I tried doing poster sessions for the first time a year ago. Doug McKee had inspired me, though he was skeptical that my analog approach would be successful.

This semester, I decided to experiment more with poster sessions in my consumer behavior classes, with a few key differences:

• Larger/outdoor venue: I was teaching two sections of the course and needed to find a venue to fit 50+ students, along with business professionals, students, alumni, faculty, and staff. We settled on an outdoor courtyard, with accommodated us well.
• External audience: Inspired by public sphere pedagogy, I wanted to invite business professionals, professors, and alumni to attend.
• Live event streaming: We experimented with Facebook Live, in an attempt to capture an even larger, external audience.
• Give-aways and food: We decided to involve our guests and invited them to vote for their favorite posters with tickets. I had contemplated using some kind of technology (a colleague had used Mentimeter in the past to vote on student films), but in the end, we went low-tech and did a raffle. I like that everyone had a chance to win and the way the tickets re-engaged the guests with the people at the various booths, as they went back to award their favorite posters, by handing them tickets.
• Professional photography: We were fortunate to have Taylor Gonzalez from TayJoy Photography in the class, so we could have all these wonderful photographs from the event.

I am thankful to have had a wonderful teaching assistant this semester, Jamie Jacob, who was instrumental in getting business professionals to attend and in locating some prizes for the raffle.

Emma McKay was our event planner and kept us on track with all the tasks that needed doing to make the event a success.

Emma's LinkedIn profile says that she's an aspiring event planner, but I think it is more than safe to change that wording to present tense at this point. Read Emma's reflections on the poster sessions event on LinkedIn.

One of the students in the course who was scheduled to be a Facebook Live co-host came down with something awful right at the last minute. While it was disappointing to not have Adam Tyler there at the event, it is fun to get to share his reflections on the event with you now.

Consumer Behavior Poster Sessions, by Adam Tyler

The Consumer Behavior Class at Vanguard University, taught by the o-so-talented Dr. Bonni Stachowiak, put on an incredible poster session event Wednesday, April 19th. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend this event due to a horrid stomach flu that had me bed ridden for four days.

However, thanks to the incredible innovation of Facebook live, I was able to go back and watch all of the posters and the interviews that went along with them. Cathryn Lynch did an incredible job recording and interviewing, and now I will talk about some of the posters that stood out to me the most.

Consumers at Disneyland

The Disneyland poster was the first one of the night. It was very organized neat, colorful, and the Disneyland sign across the top represented exactly what the sign looks like at the Park. The Disneyland poster caught my attention just like they try to to do to you in the park with the sights, smells and sounds. Cathryn asked the question of how would a consumer misbehave at Disney, and the answer was that a lot of pass-holders let their friends borrow their pass and they dress to look just like them.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

The entire baseball poster, representing the Los Angeles Dodgers, was made to look like a large baseball field. It was neat, organized, and definitely sporty. Misbehavior at a baseball game could include fans being rowdy, drunk, and loud. For promotions at baseball games, teams give out give-aways such as selfie sticks, towels, etc to attract fans. Baseball does a great job of advertising as well.

M&M Consumption

The M&M poster consisted of a large blowup of the main M&M characters as the background. The poster also included the stat that 100 million are eaten every day! They use the significance norm to describe the importance of M&M’s to consumers.

NCAA March Madness

This poster was done to simplicity as it was just black and blue, but had a lot of great information on it as well as a visual of a mini basketball hoop. The influences at a NCAA basketball game includes situational factors and hereditary influences.

Changes in Music Consumption

The music poster was set up very organized, colorful, and attractive. Some main points included how popular music streaming has become with Apple music, Amazon music, Pandora, etc. A misbehavior of music would be illegally downloading music or sharing passwords and services.

Super Bowl

The Super Bowl Poster was very green, big and eye catching. Some main points of this poster included how everything during the Super Bowl is amped up to a whole new levels including the game, advertisements and food. Marketing is so important to consumers and they fall completely in the trap during the Super Bowl. A misbehavior of Super Bowl could be the inappropriate commercials or ones that do not support fair trade.

Consuming Movies

The movie poster looked as if someone was actually going to the movies. It was dark and black with few lighting around the outside. People go to the movies for hedonic value. Friends, family and peers also have influence on what movies people see. A situational influence could be the smell of popcorn in the theatre or the advertisements of coke.

Social Media Poster

The social media poster had a black background with colorful writings and designs. Social Media has so much power over everything, especially marketing. Instagram uses its platform for celebrity marketing, and Facebook uses all kinds of marketing to pull the consumer right in. Social Media knows how to market to your area, what you like, and what you might buy. It’s a great business!

American Spending on Dogs

This poster was bright and white, and consisted of pictures of dogs and bones throughout the poster. Americans spend the most money on their dog of anyone. Americans are in the need for companionship, and there is no better answer than a dog. They are cute, cuddly, and Americans want to make their pet as happy as possible, which means spending money. Dog supplies are not cheap either!

Consumer Health Trends

The consumer health board was light, trendy and eye catching and almost looked as if I was dieting by staring at the poster. Some trends today include vegan, vegetarian, non-gmo, gluten free, paleo diet and more. A lot of eating trends that people develop are from celebrities, and people abuse this trend by developing eating disorders and anorexia.

Tailgating Poster

The tailgating crew had on music, food, and a good time for anyone to stop by. The vast majority of Americans who go to football games tailgate. In fact, some only go to the games to experience tailgating. Tailgating includes buying food, grilling food, having drinks, and having games. Tailgating is very influential among the sports community.

Social Entrepreneurship Resonates with Consumers

This poster was very neat, clean and white! It consisted of a bunch of facts, charts, and socio-responsible companies. Some included 31 bits, Krochet Kids, Warby Parker, Toms, and more! Toms and Warby Parker are a glasses and shoe company and both donate pairs to charity for example. Consumers are always looking to give or in this case invest in products with a purpose.

Conclusion

The poster session event looked like such a big hit to the Vanguard Community. There was a good amount of people not even in the class who attended this event. Everyone was having fun enjoying each others posters and enjoying some good consumer information.

Once again, it was such a bummer that I could not attend this incredible event put on by Dr. Stachowiak, but thank you technology for allowing me to experience so many wonderful posters in the comfort of my bed.