Student Contributor Hayley Gao (Graduate School of Management, MSF ’16) shares her experiences at the Global Asset Management Education (G.A.M.E.) V Forum in New York City, which provides college students and faculty from around the world with a unique opportunity to interact with industry leaders and learn best practices in investment management.
Although it was already my sixth time in New York City, I was still thrilled and excited to represent the Clark University Graduate School of Management at an excellent finance event – the fifth annual Quinnipiac Global Asset Management Education (G.A.M.E.) V Forum, where I could learn from brilliant minds and interact with outstanding leaders in the financial industry.
G.A.M.E. V Forum brought an international group of current and future leaders from the finance services industry together to explore important developments, challenges and opportunities facing investment professionals within our global financial markets. More than 100 keynote speakers, panelists, workshop presenters and student-managed portfolio competition judges were invited. The global dimension of the Quinnipiac G.A.M.E. V Forum is also reflected by the international group of participating students and their faculty mentors, who came from more than 140 universities and represented more than 40 countries and 39 states.
On the first day, 15 keynote speakers led the audience through an exploration of global markets and their economies, corporate governance, and investment strategy. After the keynote speakers shared their initial ideas on each topic, the moderator took questions from students in the audience. Students vied with one another to seize this opportunity to interact with top leaders in the financial services industry.
On day two, students and faculty participated in a number of concurrent breakout sessions, including panel discussion, workshop sessions and three keynote presentations that explored various financial topics such as portfolio management, equity analysis, asset allocation, risk and ethical decision making, and so forth. I enjoyed the breakout sessions a lot, since I could attend the ones I was interested in. In addition, we could communicate with panel speakers more easily within the smaller setting.
Last but not least, G.A.M.E. concluded on day three with a focus on careers and academic program development, where students had a chance to engage in career discussions with a group of young professionals who once sat in our shoes as students. This was also my favorite part of the forum. Not only did I benefit a lot from the Financial Media and Journalist Panel, where I learned the current situation and future trend of financial media, as well as the career path working as a financial journalist, but also I got the chance to speak with the panel speakers – Callie Bost, stock/option reporter with Bloomberg, and Geoffrey Rogow, news reporter for the Wall Street Journal. It is undeniable that talking to wise people can make you wise as well. They gave me a lot of essential tips about how to stand out in this information-overloaded world, and how to be an excellent financial reporter.
“Remember to always be curious,” Callie Bost said. “Take yourself out of the thing, and ask questions like, ‘Why did this happen? How will people respond to this?’ With these questions you can talk to people and dig out more information behind the scenes.”
Although I was still engrossed in the great things I learned from this fabulous conference, my two and a half days came to an end. With the abundant thoughts and ideas I absorbed from the great professionals I met, I waved goodbye to New York City. See you next time Big Apple!