Students and employers hail success of industry day

An industry day held at the University of Derby designed to bridge the gap between university life and the world of professional marketing has been hailed a success.

Last month, the first ever ‘Make Your Mark’ event was held at the university’s Cavendish Building.

Students from Undergraduate and Postgraduate Marketing programmes participated in the event, which featured an intensive personal branding workshop delivered by the university’s careers and employment team, an AI keynote speech by Martin Broadhurst, of Broadhurst Digital and several opportunities for students to work on ‘live’ briefs from organisations.

Martin’s keynote on the ‘AI Horizon’ provided students with a roadmap for how artificial intelligence is reshaping the industry and how it will define and help them in their future roles.

In the ‘Bold and Brilliant Solutions Challenge’ students were presented with verbal marketing challenges that they could think about and then share ideas and solutions with the employers during a networking lunch.

These mini challenges gave students the chance to apply their learning beyond the lecture theatre to ‘real world’ live briefs from Marketing Derby, MetaMetrics and Indigo Drum Communications.

Representing Marketing Derby at the event was Andrew Lowe and Adam Rodgers, whose challenge involved students answering a simple question: when deciding on a job, would graduates and young professionals choose a company first and then move to that location or would they pick a city first and then find employment there?

Andrew, who is marketing and communications manager at Marketing Derby, said: “Recent studies have shown that most people would choose a city offering amenities such as shopping, leisure, nightlife and a strong cultural scene.

“This is important to cities such as Derby to ensure that when regenerating and repurposing the city, it remains an attractive proposition for attracting new people and, just as importantly, retaining the talent that institutions like the University of Derby create.

“This question proved the perfect ice-breaker for the students that we spoke to; the majority followed the recent pattern of choosing a city first.

“Marketing Derby was delighted to have been asked to support this event with a mini-challenge.

“Events such as this are extremely important for students to engage with the business community and provide an opportunity to improve communication and networking skills.”

There was also a panel of successful alumni hosted by Bronia Thomas from Global Lab eXpert Group.

The event culminated in a major live brief from the CBI (Confederation of British Industry).

Nikki Paterson, regional director of the CBI for the Midlands and Luce Greetham, a first-year BA Events Management student currently on part-time placement at the CBI, challenged the students to design an advertising campaign for an upcoming CBI event – a high-profile annual dinner.

Alison Lawson, subject lead for marketing and operations at the university’s Derby International Business School, said: “I’m delighted with the success of this annual event, designed to improve students’ understanding of how the theory works in practice and to improve their employability.

“It’s clear from the feedback that students and employers got a lot from the event.

“This sort of activity is vital for students and also supports local and national businesses.”