This semester I had the pleasure of taking Management Communication and working on the Management Communication Client Project. The project brought in six corporate clients from the St. Louis area with real life communication issues for students to tackle.

The clients included Rubin Brown, LLP; Enterprise Bank & Trust; Boeing Company, Defense, Space & Security; Energizer Holdings, Inc.; Innovate St. Louis; and Edward Jones. My class worked for Energizer on revising their existing Employee Value Proposition.

Over the course of the semester, all of the participating groups researched their project extensively and formulated solutions unique to each client’s needs. Several components were incorporated along the way including an initial team pitch, a project report with an executive summary, and a final PowerPoint presentation.

On the night of the Showcase Finale Event, six teams had been selected to represent their respective classes and present the collective recommendations to a live audience comprised of fellow students, faculty members, and the clients.

A professional aura filled the room; the auditorium was a sea of dark suits and well prepared individuals. As each group came forward to present, it became clear that a significant amount of time and effort had gone into the finished product on display. The teams had confidence with the microphone, well polished speaking skills, and quality suggestions. They handled the question and answer sessions with relative ease and represented Olin well over all.

After the presentations, everyone flooded upstairs for a social, complete with lemonade and appetizers. It was a celebration of the success of a very valuable experience.

Photo credit: talk bubbles, Mark Wathieu, Flickr; microphone, visual.dichotomy, Flickr