World Trade Market- London

World Trade Market- London

By Veer Taneja

The summer of 2014, I interned with a medium sized travel agency in New Delhi India. Annually, they participate in the World Trade Market (WTM) held in London; one of the biggest and most renowned tourism exhibitions across the globe. For the purpose of this course, I reached out to my former colleagues and my manager at the travel agency in Delhi and requested permission to work voluntarily in order to prepare for the WTM exhibition held in the first week of November 2015. I was allotted the task of preparing marketing collateral in the form of banners, pamphlets, brochures, as well as the company magazine. 

The purpose of this exhibition was solely to promote our product to the prospective buyers that visit this event. I was also given the opportunity to improvise the company’s Internet presence prior to the exhibition. For the same purpose, I worked on social media strategies like facebook and twitter. On the administrative front, I assisted with enrolment, applications and bids to get booth space at the event. It was indeed a great learning experience and I hope to visit the exhibition personally next year.

http://www.wtmlondon.com/

Top Three Take Aways

Top Three Take Aways

By Veer Taneja

The 80-20 Rule:

One of my top learning’s from this course was the relevance of the “80-20 Rule” in practically any and every business. This idea also got reiterated and validated through the informational interview process. My Interviewee, a senior manger in the finance strategy department at the Marriott, specifically spoke about the “80-20 Rule” and explained to me how Marriott alters their marketing budget in order to target specifically to the 20 percent who bring 80 percent of the business. It was extremely exciting to learn about this.

Leadership:

My second top learning experience was during our class about Leadership and Management and the role they play. Everything from the distinction between a supervisor and a manager and differences in their job profiles, their duties and responsibilities to what a good manager should do and what he/she should not do. This class was very informative and clicked well with my aim to be an entrepreneur one day. It was really intriguing and interesting to learn about the common practices in the leadership roles.

Branding:

My third biggest take away was from our branding course work. The difference between brand image and brand equity, the importance of building a personal brand, and the brand development model all added to my understanding of the term branding. The Best western case was a great way to understand that while building a brand what factors should be standardized, regionalized, and localized.

Hospitality-Related Experience

Hospitality-Related Experience

by Veer Taneja 

On November 29^th, in the midst of my thanksgiving break, I had the opportunity to go out and watch the Washington Redskins game against the New Yorker Giants at the FedEx Field in the Maryland area. For every other football enthusiast or anyone else who has lived their life in America, this might not be the most exiting opportunity. But for me, having been born and bred in India, this was an absolute world-class experience. It was my uncle who arranged our club level tickets, popularly known to be one of the best seats in the house.

Our tour started with my aunt pre-cooking a lot of meat and then packing it up in plastic boxes for us to eat while we tailgated the game. Once we arrived at the location all I saw was a lot of wild fans (especially Redskin supporters) and a lot of security to protect this crowd. In the parking lot, right where we parked our car, we set up a table and a grill to cook the meats. We tailgated for nearly an hour and then head right in to the game. As we had the famous club level passes we had a manager and a security personnel personally escort us inside. We went for a brief tour of the facility, and were able to go on to the playing field while the players trained. “Yes! I did throw a ball to and got an autograph from my favorite- Desean Jackson.” Following our field visit, we went found our seats, got comfortable, and then came the personal butler asking each of us our drink of choice. Soon after, they laid out a multi cuisine buffet, which had some delicacies from around the world. At the end of the event we were allowed to go and network with the team managers and others who work in the sports management area, either for the team or the field. An experience I can never forget, a level of hospitality that is hard to find today. The perfect day that also ended with The Redskins winning the game.