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Rowe Students build marketing plans for Parks Canada

Posted by Faculty of Management on January 31, 2015 in Students

The Rowe School of Business has recently forged a new relationship with Parks Canada, culminating—for now—in presentations by Rowe MBA students to the CEO and executive board of the government agency.

Early in the fall of 2014 Parks Canada and Dalhousie created a Memorandum of Understanding to work together in areas of mutual interest. Among others, these areas include promoting and marketing Parks Canada, educating the public about Parks Canada heritage sites and national parks, and using Parks Canada sites to provide real-world data to students.

“This MOU has paved the way for further and more specific collaborations with Parks Canada, a perfect opening for the Rowe School’s RSB Connect initiative,” said Peggy Cunningham, Dean of Management. Formed in response to the Ivany Report, RSB Connect aims to increase the community engagement of the Rowe School’s students and faculty. “RSB Connect will go a long way to making the Rowe School a pillar of positive development in Nova Scotia,” said Dr. Cunningham. “And the MOU with Parks Canada will provide a wealth of benefits to our students, the university and Parks Canada.”

As part of this initiative, ten groups of students from the graduate Marketing Management class developed marketing plans for ten Parks Canada units throughout Eastern Canada. During the fall term, these students worked closely with Parks Canada contacts to develop and refine these plans.

The top three groups presented their findings to the Parks Canada CEO and the executive board on December 3, in the Parks Canada offices at Halifax’s Historic Properties. Carol Sheedy, Vice-President of Operations for Eastern Canada, and her team were there to witness the students’ presentations. Alan Latourelle, CEO of Parks Canada, attended via video conference along with members of the Parks Canada Executive Board and representatives from all across the country.

“The students did a fabulous job analyzing the current business situation and developing realistic recommendations for the various units for Parks Canada,” said Dr. Valerie Trifts, Associate Professor of Marketing, who taught the Marketing Management class. “Parks Canada representatives were extremely impressed by our CRMBA students and the CEO himself told all presenters that he would personally read each of their reports in detail.”

Bringing the project full circle, Parks Canada and the Rowe School of Business took the opportunity during this event to sign, in the video presence of Mr. Latourelle, the Memorandum of Understanding that had been conceived between Parks Canada and Dalhousie. Through the MOU and RSB Connect, Dalhousie’s business students can look forward to many more collaborations with Parks Canada.