How hEDGE became one of Canada's leading student finance conferences
By: Keidon Giles, SAF Communications Co-opThe hEDGE Financial Services Conference is a one-day event hosted annually at the heart of Toronto's financial district, offering keynote speakers, exclusive workshops and productive networking for aspiring finance professionals. It is one of Canada's leading student-organized undergraduate finance conferences.
How did this conference become the large networking event it is today? In honour of the 10th anniversary of hEDGE, the SAF met with Garvin Blair, lecturer in finance, and Ranjini Jha, professor of finance, to look back at its history.
The inception
The key factors that initiated the establishment of the hEDGE Conference in 2011 was SAF's desire to spark student interest in finance and to build awareness in employers to help grow and strengthen the University of Waterloo’s standing in the field of finance. In order to attain this goal, SAF brought 100 university students to Toronto to gain the attention of 22 industry leaders and to show them Waterloo, according to Jha, "has brilliant students whom they could look to for co-op and full-time employment opportunities".
The hEDGE Conference at its infancy was meant to get students interested in finance and yet the conference is student-led because of the tremendous initiative and interest from SAF students. The students continue to improve the conference through feedback to then pass it on to the next generation. However, building interest in finance was only the beginning as Blair indicated, “when we started off it was really to get Waterloo out there and get students interested in finance. But that's 10 years ago and things have changed since then in a big way, and in a good way."
Continuous growth
Blair claims that “when things started off with hEDGE, if I could sum it up in one word, it would be education. Educating the students with regards to the skills they need in the financial sphere and educating the various financial firms about Waterloo.” This was the goal 10 years ago, but as time has passed, the hEDGE Conference has become so much more than just an educational experience.
In 2021, the firms now know the quality of students at Waterloo, and they hire the students instead of only educating them about their firm. This is because finance has become more prevalent at Waterloo through the efforts of students with the hEDGE Conference. “And so, that's how it's grown and become the conference it is today." - Blair.
A turning point
Not only did the reputation of the University of Waterloo grow over the first five years of hEDGE, but the conference grew as well by adding case competitions and mock interviews, not just for Waterloo students but students across all of Canada and internationally. The conference also expanded from a one-day event in 2011, to a two-day event in 2012, and eventually to a three-day event in 2013. This expansion was viewed positively at first, with many more sponsors and institutional investors having signed on, but over time organizers realized that hEDGE had moved away from its original focus - Waterloo. The conference reached a plateau and needed to transform because the conference was trying to be “everything for everybody.”
According to Jha, when you’ve done the same conference for five years, sponsors and employers lose interest due to a lack of uniqueness. “What are they [sponsors, employers] getting out of this? Because they are already able to get co-op students and so they want to see, is there something new to it [the conference]? They don't want to keep doing 10-12 of these year after year. It just is not worth it. So, I think that was a challenging time.”
This is where Blair and the students took away as a challenge. Today, Blair voices how the conference, when in-person, is now a one-day event “because as an ex-employer of students, you don't want to waste your time over two or three days. It doesn't take you that long to decide [which students you want to hire].” Also, to keep the University of Waterloo and SAF unique from other schools, hEDGE moved away from expanding across Canada and internationally and is now, as stated by Blair, “focused back on Waterloo students, how good Waterloo students are, getting them in front of employers, teaching them skills, and showing them what opportunities are there for the students.”
The virtuous circle
We cannot forget that the hEDGE Conference, best put by Jha, “is student-led, and continues to succeed because students are interested, and they are leading.” But it isn’t just current students who continue to help hEDGE succeed, it’s alumni as well.
“The most gratifying thing as a faculty [member] is to see students who were involved with hEDGE, several years ago, come back as employed by someone and recruiting the current hEDGE attendees. It’s a virtuous circle, and it's so nice to see them and they've got good things to say about Waterloo and hEDGE.” - Garvin Blair
In order for hEDGE to help students, this virtuous circle needs to continue. Blair emphasizes, “for students reading this, I encourage you to get involved. Let's keep it going because it does everybody so much good.”