I’m gonna start this recap by talking about how we DOMINATED. 79 members from our chapter attended SFBLC this year. 14 cars. We got an award for the largest number of attendees out of all the chapters, including host chapter Berkeley (take that Cal!). We also got awarded for having the most members overall in our chapter – 130+!

A special part of this year’s SFBLC was the 1st ever annual Mr. Phi Beta Lambda. Seven male PBL members from different chapters competed in 3 areas: business attire fashion, question & answer, and talent show. John Springer represented our chapter as a contestant (Kevin Cun was also a contestant, but had to withdraw last minute due to falling ill . But he was there in spirit, cheering John on. right kevin?)

Talents included: cool flips, magic tricks, quick rubik’s cube solving, saxophone playing, live singing, dancing, and…RAPPIN’ by John! Check out his video if you haven’t already! With those extraordinary rapping skillz, it’s no wonder that John won the pageant and was crowned MR. PBL! Congrats John! Call him Mr. PBL next time you see him

We had 2 groups compete in the case study competition – although we didn’t place, both groups did a great job considering the little amount of time they had to prepare and digest all the info. Great job to the following competitors:

• Group A: Jing Chen, Jon Lee, Noelle Tolentino, Steven Sam
• Group B: Joanne Hung, Kevin Dong, Sammi Yuen, Stephanie Phonvongsa

After the conference, we all went out for dinner in various large groups. Some even went to watch Paranormal Activity (crazies!).

Overall, it was quite a fun and educational experience (and the 8 hr drive really wasn’t that bad at all). Those of you who couldn’t come this time, don’t miss out on SBLC in the spring!! It’ll be even bigger & better! You can compete in events and win shiny trophies! :O And it’ll be in SoCal, so no excuses!

Check out photos from conference in the photo gallery or Facebook page

So as you all know, SFBLC was last weekend! Hope those of you who went had fun, got to know everyone better, and took something away from the talks!

For those of you who couldn’t make it, I’m gonna give y’alls a recap of what went down, so you don’t feel out of the loop. The recap will be split into 2 parts: 1) what we learned, 2) everything else!

First off, the keynote speaker at the conference was Morgan Brown, Director of Marketing for TurnHere.com (a successful startup Internet video making services company). The talk focused on Personal Branding and how you can build your personal brand, make industry connections, and gain expertise by using personal initiative and social media tools.

*For the super quick I-have-no-time-to-read-this version, jump down to the bottom of the post to view the PowerPoint slides used in the presentation*

So what is Personal Branding? Quite simply, it’s exactly what it sounds like:  people and their careers being marked as brands.

One of the things Mr. Brown emphasized and encouraged everyone to do was to start a blog (hey, we did!). He highly recommends doing so because his own career took off through getting noticed for his finance blog, blownmortgage.com (which he sold for a hefty sum – I forget how much, but it was quite a lotta dough). Even if you’re not an ‘expert’ in any particular field, just start writing about what you are passionate about. Not only will it improve your writing skills, but you will be creating content that can potentially serve as a platform to propel your career and network with others. If you don’t know what you’re passionate about, start writing anyway and find out!

Morgan also came up with the “4c’s to a Successful Personal Brand”. These points also apply to your career in general. You can find the full write-up on his site, but I’m gonna give you the special condensed PBL version here:

The 4c’s to a successful personal brand

• Character - Character is everything. Whatever you do, if it’s not authentic, transparent, and based on ethics, you’re never gonna be successful in the long run.  Have the mindset of helping others with what you’re doing.
• Commitment – Building a personal brand is a marathon, not a sprint.  You need to be consistently persistent.
• Create – Stop playing Farmville. While Facebook and Twitter are important networking tools, you don’t get too far by spending all your time on them. Lay a solid foundation of your expertise by creating valuable content. Write. Design. Build.
• Connect – Connect, connect, connect. You need to build relationships with people in your industry to find the success and recognition you need to cement your personal brand. Be earnest. Get offline. Go to conferences, mixers, meetups, and other real world gatherings and connect with the people in your industry!

But why is all this Personal Branding stuff important now? Because employers are hiring 22% fewer college graduates this year than they did in 2008.

Here’s the evolution of success:

Who You Were –> What You Knew –> Who You Knew –> Who Knows You

Personal Branding allows the important people in your industry to get to know YOU.

There was more to his talk, but these were the main points. If any of the above has interested you, I encourage you all to find/learn more about/connect with Morgan through the following:

twitter.com/morganb
facebook.com/morganb
linkedin.com/in/morganb
pmorganbrown.com

Don’t be shy! Even if you didn’t attend conference, say you’re with FBLA PBL and that you’re interested in learning more about this Personal Branding business (or anything else really). I’m sure he’d love to hear from any of you

Here are the slides Morgan used in his talk:

Phew! Now for part 2…

Hope everyone who was able to attend enjoyed the meeting, especially the ice breaker and learning everyone’s name! =P If you need to find out any updates, just visit our group’s recent news section. Have any Questions about the co-chair position or anything else? Feel free to ask me.

Alright then, Don’t forget our GBM tomorrow at Center Hall 109, 7PM. See you guys there!

So, our first conference of the year is going to be the State Fall Business Leadership Conference at UC Berkeley on Saturday, November 7, 2009.  This is a great opportunity to build your network and become closer to your fellow PBL peers.

• Become motivated & inspired by a guest speaker chosen by the PBL State Staff
• Interact with professionals on a number of business topics
• Meet PBL members from other chapters from across the state
• Compete in a case study competition with cash prizes
• Watch fellow members/officers compete in the 1st ever Mr. PBL competition
• Take a break from class and hang out in SF

Your membership dues automatically pay for registration, so definitely take this opportunity!  Sign-ups to be announced at the 1st General Body Meeting on October 6, 2009.

Questions?  Leave a comment on the blog.

This is Tam Nguyen, one of PBL’s Design Managers, and I am pleased to initiate the beginning of our brand new WordPress Blog! An Yu and I have been working extra hard this summer renovating the old website to the current one. You can find it here: http://ucsdfblapbl.org, if you’re not already on it. On top of that, we made an awesome ravecard, which will be off the presses and ready for its physical debut on zero week. Overall, we have been really trying to focus on making a great image for PBL. Especially in such a web-based world, first impressions from one’s webpages, blogs, even Facebook, can either help or hurt you. And now with the new site, we have a really great marketing tool that will provide plenty of information to potential members in an appealing cyber package!