Life is one big road with lots of signs,
So when you riding through the ruts, don’t you complicate your mind:
Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy!
Don’t bury your thoughts; put your vision to reality, yeah
Bob Marley – Wake Up and Live.
In November, a group of fifteen Ivey’ers took a trip to Boston for the Harvard Cyberposium conference in a joint event setup by the Business Technologies Club and the Entrepreneurship Club. The event at Harvard saw around 900 visitors and more than 50 leaders and speakers from the world of technology and entrepreneurship, including the co-founder of LinkedIn and the CEO of Dropbox.
With a chance to spend some time at Harvard Business School, listen to high-profile speakers, mingle with a more-than-interesting crowd, and spend a fun-filled weekend in Boston, how could we resist?
Panel discussion about innovation in payments
A good part of the fun was in taking the trip with close friends from the program. A handful of us drove to Buffalo or Detroit and flew to Boston from there, while the rest of the group opted to drive the whole (approximately) 1000 km each direction. It’s a great way to further develop bonds between your classmates and find out interesting things about each other. With lots of games like “Things that you would never put your hand in” (to which the responses cannot be reproduced in this blog), good music, road-side diner stops, turns at driving, and general traveler’s debauchery, the 10.5 hour drives were covered painlessly.
At Boston, we toured the historic campuses of Harvard and MIT and regaled at the bustling student melting pot of Harvard Square, shuffling in and out of Starbucks, restaurants, bars and more. The weather was a crisp and sunny 4 degrees Celsius and our spirits were high.
Panel discussion about Social Media In Enterprise
During the conference we learned about myriad topics, including: how to find a co-founder for your start-up; how to cater your business to all your users; the evolution of payment systems; education technology; the viability of online subscriptions models; user-design decisions, and much more. We networked with many other visitors from a variety of industries and companies. Our eyes and minds were opened at the possibilities ahead of us and some of us were inspired to apply the learnings to our own entrepreneurial pursuits. The energy was undeniable.
We returned on Monday feeling exhausted but accomplished. We had become better friends and were filled with a renewed vigor to continue upward and onward!
About Ali:
Ali has an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from McGill. He
has worked for five years in various roles, from fielding a flooded
server room at a Montreal start-up to building software solutions for
the Equities and Fixed Income trading desks at Morgan Stanley. At
Ivey, he is the VP External for the Business Technologies Club and is
on the Media and Technology Committee for the LEADER Project. After
graduating with his MBA, he wishes to work with entrepreneurs on
start-up development and innovation strategies.