Salocin

8th Annual Wharton European Conference

On Friday 14th November 2003, the 8th annual Wharton European Business Forum was held. This year's theme was, "A New Vision for Europe: Leading the Global Economy".

Although poorly attended due to inappropriate clashes with certain recruiting events, the conference illustrates the incredible opportunity that coming to Wharton represents. Given the number and quality of speakers and panelists, this conference represented an unparallelled opportunity to expand our knowledge to cover the realm of international politics and global policy. With former US ambassadors, distingushed senior members of the World Bank and international think tanks, not to mention global business leaders, this was the kind of exposure I came to Wharton for.

The day started off slowly, but soon gathered pace. The highlights included

• Anshu Jain, VP of Global Markets of Deutsche Bank on the transformation of Deutsche Bank.
• Lawrence R. Klein, 1980 Economics Nobel Prize Laureate, on trans-atlantic economic policy.
• Jean-Francois Rischard, Vice-President for Europe of the World Bank, on the theme of, "20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them".
• A panel on the enlargement of the European Union, with representation from a former US ambassador to Romania, Ambassador James Rosapepe, the Chairman of the EU-Turkey Cooperation Association, Mr. Erdal Kabatepe, the adviser to the Permanent Representative Office at the European Central Bank, Mr. Raymond Ritter, a sovereign credit rating analyst from Standard & Poor's, Mrs. Helena Hessel and the adviser to the governor of the Czech Central Bank, Mr. Tomas Holub.
• A panel on trans-atlantic relations, populated by three former US ambassadors, Cynthia P. Schneider, Tom Loftus and Kingdon Gould, and a holder of the Jean Monnet Chair for European Studies, and member of the faculty of George Mason University, Professor Desmond Dinan.
• A panel on international finance from the perspective of Multi-National Corporations, comprising Mr. Georges Ugeux, Mr. Carlo Cottaelli, Mr. Erwin van der Voort and Mr. Wayne Felson.

By all accounts, an extremely impressive line-up, made all the more interesting at the time for those that attended by the fact that the turnout was below expectations, and therefore created a more intimate setting than would otherwise have been the case.

The reduced attendance did surprise me: Given the line-up, I would have travelled a considerable distance in order to be there. That an event of this magnitude can be organized and fail to draw substantially all of the student body, or at least it's 35% international component (although there was a Latin American conference next door, it was equally poorly attended) reflects, in my opinion, quite poorly on the international and political curiosity of the current student population. More likely though, it is yet another consequence of the poor job market, combined with some unfortunate scheduling clashes. Many students were in New York or elsewhere on career treks or a "day on the job" with potential employers. It is quite revealing of priorities that the scheduling should have been so - and perhaps reflects also the importance of ensuring that one earns a return on the investment in the MBA.

Regardless, the presentations have, from the feedback I have received from other attendees, caused a few to remember that the shape of the world, and the actors that influence it, are perhaps not so far removed from us as our academic isolation sometimes causes us to think. It was refreshing and revitalising for me to have one of the windows of the Ivory Tower opened, and a strong wind blow through, reminding us of the richness, and occasionally rankness, that many of us will influence through our actions or inactions in our future careers.