The Williamson College of Business Administration will host an installment of the 2013 Business and Professional Development Seminar Series on Friday. The series consists of three non-credit half-day seminars.
The Business and Professional Development Seminar Series began in the fall semester. Laura McCaskey, director of the Center for Nonprofit Leadership at Youngstown State University, said this is the first series that is strictly aimed toward professionals.
“The goal of the seminars is to help professionals in the community advance their skills and allow them to learn from our [WCBA] faculty members,” she said.
Faculty members who will facilitate the three seminars are Kendra Fowler, an assistant professor of marketing; Jill McCullough, an assistant professor of accounting; and Patrick Bateman, an assistant professor of management.
Friday’s seminar, “How to Design a Survey,” will be taught by Fowler. At this seminar, professionals will learn how to develop various survey plans; they’ll also share tips and techniques for creating better quality surveys. Professionals will bring in their own surveys to receive feedback.
On March 22, McCullough will lead the “Top 10 Things Professional Women Must Know About Their Finances” seminar.
McCullough said those who attend will learn how to equip themselves with tools for financial planning.
“For a lot of reasons, women often have kind of disjointed career paths, and because of that, sometimes their financial matters get a little messier,” she said.
Bateman will teach “Social Media Best Practices” on May 3, which had also been offered in the fall. Bateman said the seminar will focus on tools, techniques and strategies that professionals can apply in their use of social media.
“Whether it be a local restaurant or bank or someone who is starting to create a product and is reaching a larger audience, think about the tools and strategies that they can use that will fit their business best,” Bateman said.
Bateman added that the seminar won’t focus on the basics of social media, such as how to create an account or how to insert a picture. Instead, it will emphasize ways to strategically use social media as a tool to both gain and connect with consumers.
Around three or four weeks after the fall social media seminar, a follow-up survey was distributed to participants, Bateman said.
“We didn’t ask them specifically how they were using social media,” he said, adding that the survey asked whether participants found the seminar to be beneficial. “The feedback was overwhelmingly positive.”