Presenting my assignment at the MSc Management conference

The annual MSc Management conference took place in February, in which Arafat from this year’s cohort was selected to present his assignment to an external assessment panel. Here, he outlines his experience of his course, the conference and Warwick Business School (WBS) so far.

The course

From finding my way into the lecture theatres for the first time, to being invited to present my work for the MSc Management conference, my journey at WBS has been nothing short of thrilling.

I have thoroughly enjoyed interacting with people from such diverse backgrounds and learned a lot about their cultures. The impressive range of extracurricular activities that WBS offers has also been a highlight for me.

I’ve found MSc Management to be an extremely fulfilling and engaging one, especially with its array of exciting projects and opportunities on offer. The programme is very intricately designed to give us the best possible experience. We have an online and an in-person workshop most weeks with the use of relevant case studies and business simulation projects being instrumental in our learning.

What sets this course apart though is the International Management module’s trip that you can be a part of in the third term. Through this, the students get the opportunity to involve themselves in culture immersion and learn new themes in a diverse environment.

I’ve enjoyed working on real life case studies with different teams and giving impromptu presentations. This has really pushed my abilities to think beyond the ordinary and enhanced my knowledge through practical examples. Every workshop is unique in its own way, which makes it all the more thrilling.

The conference

In February, I was invited to the annual MSc Management conference at WBS’ Teaching Centre. The conference was hosted by course’s programme team, and had an esteemed panel of industry experts as guests.

I had the opportunity to present my work for the assignment report on ‘Critical Evaluation of British Petroleum’s (BP) Strategy’. In my pitch, I highlighted the strategy overhaul of BP made in 2020, its analysis of performance over time, and the competitive landscape in which it operates.

This year’s conference gave the students who performed well in two core modules – Performance Management of the Firm and Strategies for Global Economy – a chance to pitch their findings to the panel with both team and individual presentations.

It was a surreal feeling for me to have been invited to present my work at the prestigious conference. Throughout my academic life, I have always enjoyed public speaking events so this was a fantastic opportunity for me to shed some light on my work, and also learn some meaningful insights from the panel and faculty. 

As one of the presenters, I felt it was a great initiative from the programme team to emphasise storytelling and elevator pitch as opposed to a typical slides-based presentation. There was also a networking session with the panel, which was very useful for the students to learn more about different industries and career opportunities.

It was a great academic milestone for me to be presenting at the conference which gave me exposure to stakeholders from different industries. I also learned the art of storytelling and interacting with your audience while doing so, thanks to WBS faculty’s coaching session in the lead-up to the main event. Seeing other students and teams present their work also helped me gain knowledge about other industries.