All students can paint pumpkins with preschoolers, listen to business professionals speak and eat free food during Neeley Week, planned by business school organizations.This is a week for business clubs and organizations to attract speakers onto campus and spread the word about themselves and what they have to offer and each club has a day to advertise, said Aisha Torrey-Sawyer, assistant director for the Neeley Student Resource Center.
“They’re always excited to get their name out to students,” Sawyer said.
Today, the Collegiate Entrepreneurs Organization and the American Marketing Association will present a speaker, who will focus on creative marketing for start-up companies and small businesses. Also occurring today, freshmen who previously signed up will be eating lunch with the dean of the business school, Dan Short.
Wednesday, Delta Sigma Pi, the TCU business fraternity, will present Pizza for Pumpkins, where it will help 65 preschool students from three different schools paint pumpkins. Any TCU student who wants to help can enjoy free pizza while working with the children, said Adam Quinn, senior vice president of Delta Sigma Pi.
“It’s not so much getting our name out as it is having a good time,” Quinn said.
Also on Wednesday, the Electronic Business Association will present Chris Feola of AskSam.com, a company dedicated to helping individuals and organizations manage their information, said John Kerl, president of EBA. There will be free food and a raffle for two $50 Best Buy gift certificates, Kerl said.
The Organization for Supply Chain Studies will have an information table in the Smith Lobby from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Sawyer said.
Thursday, Students In Free Enterprise and the CEO club will host a seminar called “Nuts and Bolts: What you really need to know to jump-start your business.”
Seven business professionals from the Dallas/Fort Worth area will speak from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., said Isela Rodriguez, president of SIFE. Each speaker will have one hour to present a certain aspect of starting a business.
“It’s really to help students figure out what they want to do when starting a business and to introduce them to SIFE,” Rodriguez said.
The seminar will include topics such as building a customer-centered business, legal stipulations, negotiating labor, surviving without money and much more.
“This is the biggest thing we’ve ever done on campus,” Rodriguez said.
Neeley Week will end with a speaker from KPMG, an international accounting and consulting firm, Thursday evening. The speaker will be presented by Beta Alpha Psi, the national student accounting honor society.
Sawyer said the organizations plan to grab the attention of underclassmen so that they can get involved early on in their college careers.