Ninety-two business professionals from 68 companies including Bloomberg News, Wells Fargo, and NASDAQ shared their wealth of knowledge with visiting business students from around the world at Quinnipiac’s inaugural Global Asset Management Education forum last weekend.

“The level of speakers is incredible, well versed, highly knowledgeable people,” said Michael Knight, junior finance major from Concordia University in Montreal. “It’s good to get such high level opinion as to what’s going on in the world. We get a very limited view at school. We’re distracted with our books, and these people have their hands on the pulse of what’s going on in the world at all times; it’s what they do for a living. To have that exposure is very valuable.”

Students from universities in 24 countries participated in the three-day event. The forum included talks on the job outlook for graduating students.

“The unemployment rate for undergrads is four to five percent, roughly,” said Daniel Faltas, junior finance major from Concordia University. “If we’re in the right place at the right time doing the right things, like attending these conferences and positioning ourselves well, I think we’re well positioned to get a job.”

The G.A.M.E. forum brings together students, faculty and investment professionals, said David Sauer, founder and managing director.

“The reason why we got them together is so they can talk about the different challenges, trends and opportunities that exist within the financial markets,” Sauer said. “It’s very unusual for these three groups to be together.”

The event is student run by 30 key student leaders.

“One of the unique characteristics of the event is that it is hosted by students at the university, and that’s really important to mention because the professionals and students who are considering attending are provided with a great impression of the Quinnipiac community,” Sauer said.

This is the first of 11 conferences that Sauer hasn’t received any negative feedback.

“Our inaugural Quinnipiac G.A.M.E. Forum was the best that I’ve done in my 11 years,” Sauer said. “The program was one of the strongest ones that I’ve had and as a result of the 125 Quinnipiac students, it was one of the most smoothly run conferences.”

The keynote panel on the first afternoon consisted of business professionals that were initially asked questions by hand-picked students. All students had the opportunity to ask questions in the following Q&A session.

“I’ve talked to a lot of the business professionals about the job markets,” said Eric Belgard, G.A.M.E. Forum oversight committee member. “It made me really realize that the first job you have isn’t the job you’re always going to have. It’s very easy to network and move around to really try to find your niche and be successful.”

Typically this conference takes 15-24 months to plan, but Quinnipiac organized the G.A.M.E. forum in just 6 months, Sauer said. Next year’s event will be held in New York City.

“We’re in the same vicinity as New York City, so we can bring in a lot of professionals [to the forum] which raises the reputation of Quinnipiac,” said Nick Napolitano, G.A.M.E. Forum oversight committee member. “We want to get people to recognize the name for more than just the polling institute. It’s really a strong way for all the Quinnipiac students to learn more about finance and network with students form all across the country and from Canada.”

Sauer has managed ten other conferences at other universities including the University of Dayton in Ohio, and he says he was hired at Quinnipiac to create this financial forum. Now that the inaugural conference is completed, he says he plans on sticking around and developing the forum further.

“Quinnipiac is my new home,” Sauer said.