The R.I.S.E. Forum is an investment conference sponsored by the University of Dayton in association with the United Nations Global Compact. Known as the most prestigious student investment conference, R.I.S.E. also extends an invitation to business professionals to share in the first day of this two and one-half day event. And for good reason. The keynote panelists and speakers, who are the best and the brightest from Wall Street, corporate America, the financial media and the international community, hold equal appeal for students, professors and practitioners.
Day One:
Zero to 4049 km, we made it to Dayton, Ohio!!!
Day Two:
The Redefining Investment Strategy Education Forum is an investment conference where we had the opportunity to pick-the-brains of fantastic industry panelists with topics ranging from “The Economy” to “Domestic (US) Markets” to “Alternative Investments”.
Jon was fortunate to have the opportunity to be on stage as a student panelist for the panel about “International & Emerging Markets”. He met and talked to the industry panelists, who came from Bank of America, UBS, JP Morgan and Vontobel. After a quick “photo op” he sat on stage with the industry panel and asked a question to the panelist. It was an awesome experience to sit in front of over a thousand students and industry leaders and get some expert opinions on one of the issues our Student Investment Advisory Service (SIAS) team was discussing with respect to the money we manage on behalf of the SFU Endowment Fund.
Keynote addresses were also given from David Darst of Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Robert Doll from BlackRock, and Ben Mezrich, author of The Accidental Billionaires (made into the 2010 drama “The Social Network”).
That was a long day, but each speaker provided a different and interesting perspective on the economy and in particular their specialization in the economy.
It’s like the saying goes, “if you ask five economists their opinion, you will get six answers.”
Day Three:
This was a great day for SFU and everyone involved with SIAS.
First thing in the morning at 8:00 am we gave a 15-minute presentation to a panel of three portfolio managers/industry specialists. We discussed the structure of SIAS, our investment process and strategy, and recent performance. They were thoroughly impressed!
As a result of the risk-adjusted performance of the SIAS Fund for 2011, during the networking reception, SIAS was awarded First Place for the Balanced Portfolio category among all participating student managed funds. We were thrilled, and very proud of our SIAS team members, both past and present, who helped select investments that generated good risk adjusted returns for our client.
In between the events were workshops and smaller panel groups where we got the chance to learn more about specific areas of finance such as equity analysis, technical analysis, wealth management, hedge funds, and proprietary trading. These break-out sessions were intimate and detailed very specific day-to-day activities that gave us many new ideas to think about.
Day Four:
4049 km to 8098 km, we’re home!
This was a constant learning experience from workshops, panels, presentations, networking and just the experience of doing something different. Even though it was a huge time commitment during the busiest time in the semester, it was well worth the time and effort. The ideas and perspectives we took from the event could prove invaluable going forward with our careers.
At the end of the day, it was a long trip with sleepless nights and early mornings, but if we went back in time, we would do it again.
Bill Dennis
Jared Wolk
Mehdi Saedi
Jon Lo