The 57th Wisconsin Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) State Leadership Conference was hosted in Appleton, Wisconsin, on April 11 and 12. This year, over 2,000 students, advisers, and guests participated in this conference, including five from Merrill High School.
FBLA members from all areas of the state gathered in Appleton at the Radisson Paper Valley Hotel to attend workshops and three delegate assemblies, elect their new State Executive Board members, and compete in competitive events such as Accounting, Desktop Publishing, Banking & Financial Systems, e-Business, Website Development, Cyber Security, Network Design, Database Applications, and Entrepreneurship at the state level. In most competitive events, the first- and second-place winners will be advancing to the FBLA National Leadership Conference that will be hosted in Orlando, Florida from June 28-July 1, 2011.
The keynote speaker this year was Ryan Porter. Ryan is a youth motivational speaker who spoke about creating exciting experiences and living a passionate life.
As part of the conference, the members also toured Appleton area businesses and government agencies including Appleton Police Department, Barlow Planetarium, Fox Cities Stadium, Fox Valley Technical College, Goodwill Industries, Heartland Business Systems, JJ Keller, KISS FM 95.9, Lawrence University, Miller Electric, Miron Construction, Secura Insurance, Skogens Festival Foods, Valley Home Builders Association, and the YMCA. FBLA members raised money for the Wisconsin FBLA-PBL Foundation by playing numerous competitive rounds of Monopoly and the March of Dimes through a Miracle Minute. They also were entertained with a dance at the Performing Arts Center.
Local members that represented Merrill High School include Derek Woellner, Cody Bentz, Cody Krznarich, Nicole Rehwinkel and Kostya Lee. Mrs. Dawn Jameson is the local FBLA Advisor.