Well despite a 7 hour delayed flight, Wylder and I have made it to and back from Montreal all in one piece. We left last Friday to head to the COCA National Conference. COCA stands for the Canadian Organization of Campus Activities and it "represents more than 65 member post-secondary institutions across Canada". 
The conference was essentially a combination between Education Sessions tailored to each of our positions and Showcases. Over the four day conference we each attended six education sessions. I attended Marketing 101, Marketing 102, Mobile Marketing, New Media Movement and Video Marketing. I found each of these sessions extremely informative, I even found my heart beating a little bit faster after each session. I learned a lot and have so many new ideas for the year that I can't wait to put into action. The best thing about these conferences is the opportunity to interact with and speak with other organizations across Canada. For example, I spent some time speaking with a representative from Sheridan College who ran an amazing Movember campaign last year. I will be collaborating with him to bring some of those initiatives to the X campus for the year. It is great to hear the ideas of other schools, and bounce ideas off of each other. We even attended a session called "Steal this Idea" where people talked about successful campaigns at their school that we can essential "steal". This information sharing or "stealing" is what makes these conferences most worthwhile! (above is a picture of Jessie Cruikshank from her Keynote Speech during a brunch)
The second major portion of the COCA Conference is the showcases. Each night there was a different showcase, from bands to singer-songwriters, to comedians, to mentalists. SO many exciting and extremely talented acts! The idea behind these showcases are for artists to show us their stuff in hopes that we will book them for our campus. I was blown away by the talent and there were some really amazing acts that we are hoping to bring to X this year. Below are some pictures from a few of the showcases!
The Elwins
Midnight Romeo
Skratch Bastid Video Show
We will be attending the COCA Regional Conference in the fall with the East Coast COCA Members, it is planned to coincide with Nova Scotia Music Week which will be great for showcases. It was really beneficial to meet with other East Coast COCA members as these connections are helpful for reducing costs through block booking throughout the year. I am so excited about everything we learned and saw in Montreal, and can't wait to continue this work throughout the year!
In other news from the Comm office, this week is another busy one for me. We're having some difficulties with the printing of the Frosh Week Mail-Out so hopefully that will all be solved and ready to go by the end of this week. As well I am working closely with Han our Web Developer to launch to the Frosh Week website (fingers crossed!) by Monday. Other projects on the go include finishing up the artwork for the Frosh Kits, and finishing up the Ad Package for the school year. Next on the docket is everyone's favourite wall calendar!
That's all for now, hope everyone had a great long weekend!
Kaleigh
VP Comm
(shout out to Jessie on her BIRTHDAY!)
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