The hEDGE Financial Services Conference celebrates its 10th year anniversary with a successful virtual event
By: Farah Mohd Fadzil, SAF Communications Co-op
This year marks the 10th year anniversary of the hEDGE Financial Services Conference (hEDGE), an annual student-organized undergraduate conference founded at the University of Waterloo. When finance’ wasn’t yet a significant part of the School of Accounting and Finance (SAF) in 2011, hEDGE was created to expose students to opportunities in the financial industry.
Over time as the presence of finance increased in the SAF curriculum, the focus of hEDGE shifted from skill development to increasing knowledge about current financial leaders and firms. Ultimately, hEDGE became a useful resource for students to seek job opportunities for future co-op terms or for post-graduation employment.
Putting student needs as a priority
As a student-led conference, the hEDGE executive team continuously finds ways of improvement to fit the needs of their student participants. Jennie, a student in the Accounting and Financial Management (AFM) program and former Co-Head of hEDGE, shares, “in the beginning, one of the major components of the conference was a Mergers & Acquisition (M&A) case competition. But we discovered that students valued having workshops and networking opportunities more.” Listening to their targeted audience, hEDGE is now comprised of three elements: keynote speakers, 10 workshops and networking sessions with 12 corporate sponsors.
Not only are the knowledge- and skill-related matters addressed, hEDGE has also been able to focus on concerns regarding lack of diversity in the financial markets. Adam, an AFM student and a Co-Head of hEDGE, states, “we’ve partnered with HeForShe and other diversity improving programs in the past, and that’s really kind of one of our big focuses moving forward.”
For this year’s conference, hEDGE hosted their very first women’s panel, where five senior female leaders from prominent firms speak about their experiences and challenges in the industry. “I think these are tough topics that a lot of students want to hear about. When they encounter it in the workforce, how to go about navigating some of these more difficult situations”, Jennie shares that the students enjoyed this type of content, and she is looking forward to seeing hEDGE continue with these improvements in the future.
Focusing on certainties rather than uncertainties
Although hEDGE is ideally hosted in-person at the heart of Toronto’s financial district, changes had to be made for 2021. The pandemic did not stop hEDGE from hosting a successful, interactive virtual event with over 100 student delegates attending. Jennie, Adam and their team decided to use a suitable platform for conferences, called HopIn, that would still allow for student engagement and interactive activities, such as networking.
Avoiding virtual fatigue from student delegates and the 12 corporate sponsors joining, a one-day event turned into two days, occurring on April 29 and 30. A positive aspect of this change is that the conference this year was able to take place before the usual financial employee recruitment process occurring in mid-May. Through hEDGE, students were able to learn about the different firms but also put themselves in front of financial leaders and get a step ahead in their application processes.
A piece in the puzzle
Garvin Blair, a professor at SAF who has been a huge support to the hEDGE executive team, emphasizes just how crucial it is for current students to take the opportunity and be active participants in hEDGE. Blair states, “if I was a first-year or second-year student in particular, I would’ve given my left arm for something like this.”
“Don’t come to hEDGE thinking well, I’m going to get a job in finance, that’s the result of it’, no, it’s a piece in the puzzle,” advises Blair, “I just ask students coming into hEDGE: don’t be passive. We don’t do passive in finance, we are active. You want to be an active participant when you come to hEDGE, and that makes it better for the firms, for you, for everybody.”
With the success of hosting this year’s conference completely virtually, Adam and Jennie are certain that future hEDGE conferences, whether in-person or online, are “going to be a hit.”