On Friday, UTRGV students will travel to San Antonio to catch a Spurs basketball game, attend a Career Day with the team’s marketing staff and learn about the city’s Department of Tourism.
The trip is being hosted by the Robert C. Vackar College of Business and Entrepreneurship Marketing Department and the American Marketing Association of Edinburg.
Michael Flores, a lecturer for the Marketing Department, said the trip was an opportunity for networking, exposure to the executive level of the Spurs brand and to learn about Visit San Antonio.
Asked how the trip came about, Flores replied he came up with the idea with a contact who works as a digital coordinator for the Spurs.
“Late last fall, we decided to make it happen,” he said. “Depart around 8 a.m. from UTRGV, head on over, have some lunch, then arrive at the Spurs Frost Bank [Center] about 1 p.m. We’ll have a couple breakout sessions. Each business major will kind of get to talk to their own representative there. So, if you’re a marketing major, you’ll talk to the [chief marketing officer]. If you are in accounting or finance, … you might talk to the director of sales or [chief financial officer].”
Flores said after the Spurs Career Day, the group will go to the Visit San Antonio Department of Tourism’s main offices to learn about how it operates and receive a tour of the River Walk. Afterward, the group will eat and go to watch a Spurs vs. Pelicans basketball game.
A total of 50 students will be attending.
Flores said it only took about a month to fill the spaces.
“We definitely wanted to open it to all business majors, which is what we were actually able to do,” he said. “We’re going to kind of see how this goes. We think it’s going to be a success.”
Karla Medrano-Faz, president of the AMA, said the trip will give students a chance to meet executives of the Spurs team and allow them to learn about the marketing strategies within sports.
Medrano-Faz said the club and department wanted to offer students a wider range of opportunities.
AMA Vice President Ana Rosario said having students travel out of the Valley and see how a brand handles marketing in a more diverse environment would be a great opportunity.
Peter Magnusson, professor and chair of the UTRGV Marketing Department, also said this was a great opportunity.
“This is a bit of a career fair opportunity,” he said. “We hope that this will be a fun experience, and educational experience. It’ll open up our students’ eyes to big opportunities in other markets. … The Valley is fantastic and I want all of our students to do well and help grow and make the Valley better. But oftentimes, having the opportunity to go away somewhere else and experience somewhere else for a few years then return home and grow the Valley is often a great career path.”
