Turning online business into real life skills
February 17, 2016
Milford High School is one of the many schools across the world that participate in Virtual Enterprises International (VEI). At Milford, VEI is better known as BMT 3 by those who aren’t in the class. The class is a business program that teaches high school and college students the skills that they’ll need in the business world.
MHS is home to Mavco, Inc. a company that has been at Milford for three years, monitored by Kaye Sommer. Over the past few years, the company’s product line has changed from clothing and apparel to different types of technology.
As this tradeshow was located in Holland, Mich., Milford (Mavco), Lakeland (Dexacorp) and Pinckney (Adventure Time) traveled to Holland together.
Alissa Ruder, Justin Kelly and Izzie Kenhard presenting the Business Plan
The Tradeshow
Broken down into two days, the first day is dedicated to the different competitions that each firm chooses to enter. Back in Nov., when the firm traveled to Tenn. they competed in the Advertising Competition and placed in the top ten, which is nearly unheard of as most of the firms that place are from the state hosting the tradeshow. For the Holland Tradeshow, Mavco entered the Business Plan Competition and made it to the top four.
While Alissa Ruder, Izzie Kenhard and Justin Kelly were representing Mavco, Inc. in the Business Plan Competition, the rest of the firm enjoyed the day down by the pool where they played ping-pong, swam and got to know members of firms from across Mich.. In the evening Mavco, Adventure Time and Dexacorp headed to Lake Michigan to see the ice caps before proceeding to the bowling alley.
Mavco, Inc. 2016, out bowling
The second day was a little more hectic as there were 58 firms setting up their booths before everyone began buying and selling to each other. The booth set up time was between 7 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. so that the opening ceremony could start at 10:30 a.m.. Selling proceeded at 11:15 a.m. and continued until 1:45 p.m. when the judges began reading off the winners of various awards.
“The most trying thing while selling was that we didn’t have the technology to record the sales immediately,” said senior Alissa Ruder, one of Mavco’s CEOs. “Things were more complicated because we were holding our small binder catalogs and trying to make sure that the sales books were legible and that they weren’t bleeding through to the next receipt.”
For more information on VEI and Mavco. Inc,: