The Emerging Markets Summit (EMS) is one of Booth’s largest student-run conferences. Every year, government leaders, entrepreneurs, investors, executives, and academics from across regions and disciplines gather to discuss and debate the state of the union for emerging markets, and provide insights and perspectives into the way forward.
The EMS is premised on a powerful realization—although emerging markets may be culturally and politically very different, they share very similar socio-economic challenges in this stage of their development. By creating a forum for thought leaders from different geographies to engage in discussion, EMS hopes to bring out the major themes and macro-level insights that are driving change across emerging markets. EMS also serves as a platform for students from emerging economies to connect on global economic issues and develop an informed perspective on how to tackle some of the biggest problems the emerging world faces.
The theme for this year’s conference was “From Uncertainty to Opportunity.” Lockdowns, deteriorating diplomatic relationships and conflicts in many parts of the world, economic turmoil, and a changing political landscape have all created a fog of global uncertainty. Through this fog, emerging markets remain the decade’s primary engines of economic growth. In a rapidly-changing world, emerging economies are leading the global wave of transformation through the power of innovation, the diversity of their demographics, and progress along economic and social parameters.
Panelists from Africa and the Middle East, Asia Pacific, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and South Asia openly shared their ideas on the way forward while highlighting potential risks and concerns for emerging markets. The panel discussions explored the theme across various different spheres—investors and entrepreneurs discussed the rapid surge of unicorns in emerging markets, the impact of Web 3.0, and the potential to use FinTech to empower the next billion financially; policy makers evaluated the role of multilateral institutions, the challenges involved in balancing sustainability and economic development; experts explored the soft power of emerging markets from their cultural exports, cinema, and the creator economy.
Speakers included
- Stephanie von Friedeburg (Senior Vice President – IFC)
- Boris Vujčić (Governor – Croatian National Bank)
- Kalpana Kochhar (Director, Development Policy and Finance – Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation)
- Ashok Khosla (founding co-chair of the United Nations Environment Programme’s International Resource Panel)
- Shaheen Mistri (CEO – Teach for India)
- Ashish Hemrajani (Founder and CEO – BookMyShow)
- Hiro Hirano (co-head, KKR Asia)
- Peter Akwaboah (COO Morgan Stanley – Technology and Firm Resilience)
- Monica Brand Engle (Managing Partner – Quona capital)
- Ervin Massinga (Principle Deputy Assistant Secretry of State at the US State Department)
- John Momoh ( Chairperson and CEO – Channels TV)
- Matias Acevedo Ferrer (Former Executive Director, Inter-American Development Bank, IDB Invest).
The EMS showcased Booth’s diverse international community, and introduced the participants to leading thinkers and perspectives from around the world. Participants also had the opportunity to experience Booth’s thought leadership first-hand, with professors and Booth alumni joining the panels and sharing their experiences.
Finally, the conference was also a great opportunity to bring together students with vastly diverse backgrounds who share similar interests. Participants had the opportunity to build new relationships and expand their network, not just with the leaders of today, but also the leaders of tomorrow.
We are already planning forward for the next year—the conference will return, bigger and better, with another power-packed lineup of speakers and topics!
To learn more about the summit, reach out to any of the co-chairs: Anthony Ulloa, Fred Li, Kofi Amoako-Gyan, Sambhav Ahuja, Shravni Ramkumar, Vikram Venkat, Winston Jin, and Zoe Huang.
