submitted by Deborah Cohen, Maritz
Fenton, Missouri – The global team at Maritz recently created an educational challenge and competition to provide an immersive, hands-on experience for 51 X-Culture students from 15 countries across six continents. The challenge was created in close collaboration with several destination marketing organizations who are part of the BestCities Global Alliance and the Academy of International Business. The challenge topic was to prove the economic, social and cultural impact a major event can bring to a city. The experience included an immersive tour of the Maritz headquarters in Fenton, Missouri.
The X-Culture program is designed for business students from around the world and the students work on global teams to “solve” a real business challenge. The students are typically senior-level or MBA students. The program also included an event held in conjunction with the Academy of International Business Southeast Chapter Annual Conference at Saint Louis University, which was also attended by about 150 international business professors. Maritz President and CEO David Peckinpaugh delivered the keynote address at the conference, along with Maritz team members Amy Kramer and Eric Perino, and shared Maritz’ strategy in the areas of AI, cybersecurity, sustainability and more.
David Peckinpaugh, President and CEO at Maritz shares, “Maritz was honored to participate in the Southeast Chapter of the Academy of International Business Conference and the X-Culture competition. Our team loved interacting with the students while on campus, talking to them during our keynote address and judging presentations for 13 teams. They are an impressive group of young, up and coming professionals who will truly make a difference in the world moving forward. Congratulations to all the participants.”
Loren Christie, Managing Director, BestCities Global Alliance says, “The BestCities Global Alliance was thrilled to be part of this year’s X-Culture competition. Our mission is to build a collaborative community that is focused on making the world a better place through the positive impacts of business events and it was a pleasure to hear the new and inspiring ideas that came out of the competition from this dynamic group of students.”
Tim Muth, faculty member at Florida Institute of Technology adds, “X-Culture would like to thank these organizations for giving our students the opportunity to work with business professionals and to learn how to apply their academic knowledge to a real-world business situation. It was truly an awesome and enjoyable learning experience for the X-Culture students and faculty.”
About Maritz
Maritz is a 130-year-old leader in business and human performance. Utilizing our deep knowledge of behavioral science, combined with data insights and analytics the Maritz portfolio of businesses increases customer loyalty, employee experience and sales performance through a variety of services and software solutions, encompassing incentives, rewards, experience design, creative strategy, incentive travel, meetings and events for channel partners, association, trade show and Fortune 500 clients. For more information visit: https://maritz.com/
