Broad Advantage kicked off to a great start today in New York City. 100+ girls from over 80 of the world’s leading colleges and universities converged upon the Kimmel Center for Broad Advantage. The sponsors for the five-day event include Bloomberg and Lehman Brothers at the Platinum level, Credit Suisse at the Gold level, JPMorgan at the Silver level, and TD Amerirade, GSC Group, Capital Group, Arcapita, and Sigular Guff as Scholarship Providers.

Our first speaker of the day was Umber Ahmad, a Principal at Goldenridge Capital. Umber rocked the house. She was genuine, relevant, and engaging. One attendee said, “Umber Ahmad was very educational as well as very inspiring. Since she was such a dynamic and passionate speaker I felt moved and engaged.” Another attendee said, “Umber was my favorite speaker because she was personable, informative, entertaining and impressive.” She brought her whole self to the conference and blew the audience away.

Nouriel Roubini gave the audience concrete, current information about the subprrime financial system. He just come straight from giving an interview on CNBC! Nouriel has a brilliant interview in this week’s edition of Barron’s. See if you can grab it on line! The guy is an absolute ROCK STAR. I found his lecture fascinating. He outlined the prospects and current status for the US economy and the implications for financial markets. He discussed the causes of the US housing crisis/recession and why this recession will be much worse than the previous two recessions in 1990-91 and 2001. He discussed the current stresses on the US consumer and clearly outlined how this is not just a subprime mortgage problem. It’s a “subprime financial system.”

Key Points/Summary:

US recession and sharp global economic slowdown in 2008. Recent data suggest the US recesssion has already started. US recession to last four to six quarters

Central banks are behind the curve and Fed easing will not prevent a US recession. It will only put a floor on it

Severe financial losses (over $1 trillion) and risk of a systemic crisis for the banking and financial system

Recoupling of the rest of the world with a global economic slowdown that is sharp

Sharp rise in volatility in financial markets (equities, credit,fx) in the US and abroad in 2008

Cash is king: avoid a variety of risky assets

Further sharp and persistent re-pricing of risk

The credit boom/bubble party is over!

After lunch, Hannah Seligson spoke about networking and how to write a follow-up networking email.

Key points:

-Friend requesting is not networking

-Be specific: "It’s hard to help someone who says, ‘I want to work in media.’ It’s much easier to help someone who says, "I want to work in a new media marketing company. Then the person can put you in touch with the most appropriate and helpful contacts.

-Follow up-but don’t harass. Structure your follow up email so it’s easy for your contact to help you.

-Come prepared. If you are asking for someone’s time, don’t get on the phone or show up at the meeting with nothing to say. Prepare a list of questions.

-Networking is not a dirty word. A lot of people analogize networking with using people. It’s not. Networking is just a less savory way of saying relationship building.

Stew Friedman spoke about his concept of book of “Total Leadership.” All the girls are getting copies of his book!!! He spoke about the importance of being real, being whole, being innovative. He suggested that the girls make their life like a jazz quartet and imagine where they’d like to be 20 years from now. He wanted the attendees to think BIG. Check out his BLOG on 85 Broads.com!

Carolyn Buck-Luce offered specific, useful advice and facts about working as a women in business, off-ramping, extreme jobs, and balancing work and family. She spoke about “Expanding the Power and Influence of Women.”

The Corporate Challenge

The Individual Challenge

What Companies Can Do

What You Can Do

Women and Power- The Challenge for Women:

The Goldilocks Syndrome

The “Good Girl” Problem

Embracing Ambition

Finding Your Purpose

Using Power Intentionally

Bloomberg’s site visit was incredible. They captured and communicated the unique and sassy Bloomberg culture. Speakers included, Laura Zelenko, the Managing Editor of Global Stocks; Curtis Ravenel, the BLP Admin for BGreen, Melinda Wolfe, the new head of Professional Development; Amanda Bennet the Executive Ediotr of Bloomberberg News and Nicole Vassilev, the Manager of Software QA for transaction Products. First the girls were welcomed to Bloomberg and heard Angela Sun, the Chief of Staff to the President, speak about her time working for Bloomberg in the Mayor’s office and about working now at Bloomberg. We then heard from the President of the company and Michael Bloomberg himself (via a video!; they welcomed us to Bloomberg and gave us the skinny on their history and mission. We then took a tour of Bloomberg’s breathtaking building and met employees from the Sales, Research, News, and Training teams. You really saw how all the divisions of Bloomberg work together!

The Bloomberg tower epitomizes the culture and values of Bloomberg- the employees sit trading floor style and conference rooms are open via glass walls. The company is non-hierarchical and is very flat and open. The building itself looks like a big Bloomberg screen; it’s vibrant and colorful. In one of the training rooms the chairs were bean bags and square chairs shaped like colored Bloomberg computer keys. The employees have free snack cafeterias to refuel throughout the day. And if they need a moment of calm amidst the fast-paced financial markets, there are fish tanks on every floor.

And Bloomberg decorated the event room in PINK and GREEN. We had the most incredible balloon flowers!!! They looked so mod.

So that’s the quick run-down on the first day of the event. More tomorrow!