Michigan Interactive Investments, a student investment organization at the University, is hosting its fourth annual Undergraduate Investment Conference on Friday, Oct. 14 and Saturday, Oct. 15. MII has invited students, alumni, professionals and sponsors to participate in the conference throughout the weekend. The UIC will feature a stock pitch competition — where teams select a stock according to conference guidelines and present it to a panel of judges — and serve as an opportunity to meet professionals and students from investment clubs at different schools across the country. This interaction allows students to learn from each other and think about investment ideas and campus investment clubs from a new perspective.
MII is focused on educating its members about investing and financial markets. Older students collaborate with younger students to develop the technical and personal skills for professional careers. Many of the competing investment clubs are focused on the same goal. MII members are encouraged to help organize the UIC or compete in the competition.
In its inaugural year, the UIC was founded to bring together investment clubs from other universities to compete in the stock pitch competition. The UIC has been successful for the past three years due to the participation of schools across the country, Michigan alumni and corporate sponsors.
This year, the conference will host 16 schools — including the University of California at Berkeley, University of Pennsylvania and Carnegie Mellon — which will compete for a $3,000 grand prize. Each team of two to four students will deliver a 12-minute stock pitch followed by eight minutes of Q & A on Saturday morning. Three teams will be selected to compete in the final round and will give a longer stock pitch to a panel of four experienced professionals, including head of debt capital markets for SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Beau Cummins, and David MacGregor, CEO of Longbow Research. These judges will determine which school is the winner of the competition and grand prize.
In the past, the UIC has hosted several University alumni as judges and speakers for the event. MII will host Cummins, MBA class of 1989, of SunTrust Robinson Humphrey for the third time. He will give a keynote speech at 1p.m. on Saturday about careers in finance. In addition, the event is sponsored by Longbow Research, Wells Fargo, BP and Blackrock. The sponsors of this event are providing eight first and final-round judges. Three first round judges are MII alumni and friends.
The final round of the stock pitch competition will begin at 3p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 15. The speech by Cummins and the final round of the stock pitch competition will be open to the public and held in the Blau Auditorium at the Ross School of Business. We encourage anyone who is interested to attend.
David Bleznak is a Ross School of Business senior. He is the director of the Undergraduate Investment Conference and also serves as the vice president of operations for MII.