Three Virtual Enterprise business classes at Huntington High School traveled to East Wind Caterers in Wading River earlier this week for a networking luncheon with hundreds of other teenagers pursuing similar studies.
Huntington’s Titan, BioSol and Snooz³ company teams were on hand for the event. Business teachers Paige Tyree Furman and Suzi Biagi accompanied their respective classes, including company executives who delivered sales pitches on their products.
“I am so proud of my team here at Snooz³,” company CEO Taylor Case said. “I think that since we have such a personable and friendly group of people, it was easy to connect to our buyers and make sales. I am so excited to see how we do attending future trade shows.”
Good learning experience for Snooz³
The Huntington VE students were well-prepared for the session. “Going into the networking event I was excited to get some sales for our product as I knew how much the other firms would like Snooz³ and our amazing products,” Chief Technology Officer Justin Lokos said. “Entering the event and setting up our booth was super fun and brought everyone’s creative thoughts and talents together to make our company table stand out. After everything was set-up, sales started to flood in and out as I and others went around trying to make deals, working with other firms. This was a great learning experience to find out what we can improve upon and what we did right for our next event. I can’t wait.”
Snooz³ utilized every available minute at the networking event. “It was a good learning experience for our young company and now we can see how we can improve our brand and move forward as a group,” junior Maison Maerz said.
Junior Aidan Heller agreed that the experience provided many lessons. “We learned that we need a few bundles that are cheaper around $1,000-$2,000,” he said. “Today I went from tech guy to handyman to salesman to laborer. I had to help the company run off of our minimal amount of people. It was a great experience. I’ll be at the next trade show as well. I can’t wait.”
Vice President of Sales Steven Queen said the company came together well. “We worked great as a team and made many great relationships with other firms,” the junior said.
Snooz³ Chief Operating Officer Nick Tudisco believes the session laid the groundwork for future success. “Our first trade show went really well,” the junior said. “My favorite part was going around and talking to the other firms and doing business with them. I’m very excited for the next trade show.”
Snooz³ continues to build momentum and got a jolt of confidence at the networking event. “I had a great experience,” said Aidan Bender, vice president of marketing. “I met so many new people and made so many new friends. I also learned a bunch of strategies to get other firms to buy our product. I highly recommend taking the Virtual Enterprise class to kids that haven’t taken it yet. I’ve learned so much from this class and can’t wait to take the things I learned into the real world.”
Snooz³ returned to Huntington with renewed confidence. “We worked really well together and made tons of sales at an efficient rate,” junior Luke Maffei.
BioSol and Titan sparkle in Wading River
“I had a really fun and great time at this event,” BioSol’s Chief Financial Officer Alex Gonzalez said. “The accounting team and I learned a lot from the point of sales system, which will help us in our future trade shows.”
The full-year, one credit business class is available to Huntington High School juniors and seniors. “Virtual Enterprise is a simulated business that is set-up and run by students to prepare them for working in a real business environment,” according to the course bulletin.
“Our first trade show was a phenomenal success,” Titan Chief Executive Officer Abigail Holmes said. “While this was a small-scale event, Titan was still able to profit over $120,000 in sales. Our marketing team was hard at work advertising our firm to other companies, teachers, and VIP guests, while our accounting department worked feverishly to execute transactions. I could not be prouder of the performance of every Titan employee today and look forward to continued success from our team.”
All of the Huntington business students found the luncheon to be valuable as they move forward with their respective companies.
“Our first trade show was an amazing experience and gave us an idea of how we should improve for the next one,” Titan’s Vice President of Human Resources Bianca Lella said. “All of our departments worked incredibly hard, especially accounting who handled all the transactions using our point of sales system. Not to mention, the food was amazing.”
