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Marketing conference success – How to Brand Yourself 2021

Published on 19 March 2021

The University’s student Marketing Society recently delivered a successful virtual marketing conference, which was aimed at students from around the world titled, 'Marketing Conference 2021 - How to Brand Yourself'

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How to Brand Yourself 2021 Marketing Conference

The conference was led by the Society President, Noosa Khogali and Tisha de Guzman, VP of Operations for the Society. With a huge thank you to Jade Chau, a 4th year student from DJCAD, who created the conference posters, and Claire Williamson, the Society’s Social Media Manager who helped lead on the promotions. From planning and inviting speakers, to developing the branding and design of the conference, and then promoting the benefits to potential attendees, the team pulled out all the stops, whilst still pursuing their University studies.

Learn more about the Student Marketing Society

Over the course of the 2-days, a total of 7 speakers shared their expertise and highlighted key insights, linking to the theme of the conference. The 7 speakers brought an incredible mix of experience, as they all worked in different sectors, and were at different stages in their careers. A point which was commented on favourably by several of the attendees.

From the 7 speakers, it was excellent to welcome back 2 Alumni of the University, Crispin Reed and Sarah Cruickshank.

Two workshops also formed part of the weekend, focussing on CV development, Internship opportunities and LinkedIn. A big thanks to AIESEC in Aberdeen and Caroline Smith from the University’s Careers Centres for running/facilitating these workshops.

In total, there were just over 230 sign-ups in total for the conference, from 12 different countries. With each individual speaker session welcoming around 60 attendees.

Extremely proud of the Society’s achievements, Tisha commented;

“This was an amazing experience for myself and my fellow Society members. For me personally, as a Pharmacology student, many aspects of business, including marketing are new to me. These are not areas that I study in my degree.

“We set ourselves a huge challenge to organise this, making initial progress after Christmas and finalising plans in February. It meant that we didn’t have that much time to get everything in place. I have learned so much from this experience.

“I want to say a huge thank you to the speakers, on behalf of us all. We were so grateful for them to support us, particularly on the weekend, and provide such interesting and useful insights.”

Really positive feedback was received from the attendees. Comments included:

“The conference was really well structured and I like how there was always opportunity for Q&A which was really useful.”

“Enjoyed the variety of speakers from different paths. Specially the digital nomad side.”

“I loved hearing about real life experiences within the marketing sector and learning more about practical skills such as LinkedIn.”

“I really loved the last part with the two workshops which was very helpful for me as I am currently 3rd year student and I need to start thinking about graduation.”

The Marketing Society was setup with the support of the Marketing Society Scotland, in 2019. In the last two years, the society has already grown to be one of the most active, encouraging and enthusiastic societies available to students.

Speaker highlights

SARAH CRUICKSHANK
Senior Media Manager at Scottish Rugby Union,
Edinburgh UK
"Seeing your career as a journey"

CRISPIN REED
Founder of Skyscraper Consulting, London UK
"Marketing insights and tips from a non-marketing background"

GRAEME BUTLER
Talent Acquisition Marketing Specialist at Enterprise, Edinburgh UK
"Marketing from a recruiter's perspective"

ROD GILLIES
"Head of Marketing at The Three Stills Company Ltd and Vice-Chair of The Marketing Society Scotland, Edinburgh UK
Creativity is key to cut-through innovation: from marketing to product development in the beverage industry"

RARES MAN
Former Global Marketing and Communications Director and Entrepreneur at AIESEC, London
"Marketing trends to watch out for"

GIULIA CIAN SEREN
Founder of Juicy Pickles, Singapore
"How digital marketing changed my life: from a small town to living in 7 countries"

PRATIBHA MOTWANI
Former National Head of Marketing at AIESEC in India
"In pursuit of creative living: how to create a marketing portfolio"