Learning the ropes at a magical place
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Tamara Burns
Loyalist College student
In October, students from Loyalist’s post-grad Sports and Entertainment Sales and Marketing program and second-year students from the Business Sales and Marketing program travelled to Orlando, Florida.
Our mission was to analyze and understand the champion sales and marketing efforts demonstrated in “The Most Magical Place on Earth,” Walt Disney World. We travelled by bus to EPCOT, Disney’s second theme park, which is dedicated to the celebration of human achievement: technological innovation and international culture. After a few hours to explore EPCOT’s grounds, our group came together to participate in a three-hour educational workshop made possible by Disney’s Youth Education Series (Y.E.S.). The ‘College Edition’ of Y.E.S. allows aspiring professionals to explore career opportunities and learn proven leadership skills practised every day by Disney’s cast members.
In “Techniques of Teamwork through Improvisation,” we performed interactive, hands-on activities that brought us out of our comfort zones. In EPCOT’s Innoventions Plaza, in front of hundreds of Disney guests, we made a spectacle of ourselves by acting as animals and aliens, and as part of a moving and noisemaking imaginary machine. Then we built on these teambuilding activities backstage at EPCOT, where we told classic fairy tale stories one word at a time, collaborated to create our own fairy tale, and competed in a marble relay. We were also given an opportunity to share and discuss struggles within our group. Using the techniques learned throughout the workshop, we worked together to build solutions that would allow us to address those struggles, and were equipped with the tools to continue to improve our group dynamics as the school year goes on.
After completing the workshop, we were free to explore EPCOT’s International Food and Wine Festival, which featured flavours from all over the world. Our favourite delicacies hailed from Canada, and included seared rainbow trout with bacon and maple vinaigrette, as well as La Face Neige apple ice wine.
Wednesday was left open to explore the rest of Disney’s parks, including Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. The highlight of our last full day at Disney included the evening performance of Cirque du Soleil: La Nouba. Aside from the unimaginable athleticism of the performers, we were able to witness extraordinary teamwork demonstrated by the cast and crew. We saw in real time what we had learned in our workshop – that coming together and working as a team allows for outstanding performance, in a circus show or in a professional environment like the ones in which we are striving to work.
Our experiential trip concluded late Thursday morning as we hopped aboard Disney’s Magical Express to the airport, and arrived in Toronto later that evening.
The extremely valuable lessons we took away from our incredible trip to Disney World are applicable in all aspects of our daily and future lives. We experienced incredible customer service by every single cast member we encountered; food and drink that was second to none; and glorious landscapes throughout the Disney property. Most importantly, we walked away with the tools and knowledge for each of us as individuals to contribute effectively to a team. This was the educational trip of a lifetime, and will not soon be forgotten by our entire group!
If you are interested in learning more about the one-year post-graduate Sports and Entertainment Sales and Marketing program, please email SESM@loyalistc.on.ca. For more information about the two-year Business Sales and Marketing program, please email SALE@loyalistc.on.ca.