Author: Iwan Gisler
Seattle – not a first destination for a city trip or on a world trip, but something to discover, I thought. Now I’m quite happy to write a great experience not only about Space Needle, Seattle Super Sonics or Nirvana. But from the very beginning…
Sunday, November 3rd
All students arrived individually in Seattle on Sunday, November 3rd. We met the first time for dinner at Ivar’s seafood restaurant where we got more information about the forthcoming week from Anja Janoschka and Douglas MacKevett, our accompanying lecturers.
Monday, November 4th
Just to stay in the facility in a university as famous as the U-DUB (stands for University of Washington) was unforgettable. The campus was huge with more than 280 buildings and almost 44’000 students. Our classroom in the Foster School of Business was very much like I imagined. The first day at school we expected a very long day of introductions and teaching from 8am till 9pm. The first lessons we were taught by Professor Xiao-Ping Cheng, Professor of Management and Organization, about doing business in the US and China. After lunch we had the opportunity to follow the views of Mr. George Liu, Marketing Director China, Boeing. In the late afternoon we could attend a class of UW Executive Development Program in negotiations – a great experience being a part of an American student class!
Tuesday, November 5th
The morning was spent on B2B Strategic Marketing presented by Professor Daniel Turner, a principal lecturer in marketing at the Foster Business School. Then in the afternoon we were picked up for a company visit to the Port of Seattle, where we had a very interesting presentation by Ms. Stephanie Kang Cohen, Manager Seaport Commercial Strategy.
Wednesday, November 6th
This morning we had heard some very interesting insights about Social Media Marketing from Andy Boyer, Lecturer in Entrepreneurial Marketing & Social Media for Managers and Co-Founder of Relaborate. I can highly recommend a peek at his website. In the afternoon we asked for a voluntary company visit at Boeing in Everett, which is around 30 miles north from Seattle – it’s obvious that nobody let this chance pass!
Thursday, November 7th
A panel discussion organized by Andy Boyer about how Social Media is affecting broadcasting and the media, with six very experienced professionals out of this business, finished off our lessons with the American lecturers and professors. In the afternoon another company visit at Starbucks was on the program as you might know, another worldwide company which started their conquest of the world from Seattle.
Friday, November 8th
On Friday morning all students had to perform their prepared presentations about several topics concerning the US market such as generating awareness, marketing communication concepts, or strategies and brand awareness. All groups did very well and after a hard but very interesting week we all graduated in a typical American ceremony and got a certificate for our efforts..
Summary
For me the week in Seattle was a lifetime experience I wouldn’t have missed. Everything was very well organized and the lecturers were outstanding! Even the opportunity to have some great days as a student in aUniversity as renowned as the University of Washington was well worth it. And of course…in the little time we had we all enjoyed ourselves and the “emerald city” very much!