LSE Alternative Investments Conference?

This is the annual conference that a group of LSE students organise every year, primarily focusing on Private Equity and Hedge Funds.

I went last year, and I therefore figured I could offer some insight into whether it is worth going. I am doing this now, as the conference is being advertised:

Pros:

• Clearly if you are interested in alternative investments you will find the speakers and the "core" mission of the conference enormously exciting. The conference always has a blowout group of keynote speakers incl. David Rubenstein last year, which was really great to see!

• In a similar vein, you will most likely also appreciate the peers who are attending the conference with you. Last year, most of the students I met were ambitious and super friendly. To my surprise there was also diversity in backgrounds, with some students even making the trip from the US.

• The dinner on the first day was also super fun! The conference really makes the most out of the fact that it is being hosted by the Marriott in Mayfair, London. This became especially clear with the three-course dinner that was served up that night. In general, the quality of coffee, breakfast, and lunch that was included, along with the team of organising students and hotel staff made the parts of the conference not taken up by the keynotes and workshops really endearing as well.

Cons:

• The structure of the conference means that there is a lot of listening, and not a huge platform for asking questions to the speakers. This did however vary from speaker to speaker. Some keynotes even encouraged questions when they had the main floor. What's more a couple even stayed behind after and you could even talk to them one-to-one.

• The workshops were not as hands-on as you could have hoped. I think part of the problem was that each session was slightly too large. There was also a variety in the workshops that students got to attend, due to space constraints.

• Finally, while I know some of the sponsors use the application process for the conference as screening for their own graduate recruitment / networking events, I do not think you can generalise by saying that it will get you in the door. I did talk to some students who had interviews with some of the firms that were represented, and used the opportunity to familiarise themselves with those organisations. Similarly, there was a women's networking event hosted by one of the sponsors last year. In general, I suppose it would add to your believability with the firm you are interviewing with, if you can tie a point back to a presentation at the conference. But again, this presumes you have gotten that far in the first place, which the conference certainly does not guarantee.

In general, I would definitely recommend the conference if you have the ability to come, and I would definitely attend the conference again!