Behind the Scenes:
Springing into Action
By
Debbie Bolton
VP Volunteers
AMA Toronto has kicked off the spring season with 3 major events (our April MNG event at ACCES Employment, the Leadership Summit conference in Chicago and the Career Accelerator launch event hosted by Craig Lund). And we can’t forget the AMAzing work that’s been going on behind the scenes for months gearing up for our Canada’s Marketing Hall of Legends Gala on May 10 th . Watch for photos and more in our next blog in June.
MNG Event at ACCES Employment
Entering the job market in a new country is not easy. AMA Toronto partner, ACCES Employment, provides invaluable support for newcomers facing this challenge. AMA’s MNG Director, Shalini Jerath, and Strategic Partnership VP, Miglena Nikolova, worked with ACCES staff and other members of AMA’s event team to host a great event for newcomers to Canada at ACCES’ offices downtown.
AMA Toronto President-Elect, Santo Ligotti, moderated a panel of ACCES alumni and newcomers who shared their tips on how they leveraged their international experience, Canadian academic and volunteer credentials and other strategies to successfully enter the Canadian job market. Ajai Datta as well as AMA volunteers Shalini Jerath and Koohzad Khatami gave some very insightful and invaluable advice.
Photo Courtesy : Yakov Radyushin
AMA Leadership Summit Chicago
Five AMA Toronto board members spent the last weekend in April with hundreds of other AMA board members at AMA’s international Leadership Summit conference in Chicago. Attendees included:
- Incoming President, Santo Ligotti
- VP Marcom and soon to be President-Elect, Jessica Zuckier
- Immediate Past-President, Tina Portillo
- VP Leadership Excellence and Professional Chapters’ Council member, Craig Lund
- VP Strategic Partnerships and Past-President, Miglena Nikolova
This event is always inspiring, thought-provoking and a great way to collaborate, meet and learn from other international leaders. It’s also a great warm-up for AMA Toronto when we host the north-east chapters’ AMA Regional Retreat in Toronto in November.
Career Accelerator Launch Event May 3
The Leadership Excellence team kicked off the new season of our Career Accelerator mentoring program for young marketers with a fun and creative event hosted by VP Craig Lund. Mentees, mentors and other AMA volunteers enjoyed tasty treats, creative activities and meeting other marketers.
A special shout-out to one of last month’s Rockstars, Maggie Bolt, who has done an outstanding job taking over the management of the Career Accelerator program.
April Rockstars
Congratulations to our Rockstars! This month we would like to pay tribute to some of the Rockstars who have worked with VPs Jacob Kessler, Dawn Becker, Jessica Zuckier and Linda Antonacci and Rob MacLean as well as the other teams and volunteers involved in organizing our Canada’s Marketing Hall of Legends gala. This gala celebrates our newest group of marketing legends and is one of AMA Toronto’s most demanding projects. Thank you for your outstanding contributions to it and everything else you do.
Corinna Esih
Manager Events
Since joining AMA Toronto in January 2023, Corinna has consistently demonstrated grace under fire when handling the pressure of event deadlines and managing the multiple stakeholders involved in our events. She is a natural leader when it comes to overseeing the onsite logistics relating to the venue, event suppliers and other volunteers. In addition, Corinna has a true eye for creating efficiencies, a great skill to have when managing events. Thank you Corinna! Corinna is a Senior Digital Marketing Manager at Arnold Street Media.
Karen Garcia:
Director, CMHOL, MarCom
Karen has been an AMA Toronto volunteer for the past 2 1/2 years – and an invaluable member of the MarCom team. In her current role as Director, Canada’s Marketing Hall of Legends, she has done a terrific job in managing all the components of the marketing plan, including collaborating with many other teams and volunteers, leading up to our big Gala event on May 10th. Thank you, Karen, for your hard work!
Zeel Gandhi
Manager PR
In a little over half a year, Zeel Ghandi landed in Canada, joined our PR Team, and nailed a new job as a Communications Specialist at Definity. His commitment and enthusiasm collaborating with the PR team on strategy is exemplary. And Zeel has become an instrumental member of the team, creating and managing content to promote AMA Toronto thought leadership. His recent contributions, advancing and executing PR for CMHOL and the upcoming Marketing Leadership Week, are helping fuel our success.
For more information
Please check our website for ongoing information on our programs and events.
And don’t forget to watch for our posts on social and check your email in-box. There’s always something happening at AMA Toronto.
Join our volunteer team
Are you an enthusiastic marketer who’s interested in meeting great people, gaining leadership experience and raising your profile in the marketing community? We’re looking for:
- Experienced in-person and virtual event directors
- Experienced web developers and managers
- Experienced program managers
- And more…
If you’re interested in learning more about our talented volunteer community and opportunities, please contact me at [email protected]
