Sleepy Hollow Exhibition - A Rolling Success

By: Charlene Mainville, fourth-year Business student

Just before Halloween this year, Business students in Nipissing’s Business to Business Marketing class had a great opportunity to apply their learning to a practical setting, organizing the Sleepy Hollow Exhibition.

The class project was a smashing success, with over 600 guests in attendance and raised $7,000 for various non-profits in North Bay, including the North Bay Regional Health Centre. More importantly, it proved to be a fantastic learning opportunity for the students involved.

Held at the Capitol Centre in downtown North Bay, the Sleepy Hollow Exhibition featured 40 original props and costumes from Tim Burton’s 1999 cinematic retelling of the classic Sleepy Hollow story, originally written by Washington Irving.

The exhibition was a unique opportunity for the City of North Bay and for those who attended.  For the students who organized it, it was a once in a lifetime experience. Many of the costumes and props on display had not been seen for over a decade, including those worn and used by Johnny Depp and Christopher Walken.

To organize the special event, the Business to Business Marketing class was split up into three divisions: operations, marketing and sponsorship. Each division had its own set of tasks. Coordinating and hiring staff,  managing volunteers, creating a marketing campaign, securing sponsors and getting support for the event were only a few of the many tasks that the students managed.

“Students gained invaluable knowledge, skills and abilities that will benefit them as they move on to post-graduate studies or a professional career,” said Kevin Hutchison, who teaches the class.

“The event proved to be a great experience. It was a valuable tool for applying prior knowledge as well as provided us with a whole new type of learning experience,” said student Alisa Woods. “It added a whole new dimension to the relevance of the course content, which is sometimes rare when studying theoretical concepts.”

The high-profile event gained interest from around the world.

Nipissing’s School of Business promotes that it offers more than a degree. By offering unique learning opportunities like the Sleepy Hollow Exhibition, it is fully realizing that proposition.