2026 AMA Marketing Educators Pre-Conference: Improving the Classroom Through Practiced Tradition and New Technology

Breakfast/Coffee Available

Introduction and Welcome, Fischbach & Pettiette

Amy Novak, University of Houston

Session Title: AI Role Play for Sales Readiness and Confidence 

This session demonstrates how AI-mediated role play can help students practice sales conversations in a scalable, feedback-rich environment. Amy will show how AI role plays can support repeated practice, individualized feedback, and student reflection in professional selling courses. The session will also highlight how these activities can positively influence student learning, communication confidence, and career-relevant sales readiness. 

MSU Denver Faculty (Lane, Schofield, Jackson)

Session Title: Operationalizing AI in the Classroom: Stories from the Field 

This session brings together veteran teaching faculty from MSU Denver to share practical approaches for using AI in marketing courses. The presenters will discuss classroom-tested ideas, assignment examples, and lessons learned from integrating AI into real-world marketing activities. Participants will leave with concrete ideas for adapting AI-enabled assignments, activities, and teaching practices in their own classrooms. 

Kate Klein – EVP Marketing (Fitness Industry)

Session Title: Marketing Readiness from the Hiring Side: Growth, Accountability, and the Shift from SEO to GEO 

Kate Klein brings a practitioner perspective on what marketing readiness looks like from the hiring side. As Executive Vice President of Marketing for Houston Fitness Partners, a major regional fitness franchise group operating more than 50 big-box gym locations across the Houston area, she will discuss the skills, judgment, and business fluency students need to contribute quickly after graduation. Her session will emphasize connecting marketing activity to growth, accountability, customer acquisition, and emerging AI-shaped practices such as the shift from SEO to GEO, or Generative Engine Optimization, where marketers must rethink how customers discover, evaluate, and choose brands. 

Keynote Lorena Blasco-Arcas, ESCP Business School

Session Title: Keynote: AI, Societal Transformation, and the Future of Marketing Education 

Professor Lorena Blasco-Arcas will deliver the keynote address on how AI is transforming companies, individuals, society, and marketing education. Drawing on her research in AI, consumer experience, digital environments, and human-centered technology adoption, she will discuss how educators can bring AI into the classroom in ways that support learning, readiness, and responsible innovation. The keynote will connect the broader societal transformation of AI to practical opportunities for pedagogical innovation and student preparation. 

Closing and Networking