Rady School of Management Hosts Association of National Advertisers Business Analytics Conference

The Rady School of Management at the University of California San Diego recently hosted the Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) first annual Data & Marketing Analytics conference.

The ANA is the nation’s premier marketing and advertising organization, representing 15,000 members and 50,000 brands. The conference explored the convergence of data science and business by examining the latest marketing trends, industry best practices, insightful case studies, and the utilization of data science by top brands. An estimated 100 business professionals representing over 40 companies attended the conference and speakers from Target, Google, Experian, Jack-in-the-Box/Carat and Petco addressed the audience.

The conference is planned to be an annual touchstone event, as the Rady School is slated to be the West Coast academic center for the ANA’s Educational Foundation. The school’s Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) program and Center for Business Analytics will assist the foundation on the topics of data science and business analytics convergence, training and applied business skills in analytics.

Raymond Pettit, Executive Director of the Rady School’s MSBA program and Center for Business Analytics, noted the school and center are exploring a more robust partnership with the ANA.  

“The ANA’s Educational Foundation mission is quite complimentary to the Rady School’s MSBA program where the focus is on training the next cohort of advanced data and business analytics professionals, as well as a commitment to diversity and inclusion,” Pettit said. “Our organizations touch a lot of common points and we look forward to growing a very fruitful collaboration.”

The conference provided over 60 Rady School MSBA and other graduate students with the opportunity to learn from business professionals and experience an industry event focused strictly on the core aspects they study in their program. The Rady School’s MSBA is an intensive program that provides students with the skills to succeed in data-rich business environments. The program offers rigorous, hands-on training that prepares students to use data and analytics to identify business opportunities, generate business insights and create business solutions. MSBA students gain both the quantitative skills to create better decision tools and the ability to manage teams and communicate effectively with stakeholders throughout each phase of an analytics project.