First AMA Networking Event
Okay, I have been a member of the AMA (American Marketing Association) for about 5 months now (since March or April, I believe) and it's only now that I've had an opportunity to attend an event. This has largely been because I have been so crazy-busy at work in such a way that I'd usually be working 60 hour weeks on the road living out of a hotel and an airport. This isn't too beneficial for taking advantage of local (aka - your home town) networking events.
The reason I joined AMA in the first place was (is) that over the last 2 years I have seen my career drift from the direction that I wanted to take it, especially after graduating from a top 20 MBA program with one of the best marketing educations in America (and I still believe that). However, after moving from the NCR Retail Solutions Group (Point of Sale devices and software) to the Teradata division (later spun off to become Teradata Corporation), I have seen my marketing career move off-track as my role became defined as the "Financial expert" role, even though the function remained as a sales & marketing or business development role. Back in March, it became clear that I needed to do something to keep myself in the marketing world and make the move, so I devoted the resources personally to get plugged in.
Fortunately, I was able to professionally stay tied to my professional first love even in the financial investment analysis mode that I was in. My last two projects have been working with direct and online merchants to assist them with leveraging technology to improve their marketing efforts, especially in the email channel. UN-fortunately, with the economy being what it is and the group wanting to have a CFO-level financial consulting positioning, the resulting restructure of the "finance group" left the marketing guy out. Interestingly enough, that change took me from living out of a suitcase to being home in Atlanta a lot more, which is good for my previously intended networking in the AMA and (probably more important) allowing me to actually hang out with my friends during the weeks now. I had hoped to do this networking thing earlier though, but you know God has His reasons for everything happening when they do.
So, I went out to Shout! last night to check out the organization, enlarge my world, and meet some people. Being a "Next Generation Marketing" social and with my strong interest in working in the online marketing and Web 2.0 space, rubbing shoulders in this environment would be a good thing for me. Honestly, I did not intend to go and do a lot of business card exchange (more to talk with people and increase my knowledge) but I did find some good contacts. One thing that impressed me was that everyone was really friendly and I had some really fun conversations. Also, for the most part people were out to find win/win opportunities to help one another. I believe I'm going to enjoy going to more of these events in the future... it's a positive step for me career-wise and I'm sure personally too.
Oh yeah, the sushi at Shout! is very good too. I highly recommend :-).
The reason I joined AMA in the first place was (is) that over the last 2 years I have seen my career drift from the direction that I wanted to take it, especially after graduating from a top 20 MBA program with one of the best marketing educations in America (and I still believe that). However, after moving from the NCR Retail Solutions Group (Point of Sale devices and software) to the Teradata division (later spun off to become Teradata Corporation), I have seen my marketing career move off-track as my role became defined as the "Financial expert" role, even though the function remained as a sales & marketing or business development role. Back in March, it became clear that I needed to do something to keep myself in the marketing world and make the move, so I devoted the resources personally to get plugged in.
Fortunately, I was able to professionally stay tied to my professional first love even in the financial investment analysis mode that I was in. My last two projects have been working with direct and online merchants to assist them with leveraging technology to improve their marketing efforts, especially in the email channel. UN-fortunately, with the economy being what it is and the group wanting to have a CFO-level financial consulting positioning, the resulting restructure of the "finance group" left the marketing guy out. Interestingly enough, that change took me from living out of a suitcase to being home in Atlanta a lot more, which is good for my previously intended networking in the AMA and (probably more important) allowing me to actually hang out with my friends during the weeks now. I had hoped to do this networking thing earlier though, but you know God has His reasons for everything happening when they do.
So, I went out to Shout! last night to check out the organization, enlarge my world, and meet some people. Being a "Next Generation Marketing" social and with my strong interest in working in the online marketing and Web 2.0 space, rubbing shoulders in this environment would be a good thing for me. Honestly, I did not intend to go and do a lot of business card exchange (more to talk with people and increase my knowledge) but I did find some good contacts. One thing that impressed me was that everyone was really friendly and I had some really fun conversations. Also, for the most part people were out to find win/win opportunities to help one another. I believe I'm going to enjoy going to more of these events in the future... it's a positive step for me career-wise and I'm sure personally too.
Oh yeah, the sushi at Shout! is very good too. I highly recommend :-).
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