Student Life
Conferences and Competitions
Student Initiatives: Ideas Made to Matter
MIT Sloan students plan and host professional conferences that focus on a particular region, industry, or theme during each academic year. The conferences bring business, government, and thought leaders from around the world to MIT Sloan's campus and the Cambridge area to share their insights with students and professionals. They offer an invaluable opportunity to practice management in action, allowing students who get involved to build their networks and develop leadership skills. Attending a Sloan student conference also offers a unique opportunity to learn more about a particular industry or geography while supporting the incredible work of your peers.
2022-2023 Conferences and Competitions
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In partnership, the FLI@Solan Student Club and Graduate Student Council are hosting at MIT, Class Action's 10 Annual First Gen Summit. This gathering brings together first-gen graduate and undergraduate students from across the country. Over 200 students from close to 20 different schools will be represented. The First Gen Summit serves as a site for first-gen students and their allies to come together to identify challenges and discuss grassroots solutions that redefine the first-gen label in contrast to the generally applied deficit lens. The event entails 15 student-led workshops, a keynote speech by Jonathan Allen of Leadership Brinery, a networking session, and much more.
Visit the website for more information.
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The MIT Sloan Stock Pitch Competition is designed for graduate students from top business programs across the United States to showcase their investment analysis skills in front of distinguished and seasoned judges from top investment management firms. The Series will host up to 80 student participants and 18 judges. The competition begins with a preliminary round where teams compete concurrently in front of separate judge panels who will select the winning team from each group to advance to the finals. Following the preliminary round, there is a keynote speaker address from our platinum corporate sponsor centered around understanding the investment management industry and career opportunities. Following this keynote address, competitors are notified of preliminary round results and the winners advance to the final round of competition, from which one winning team will be selected. Prizes are awarded to the top 2-3 teams and all competitors and attendees get the opportunity to network with sponsors and judges, as well as fellow business school students from across the country who are also pursuing careers in investment management.
Visit the website for more information.
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The MIT Sloan Investment Conference is an annual student-led event that brings together some of the most notable individuals in the investment world to educate and connect a wide range of financial industry participants.
The theme of the 2023 conference is "Navigating the Turbulence", discussing the ways and perspectives on navigating the current turmoil including inflation, recession, war, post-covid and geopolitical tensions. Previously, we had some amazing speakers including Ben Bernanke, Dina Powell, Sam Zell, and Peter Lynch and we’re looking forward to having some great speakers join us this year as well. We are excited to have David Rubenstein as our opening keynote speaker at the upcoming conference.
We will have panels covering public and private markets, impact investing, blockchain, alternative assets, quantitative trading, technology/software, Latam and a few more.
Visit the website for more information.
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We are excited to announce the 2023 MIT Sloan Healthcare and Bioinnovations Conference! The student-led event will take place in person on Friday, February 24th at Building E14 on the MIT campus. This year’s theme is “Frontiers of Health: Innovations in a landscape with evolving complexity”. We are excited to bring together academia, industry and policy leaders within the healthcare ecosystem to discuss key issues and topics in the space.
The MIT Sloan Healthcare Innovations Prize 2023 will take place the day before on Friday, February 23rd. All are welcome!
Visit the website for more information.
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The Finance Group at MIT Sloan and MIT Impact Finance Initiative student club and is pleased to co-host our first impact finance conference on February 24th, 2023. With distinguished speakers across industries and geographies, along with a keynote address by Prof. Andrew Lo, the conference aims to engage experts on challenges, opportunities, and the future of ESG and impact investing. This day-long conference will feature eight distinct panels with topics ranging from investing in public and private markets to regulation across regions. The conference will provide our students an opportunity to learn while building community in this fast-growing and dynamic space in contemporary finance. Invitation is by invite only for our inaugural event.
Visit the website for more information.
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MIT Product Conference will bring together a diverse group of product leaders and professionals from tech organizations and startups to discuss ideas, trends, and technologies that will define the next wave of game-changing products in the industry. In addition to inspirational keynotes and insightful panel discussions, the conference will feature recruiting events, a Product Hackathon, networking dinners, and a number of other opportunities to engage and connect with speakers and attendees.
Visit the website for more information.
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The MIT Sloan Retail Conference bridges the gap between top graduate students and leading industry professionals, bringing the two together to engage in discussion over the changing landscape of the retail and consumer goods industries. This year’s conference theme is “Purpose-Led Retail” which we’ll explore how companies instill purpose beyond profits into their company culture, business models and products.
Visit the website for more information.
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The Asia Business Conference highlights the key business challenges, practices, and innovations that are shaping Asia today and tomorrow. Through discussion and dialogue, the conference endeavors to create a platform that connects East and West, with the aim of educating and preparing the next generation of leaders in Asia.
Visit the website for more information.
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For the 9th year in a row, the New Space Age Conference will bring together industry professionals, students from all universities, and other space enthusiasts. We will discuss the many exciting challenges and tremendous opportunities ahead of the rapidly emerging space economy. At the conference we will have panels full of industry experts to speak on subjects such as deep space exploration, commercial space stations, and satellite monitoring as well as a full day of networking, informal sharing of ideas, and collaboration.
Visit the website for more information.
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The Brazil Conference at Harvard & MIT is an annual event organized by the Brazilian student community in the Boston area since 2015. Its goal is to promote a meeting with leaders and representatives of Brazil's diversity. We discuss topics related to politics, economy, culture and society. In these two days we bring Brazil to Harvard and MIT, establish a plural space for debate, creating ideas about the future of our country and fostering the transformations that will improve the lives of the largest number of Brazilians. The Brazil Conference is a collective student building, constructed by volunteer students from all schools in the Greater Boston area. It is up to us, the current generation of young people, to promote the discussion of ideas that will affect Brazil of the future.
Visit the website for more information.
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After nearly a 10-year hiatus, the MIT Sloan Gaming Industry Conference is BACK! Join us on April 7th, 2023 at Building E14 on the MIT campus for a deep dive into the gaming industry. Panels and keynote speakers will cover trends within the gaming industry, emerging gaming technologies, blockchain gaming, gaming venture capital and much more!
Visit the website for more information.
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The MIT Sloan Africa Innovate Conference (AIC) is an annual event that brings together industry, academic, investment, and policy leaders from within and outside Africa to discuss key issues on innovation and business development. As a conference led by students at MIT Sloan, our goal is to curate an event that supports networking, learning, and idea generation across students and industry professionals.
Visit the website for more information.
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The HBS and MIT Sloan Technology and International Security Conference brings together practitioners and thinkers from the public and private sectors to discuss the challenges, opportunities, and emerging dynamics confronting the global defense establishment. The 2023 conference will focus on the technological developments and innovation gleaned from the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and their implications for a future China-Taiwan contingency.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has highlighted multiple strengths and weaknesses in U.S., allied, and partner defense industrial base’s ability to respond rapidly to the crisis and adapt current practices for future conflicts. The U.S. Intelligence Community accurately predicted and publicized President Vladimir Putin’s invasion playbook to limit his options. Ukraine has employed information warfare and unmanned aerial systems (UAS) to massively disrupt Russian operations. Allied weapons’ manufacturers have faced long production and delivery timelines as governments deplete domestic stockpiles to surge weapons to the conflict zone. These innovations and problems are just a few examples of the “lessons learned” for the national security establishment.
Beyond Russia and Ukraine, these insights are particularly relevant to U.S., allied, and partner defense and industrial policy as senior decision-makers respond to Chinese aggression against Taiwan. As the cross-strait balance of power tilts further in Beijing’s favor and the risk of conflict increases, the U.S., alongside allies and partners, must shape emerging technology today to deter Chinese designs on the island and avoid great power war in the near future.
Visit the website for more information.
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The MIT Sloan School of Management invites you to join its annual ETA conference: New Frontiers in SMB Acquisition - People, Process & Technology. The conference will serve as a beginner-friendly introduction to a career in small business acquisition and serve as a platform to network with students, searchers, operators, investors, and policymakers.
The conference aims to promote SMB ownership as a catalyst for social impact. We will highlight the success of diverse operators using innovative strategies and technologies.
We will explore small business ownership as a career path regardless of prior experience, skillset, race, ethnicity, and gender.
Visit the website for more information.
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The 19th Annual Operations Simulation Competition (OpsSimCom) 2023 is a student-led event where you can compete with top graduate students from around the world to see who can run the most profitable factory.
Play for a prize pool totaling $3,000 - no travel required!
Play an online simulation against teams from around the world to manage a factory: make investments, cut costs, borrow money, forecast demand, find bottlenecks, fulfill orders and satisfy customers! We've witnessed the best teams from around the world pit their wits against each other in what the game creator has called "possibly the most challenging assignment I've ever created." OpsSimCom will use a simulator specially designed for the competition, and no prior experience with the simulation is required. Even if you have played this game in class, this will not be a repeat of what you have seen before.
Visit the website for more information.
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The Latin American Business Conference is co-organized by the LatAm student clubs of MIT Sloan and HBS. As the oldest US business school conference focused in LatAm, our goal is to connect the Sloan and HBS communities with LatAm and the region’s business leaders, public sector leaders and entrepreneurs. On April 23rd, we’ll bring together some of the top leaders in LatAm at MIT to discuss the opportunities and challenges in the region through 2030.
Visit the website for more information.
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The MIMO Symposium is a student-led event that provides a space where industry leaders in manufacturing and operations can approach MIT and learn about the benefits AI can bring to their businesses. Individuals will have the chance to meet academics and students who are working on new AI technologies, enabling the exchange of knowledge and opportunities.
Visit the website for more information.