A group of students from California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo will be traveling to San Francisco in January to present their winning annual convention proposal at the Professional Convention Management Association’s Convening Leaders. This year’s theme, “Face-to-Face in the Digital Era,” required the student finalists to submit a five-minute pitch via video. The California Polytechnic students, Chrissy Baur, Morgan Cutter, Luke Haley, Courtney Frickman, and Olivia Larsen, won PCMA’s North American Student Competition with a proposal for a home-sharing expo to educate home and rental owners on property management issues.
The proposal was called Home Sharing Experience, or HSX, and stated: “Most home share and vacation rental owners operate their properties with minimal property management experience. A convention like HSX would allow an opportunity for home sharers and experience providers to expand their knowledge, network, and property-management skills.”
The team, advised by Assistant Professor Kevin Lin, Ph.D., will be hosted at Convening Leaders at the Moscone Center in San Francisco from January 5-8 and have the opportunity to present their event proposal during a session.
One of the judges, PCMA Senior Director of Community Engagement Stacey Shafer, said, “It was challenging for the panel of judges to select a winning proposal, but we felt the Home Sharing Experience Convention proposal best demonstrated how business events deliver economic and social transformation.”
Last year, the inaugural competition was won by Kansas State University with a proposal to use blockchain to increase data security at business events. This year Kansas State University, including some of last year’s team, was a runner up.
Registration for the competition is on the PCMA website and opens in August.
