had a month to arrange it,” said McPherson. “We had a lot of help from our event marketing teacher Wendy, but a lot of it was just us figuring it out on our own.”
Breen agreed the event taught the students a lot about event planning and marketing.
“For me personally, it really boosts your experience with customer interaction, and it also maximizes the efficiency and effectiveness of your sales pitch,” Breen said. “There is a major benefit, you gain experience in the field, you get to work with people and meet their needs, working out small problems with equipment that you have, and just getting to taking care of that kind of stuff.”
McPherson believes that allowing students to be independent with the event was the most significant for her.
“I find when you actually try something yourself, you learn a lot more than just listening to someone talk about in class.”
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