NACA 2013 Part 3

The Great School Swap

Each school that participates in the school swap sets up a table with their “Swag”—things like t-shirts, cups, key chains, magnets, pins, or anything else they give away at events. On Friday, MPTC participated in the school swap at the 2013 NACA Northern Plains Regional Conference.

For the swap, a few members stand at their school’s table while others walk around carrying their school’s stuff to swap. They go to the other tables, and if they see something they like, they ask to swap some of their own stuff for the other school’s stuff. We collected a ton of items, enough for all three MPTC campuses to come back with a large bag to share. There were a few t-shirts and a magnet I really liked from other colleges’ events. I’m bringing back the items for the West Bend Student Senate to see so we can get some fresh ideas on giveaways and designs.

Throughout the day we had three showcases, one of which was a lecture showcase. There are a couple of speakers I’d like to bring to our campus. We also had a chance to speak with the acts, both the ones showcasing and ones that weren’t part of the showcases, during something they call CAMP where you can go booth to booth asking questions and getting information about booking.

I went to two back-to-back educational sessions early that morning. The first one was about retention, recruitment, and involvement on two-year campuses. I got some great suggestions from this session for Student Senate recruitment and getting Senate members to participate. The second session was about event publicity. The presenters and attendees had a wide range of advertising ideas, both online and print. They stressed the importance of being descriptive when advertising for an event. People want to know what they are going to see or they might not go to see it.

Even though I saw a lot of great acts, my favorite part of the day was the school swap. It was exciting, a little chaotic, and much more fun than I thought it would be.


Incase you missed it, check out the rest of my NACA experience:
Read NACA 2013 Part 1: Crossing the Boarder
Read NACA 2013 Part 2: The Conference Kicks Off