Preparing For CAMEX Learning

Learning Styles and Assessing MY Learning Style
Visit this section to learn more about adult learning styles, assess YOUR learning style, and determine how you can best learn while attending CAMEX sessions.

Pre-CAMEX Query
Tell me what you want—What you really, really want!
Let us know what would make your CAMEX learning experience better by sending your thoughts and suggestions to education@nacs.org.

Your feedback will help us fine tune CAMEX 2012 and plan for 2013. We look forward to hearing from you!

CAMEX Learning Teams
Want to get more out of CAMEX? Sign up for a CAMEX Learning Team! Enhance your learning experience by submitting your name and contact information to be included in the CAMEX Learning Teams program in Salt Lake City.

Business schools and other academic programs use cohorts (or teams of learners moving through the program together) to give participants a support group, peers to discuss and reflect on the programming with, and opportunities to network. A great success in 2011, we’re bringing this concept back for CAMEX 2012--the CAMEX Learning Teams. To be a part of this program:

1. Submit your name and contact information by completing the simple survey here. Sign up closed for 2012.
2. Learning Team participants will be sent detailed information about 2 weeks prior to CAMEX.
3. Learning Team participants will meet on Thursday evening, March 1, to be split into small groups—the Learning Teams!
4. Learning Teams will be given suggestions for when and where they might convene throughout the CAMEX educational days to discuss their experiences—actual meetings will be left to each Learning Team to agree upon.

We hope you will take advantage of this new program element. If you have questions before or after signing up for the program, please contact Tony Ellis CAE, NACS chief learning officer, at tellis@nacs.org or (440) 775-7777, ext. 2354.

Must Knows
As part of your preparation for your CAMEX learning experience, volunteers from college stores have developed a list of things you “Must Know” about your store in order to best participant, network, and glean ideas from CAMEX sessions. See how you do and consider putting together list of your Must Know information prior to arriving in Houston!

1. Your store’s customer base / Your target audience(s)
2. The status of the relationship between your store and the campus; The reporting structure; and The impact of that structure/administration’s expectations
3. Obstacles and “workarounds” you currently face in taking your store forward
4. The defining characteristics of the community the institution is located in; The local market
5. What challenges exist currently exist for you/your store; What challenges do you anticipate on the horizon
6. What you hope to achieve through strategic relationships; Your goals and desired direction for the store
7. An overview of your competition / competitive environment
8. Your biases; The lenses through which you filter information and ideas
9. An understanding of the direction the industry is heading; the critical issues; major trends
10. The budget limitations, funding options, and current/potential financial partners of your store
11. What don’t you know? Where are your blind spots? Now is your chance to look to new places for fresh perspectives
12. Your thoughts and hunches on the role of technology in the future of the industry and your store
13. HOW MUCH TIME YOU HAVE TO COMMIT TOWARD IMPLEMENTING NEW PROGRAMS OR INITIATIVES. Your capacity to put into action ideas you bring home from CAMEX.