This past week LGBTQ students from Chicago Booth attended the 2014 Reaching Out MBA conference in San Francisco. Each year ROMBA is held in a different city with the purpose of bringing LGBTQ MBA students from all the top business schools together to empower them to become professionals who will lead the way to equality in business education, in the workplace, and throughout society. I had the privilege to accompany 13 first year Boothies to the conference.
Last year I attended the conference as a first year in New Orleans. The three-day event was full of cocktail parties, case competitions, industry panel discussions, break out sessions and networking events. Many firms even invite 1st year MBAs to interview for summer internships. This year was no different. As a 2nd year MBA, the conference was less stressful and not focused on the job search. I attended the conference with Deutsche Bank and spoke to prospective summer interns about my summer experience at the LGBTQ Talent Career Expo. (I interned at DB this summer and signed on to return after graduation).
Conference highlights:
Day 1
SF technology & entrepreneur trek – MBAs visited Twitter,
Women @ Romba sessions
Welcome reception hosted by Goldman Sachs
Day 2
Various career sessions (Investment banking 101, finding success in Consulting, etc)
LGBTQ talent career expo
Marquis dinner & keynote speaker: jonathan mildenhall (cmo of airbnb)
Day 3
Case competition, valuation competition, startup pitch competition
Awards lunch & keynote speaker Keynote Speaker: Peter Thiel (Entrepreneur & Investor)
Closing charity party (Sponsored by Target & Unilever)
Chris Lee and Bradley Powell won the Valuation competition beating schools from other top programs with their valuation of UBER. They won a $2,500 cash price.
Part-time student Piya Chaiprasoet won the Amazon case competition.
Prospective MBAs can also attend the conference and meet with the top 30 business schools.
