Highlights: The Marketing Summit

Where else can you find students engaging in a push up contest in the middle of the night? An unlimited supply of Cheerwine in a side room? A chance to hobnob with leading marketing professionals and some of the brightest marketing students in business school?
The Marketing Summit is a student-run competition that offers both Graduate and Undergraduate students the opportunity to apply their marketing skills and creativity to real-world marketing challenges. Teams have to work around the clock for 36 hours to prepare a marketing case sponsored by a major corporation and written by Wake Forest University Schools of Business MBA students.
Granted, we have called the Marketing Summit out in the past for its decision to exclude Working Professionals from participating, but that is mostly because we feel that having those students on board would improve the level of competition.
Overall, the Marketing Summit is a well-run event that succeeds in bringing together some of the best marketing teams from across the U.S. and abroad.

The event has grown substantially in recent years. This year's competition included a top prize of $75,000, and the total purse hit $106,000.
And the event delivers some rather interesting keynote speakers. The first one that I attended featured Indra Nooyi, the CEO of PepsiCo. Other speakers have included Hanesbrands CEO Richard Noll (see video below) and Marilyn Carlson Nelson, the chairman and former CEO Carlson, a global group of integrated travel companies including Radisson Hotels, Country Inns & Suites, Carlson Wagonlit Travel and T.G.I. Fridays.
Last year also included the debut of the new Center for Value Delivery Innovation (CVDI). The center is a joint collaboration between the Wake Forest Schools of Business and Inmar Inc., a leading provider of technology-driven data analysis solutions.