Taking it to the next level each year

Every year the MIT VC conference gets better and it’s amazing to see how a group of students busy with their full MBA schedule are able to pull off an event this size. When I met with Irina and Bennett in Sep during a brief campus visit, it was amazing to see all the excitement that was building up towards this year’s conference.

As one of the lead organizers of last year’s conference, the entire experience - raising sponsorships, finding keynotes, recruiting panel speakers and building a strong executive team - was a highlight of my MBA experience. It was an invaluable experience as it gave me a good view of the New England VC and entrepreneurial ecosystem. Most importantly it was an entrepreneurial effort in itself as we had to work with limited resources in terms of time/people/money and put together a show that draws the best investors and entrepreneurs in the NE region.

Now in it’s 11th year, the conference will be packed with exciting panels and keynotes as every year. It will also be a great networking event with entrepreneurs sharing latest business ideas, VCs talking about the changing dynamics of the industry and MIT students and professors discussing about technologies and ideas germinating on campus. A recent addition since last year’s conference is the MIT Entrepreneurship Showcase. The event was very well received last year and I hear it will expand this year to make it more useful for VCs and entrepreneurs to directly connect with each other.

With the backdrop of the recent financial crisis, this year’s conference will be very interesting and important as it will arouse discussion about the impact on VC investing and how entrepreneurs should plan to build their ideas in such difficult times. With so many recent Sloan graduates (about 20!) who started their own businesses instead of taking plush jobs, it will be interesting to hear the community’s advise on how to weather the current crisis.

I wish good luck to the lead organizers and the rest of the organizing committee for the preparations of this event. It will be an exciting event and I look forward to it. Finally, I would like to extend a big thanks to the sponsors, VCs, entrepreneurs and the MIT Entrepreneurship center who keep coming back each year to support this student run initiative. I hope to be there and meet many of you during this year’s event!

Abhinav Khushraj, Class of 2008