BSc Finance & Investment Banking duo Nick Pilkington and Jack Hardie blog about being two of a handful of first-year undergraduates to be selected to network at the LSE Finance Conference amongst other final-year and postgraduate students across the country.

The inaugural LSE Finance Conference hosted at the Rosewood Hotel brought together high profile industry professionals with students from universities such as Imperial, UCL, Oxbridge, Warwick and more for a day of lectures, panel discussions and networking. After an application process, we became two of a handful of first-year students to be chosen, alongside others that were mostly final year undergraduates and postgraduates. We felt very privileged to be representing the ICMA Centre and University of Reading.

“During a buffet lunch we had the opportunity to network with some of the brightest minds studying finance.”

The conference commenced with a talk by Vincent Oratore of American International Group (AIG), who spoke about regulation in the financial market. This was followed by Professor Paul Sweeting, Head of Research at Legal and General who built upon the previous presentation with his lecture on The Basel Accord and other framework in the financial sector.

After a short break we were audience to a panel discussion hosted by Mike Carrodus of Substantive Research. The discussion was centred around the future of research and the new way investors and institutions pay for it. This was really interesting as it bought together the creators and clients of research information, who all agreed in the new direction that it should and will take.

During a buffet lunch we had the opportunity to network with some of the brightest minds studying finance. This was very overwhelming, especially being first-year students and the first event of its kind we had attended! Nevertheless, we both gained contacts that will hopefully be beneficial in the future.

“…an excellent and worthwhile day…”

When we returned for the afternoon session we had a very engaging and fun lecture from Paul Craven on behavioural economics with some incredible games and examples to demonstrate his points effectively. This was followed by a conference call with Jorge Villa of the IMMDF who provides funding and loans for business and market developments in the Middle East, inspiring entrepreneurship across the region.

The event was closed by the Rwanga Foundation, a charity set up to support the people across the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Since its creation just over two years ago, it has helped just under 1 million people including half a million immigrants that have been displaced by the ongoing wars being fought in the region. It was a truly inspiring speech delivered by one of its trustees, Rashad Korkis and one of the volunteers, Santiago.

We would like to thank the LSE Business and Finance group for hosting the event at the spectacular Rosewood Hotel. It was an excellent and worthwhile day, and we would recommend ICMA Centre students to apply to attend next year!