By Taha Khan and Howard J. Li
On Wednesday, The Street Smarts had the honor of attending the Professional Risk Managers International Association in San Francisco at the Google Launchpad. The event began with a large spread for breakfast while other professionals slowly poured in and registered. We had already gotten our name tags and were working finish our piles of fruit and chocolate croissants.
To begin the event, the CEO of PRMIA, Ken Radigan, welcomed everyone to the event and gave us a summary of what we could hope to expect for the day. We would have a series of speakers who would be talking about different subjects such as Augmented Intelligence, and The Future of Capital Markets. These panels were accompanied by moderators who would guide the discussion and help keep the presentation on track while also taking relevant questions from the audience, and asking some of their own.
One of the coolest things about the event was the polling system they had managed to sync with their presentations. We were all given a link to a web-app that allowed us to sign in and connect with everyone on LinkedIn, as well as pose questions, and answer the questions on the screen. The fascinating part about the polling app was the fact that they had managed to integrate it with the live presentation, so as people answered on the phone, almost instantaneously their answers would appear on the screen as well for everyone else to see. The results would change rapidly for a few seconds until everyone had put their answers in, it was very helpful to see what everyone else in the room though, and the speakers made sure to justify their own answers with their knowledge of the industry.
Visiting PRMIA allowed me to personally connect with trailblazers in fin-tech, and to my surprise, they did not seem to mind that I was a freshman or a community college student. In fact, they welcomed me with open arms and had the courtesy to ask me more about what school is like, what are my career goals, and they were particularly interested in learning about the great work Michael is accomplishing with The Street Smarts.
Overall, the trip to PRMIA was definitely a rewarding experience. Not only were we able to learn the frontier innovation in the finance industry, but we were also able to learn people’s personal stories about how they fight their way to the finance industry. It is definitely an inspiration to us as students who want to get into the industry. Finally, we would like to thank the Street Smarts for inviting us to this event, and it is our great fortune to be a part of this program that helps increase diversity and inclusion in the Finance and professional industry overall. Thank you, Michael Campbell, for founding this wonderful organization
