MBA’s interested in Media meetup in New York
Babson MBA students Jordan Tuch, Adriana Olavarria, Surbhi Bachhawatt, Janco Damas
If like the Babson MBA students pictured above you have an interest in media and entertainment, you might agree that opportunities are sparse in Wellesely Massachusetts. Babson does not have much in the way of structured programs to offer aspiring media professionals. However, as a Babson student there is access available through the Student Leadership Initiative Fund (SLIF). SLIF encourages students to go beyond campus for real word experiences which complements the MBA. SLIF will also fund a portion of the expenses so that students can share the Babson brand with communities all over the world. Earlier this year I traveled to Mexico for a conference on global entrepreneurship. Again, SLIF defrayed a significant portion of those costs.
The point is that its best to get out and find the dots connecting MBA and the real world. For MBAs interested in media, there are two conferences to attend in Spring. First, the Media Finance and Investor Conference in Las Vegas and also the MBA Media & Entertainment Conference in New York. I attended the latter conference in New York this year. The conference is one of few formal gatherings of MBA’s interested in Media and Entertainment. The venue works well, in New York, where there is a relative dense collection of media opportunities. Hosting the annual event is Columbia Business School along with Wharton, Duke, MIT, and NYU Stern.
Jyothsna Chakravarthy MBA ’15 talks entertainment business with Duke MBA ’16 student Mandar Sankholkar
I was accompanied by a handful of Babos, and like us at least a dozen other MBA programs were in attendance. The keynote speakers were two at the forefront of Media today and they spoke candidly about the way up the corporate infrastructure of media companies. It was a great opportunity to meet the industry’s next generation of leaders face-to-face.
Greg Coleman, President of Buzzfeed, spoke memorably about his career in digital media. Coleman helped Yahoo build out its global sales team in the mid 2000s, and also paid dues at AOL and The Huffington Post. Huffington Post was co-founded by Mr. Coleman’s now colleague and Buzzfeed CEO Jonah Peretti along with Arianna Huffington and investor Ken Lerer in 2005. Media is one industry where many of its top executives come to share a common work lineage over time. Reportedly, Mr. Coleman has been one of the more accomplished ad sales executives in the industry. It is expected that his day to day job at Buzzfeed will increasingly focus on helping clients get the most for their advertising spend on the website Buzzfeed.com.
Josh Sapan, CEO of AMC Networks (AMCX:Nasdaq) was the second Keynote speaker at the MBAs in Media conference in New York. In 2010 Sapan was singled out by Fast Company magazine as one of the “100 Most Creative People in Business.” His career has been centered on delivering must-have content to passionate audiences. While at AMC Sapan has infused a strong focus on innovative distribution models in the content industries. He spoke about distribution models being the next frontier for media industries.