BUSINESS students from tertiary and secondary institutions, along with professionals from Corporate Jamaica are to discuss marketing strategies for business success in the current recession at the University of Technology’s (UTech’s) annual marketing seminar scheduled for April 8.

The seminar, which is to be held at the Jamaica Conference Centre in downtown Kingston under the theme, “Strategic marketing: stimulating growth and sustaining development in declining markets”, is timely given the current economic challenges, organisers have said.

“The seminar is relevant in this period as there will be discussions on how the recession relates to marketing,” the seminar’s chairperson for sponsorship, Taurean Allen told Career & Education. “We will have a panel of knowledgeable participants looking at ways in which businesses can tackle the recession from a marketing point of view in these times.”

Allen is among 133 final-year marketing students at UTech who are involved in the planning and execution of the marketing seminar, as part of the course requirement at the university.

He said other business students at UTech and other universities, community college students, as well as sixth formers are targeted for attendance.

The marketing seminar, now in its 29th year, is the longest-running seminar of four held annually by UTech’s School of Business Administration.

It has attracted a number of outstanding speakers over the year, including the present Prime Minister Bruce Golding; former Prime Minister Edward Seaga; Harry Smith, former commercial director of Digicel Jamaica; and Dr Andrea Scott, professor of marketing at Pepperdine University in California, USA.

The seminar has addressed important topics each year, including marketing myopia, global marketing, and marketing Brand Jamaica.

Admission for the full-day seminar is $2,500 for corporate representatives and $1,500 for students.