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Graduate Students’ Trip to Boston

The Deree Graduate Program in Digital Communication and Social Media recently provided students with an exclusive opportunity to combine high quality training with a great travel experience in Boston, MA, a city that is internationally recognized as a center of excellence in education, technological innovation and entrepreneurship.

From February 20 to 26, seven students along with their group leader, Dr. Katerina Diamantaki, Graduate Program Coordinator, spent seven educational and inspiring days in Boston, also known as “the Athens of America.”

MIT Tech Conference, Competition & Guided Lab Tour

The students started off their trip with a bang, by attending the 2016 MIT Tech Conference on “The Rise of Artificial Intelligence.” At the conference, the graduate students attended speeches and panel discussions by renowned personalities in the field of artificial intelligence and data science – innovators, scholars, entrepreneurs, and experts from Microsoft, Watson IBM, Google, MIT, Stanford University, and Columbia University, to name a few – and learned about the latest developments and debates in the industry of artificial intelligence, deep learning, and human-computer interaction. They also took part in an MIT Competition Pitch by casting their votes on the best projects.

The team was informed about the university’s cutting edge work and ongoing projects through a two-hour guided tour of MIT’s Media Lab and Mobile Experience Lab, led by Rickey Ishida, manager of Human Resources of the MIT Media Lab.

Visits to Leading Marketing Agencies

To get a feel for the industry, students visited Hill Holiday, one of the leading Marketing, Advertising & Digital Communications agencies in the country. At the agency, students were given a guided tour of the company’s different departments, as well as a detailed presentation of the company’s methodology, philosophy, and key projects. Our students were able to gain insight into digital communications and the contemporary market in U.S. and globally.

The next stop of the trip was Boathouse, an innovative Marketing & Digital Communications agency in Waltham, Massachusetts, where students were given a detailed presentation by the company’s President, John Connors, and two company executives specializing in digital campaign management. Additionally, the Deree graduate team was given an exciting hands-on project to work on: the digital campaign of a national non-profit organization.

A Marketing Seminar at Bentley University

A two-day professional, certified seminar in Digital, Social and Inbound Marketing, at the Center for Marketing Technology of Bentley University.

The seminar was a customized program designed to equip students with practical knowledge and skills on inbound marketing strategy, audience analysis, social analytics, and programmatic advertising – including the use of relevant marketing technologies.

The seminar was led by Ian Cross, Professor at Bentley University (BU), but also included the following presentations and hands-on demonstrations:

  • The future of advertising and programmatic advertising, by Dr. Alyson Kaye, Adjunct Professor in Marketing and Advertising at Emerson College, and a veteran in brand, agency and teaching experience
  • Creative innovation, experience optimization, and mobile media by Rob Griffin, Chief Innovation Officer at Almighty (a strategic agency focusing on UX)
  • An inspirational talk about “Transforming Technology” by Dr. Pierre Berthon, Professor of Marketing at Bentley University

The visit also included a 90-minute guided/demo tour of Bentley University’s state-of-the-art User Experience Center (UXC) led by Dr. William Albert, Adjunct Assistant Professor in Information Design and Corporate Communication at Bentley University. During the tour, students had the opportunity to ask Dr. Albert various questions, and to extensively discuss issues relating to User Experience.

A “Class Fight” at Harvard

Last but not least, the Deree students attended a “class fight” on digital entrepreneurship at Harvard Business School. Students were allocated to different classes in which the same case was debated, thereby observing to the HBS’s Case Method teaching in action.