NACA Northeast 2007

Well, with this year's NACA (National Association of Campus Activities) conference behind us now, it seems that we can look forward to "smooth sailing" for the Spring 2008 semester.

On Thursday, November 1st, a delegation of 10 students and 1 advisor let for Hartford, Connecticut on a coach bus with 4 of the other 5 COF (Colleges of the Fenway) schools. Representing Wentworth's activities group, WEB (Wentworth Events Board), at NACA Northeast this year were Amanda Hoffman (senior), Erik Adams (junior), Seng Ung (junior), Natalie Bogdanovich (junior) Mike Mecurio (sophomore), Jeff Levesque (sophomore), Justin Valentim (hey that's me!! - sophomore), Danielle Lax (freshman), Carlie Biron (freshman), and Linda Bernazzani (WEB Advisor and Assistant Director of SLP). Each of us left with high spirits, great expectations, and don't forget our lovely crab hats!! That's right folks, we wore crab hats all weekend at NACA in the spirit of the theme of NACA this year, Cruise Ship. We were the life of the party wherever we went, and we never lost one another.

There were many things that we did while at NACA, including attend educational sessions, spotlight showcases, marketplaces, and participate in school swap. There were a total of 5 educational sessions throughout the weekend. Between one or two of us attended specific session in order to get the best amount of information. Sessions included 'What Size is Your House - Homegrown Programs for any size Campus and Budget", "Excellence in Programming", "Publicity, Publicity, Publicity", "Marketing Beyond the Poster", and many more. We hope to be able to apply what we learned in each session to what we do in WEB.

Spotlight showcases were 2-hour long shows for musical, comedic, and other acts to perform 15-minute previews each for all of the people in attendance. The idea behind these shows was to showcase the best talent available for booking for school events. Some of the best acts that we saw during these showcases included Jason Levasseur, Ronnie Jordan, Last November, Tommy Johnigan, Micah Dahlberg, Sean Fornier, Josh Cramoy, Ryanhood, and Lansdowne. I definitely suggest searching for any one of these artists online. There were many other musicians, comics, magicians, etc. that did not get the opportunity to take the stage at NACA Northeast, but were very enjoyable as well.

The other acts that did not hit the stage were found in the numerous Marketplace sessions at NACA. Here, we found many novelties/activities vendors and representative agencies for all acts present. The amount of CDs, stickers, information packets, novelties, etc. that we received from the Marketplaces is unimaginable. Myself, I have about 15 CDs/DVDs worth of music and acts and an innumerable pack of information from different vendors. I think that Carli left with the most, however. She probably had over 30 CDs/DVDs from the Marketplaces, and I'm pretty sure she's listened to every one. We will be sharing all of that information within the next few WEB meetings.

At the school swap, Natalie and myself set up the Wentworth table. It looked fairly nice for spending only $26 on materials for it. We gave out many items to other schools, and received just as much, if not more, back from them. We have multiple bags of items to go through at the next WEB meeting to get some marketing ideas. Although we did not win an award for table design, we did come away with the award for best group website. Thanks to the hard work of Ben Wardwell (WEB Concert Coordinator), we took the prize over probably over 40-50 other Northeastern schools. Great job Ben!

Besides attending all of the specific NACA sessions, we had the opportunity to hang out with the other COF schools. We ate lunch with them on one of the days, and went around participating in the COF cheer. Although we had some of the smallest contingencies per school at the conference, together we probably had the largest delegation present. Also, we were able to book some acts along with the other schools to reduce the cost of certain acts. That will make a big difference at the end of the year with our budget. One of the COF schools that we made really god friends with was Mass. College of Pharmacy and Allied Health Sciences (MCPHS). On more than one night, we hung out listening to music and telling stories in one of our hotel rooms. The people we met were enthusiastic, fun, and easy to get along with.

I'm sure that there is a lot of information that I left out of this post, but I think I hit upon the most important parts of the conference. All in all, everyone that went had a fantastic time. Now we are back into the groove of school and ready to move forward with Spring Planning. If anyone is interested in learning more information about NACA Northeast and our experiences there this year, feel free to contact any one of us that went or come by the WEB meetings held every Wednesday at 6:00 P.M. in the 610 Lobby.

-Justin Valentim