School of Business Organizes Creative Minds Conference 2023
On Thursday, November 16th, the seventh annual Creative Minds Conference was held in the Fletcher Jones’ Auditorium. This event, which is considered one of the School of Business’ flagship events, is a joint initiative from the School’s Advisory Board, the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization (CEO), and the Dean’s Office. This was the second year that students from local community colleges were invited to attend, and thereby network with business leaders and participate in the “So You Think You Can Sell?” contest. A large group of students from Pasadena City College and Los Angeles Valley College contributed to the contest by enthusiastically showing off their selling skills.
Prof. Jack Condon served as the Master of Ceremonies, and secured a warm and pleasant atmosphere throughout the evening. The evening started out with the Dean, Dr. Joan Marques, inviting the attending business leaders to introduce themselves to the large student crowd to allow swift and successful networking.
“So You Think You Can Sell” brought about the amusement and admiration it never misses to instill in the audience, as they listened to the widely diverse one-minute sales pitches from the brave participants. Between the two rounds of the selling contest, there was a round of Kahoot!, which enabled all participants to compete for some appealing gift baskets.
During the conference, Dean Joan Marques awarded two certificates of achievement to:
- Ethan Tran, president of the Business, Engineering, and Technology (BET) student club at PCC, who invested tremendous effort in organizing the preparations to having his team members participate in the contest
- Austin Tham, president of Woodbury University’s CEO student organization chapter, who led the Woodbury campaign toward making the contest a success.
The judging panel, which consisted of advisory board members, Jane Skeeter, Ahdee Abramson, and Mary Akpovi, along with business representatives Mr. Hartman (co-owner, Priscilla’s Gourmet Coffee House), and Ms. Fitzpatrick (CPA at Berson Financial Group, Inc.).
Community College winners were:
1. Levi Medina ($250.00)
2. Ethan Tran ($200.00)
3. Johnny Vo ($150.00)
4. Elijah Brown ($100.00)
5. Ella Bogen ($100.00)
The above prizes 1 through 3 were sponsored by School of Business’ Advisory Board member Nick Mitchell, and prizes 4 and 5 by Prof. Jack Condon.
Woodbury University winners were:
- Bahja Smalls ($1,000.00, donated by Advisory Board member Ahdee Abramson)
- Spencer Harden ($750.00, donated by Advisory Board member Neil Sherman)
- Deven Momi ($500.00, donated by Advisory Board member Andre van Niekerk)
- Raooaf Alsagga ($250.00, donated by Advisory Board member Jane Skeeter)
- Eric Villicana ($250.00, donated by Advisory Board member Noam Lotan)
Last Updated on November 21, 2023.