MBAT - Destination Unknown

What an event! What a show! What a great time we all had!

Ladies and gentlemen, HEC MBAT has just concluded...and I am exhilirated, and knackered! Over the last four days, we have hosted over a thousand students from some of Europe's finest business schools and NYU Stern. The tournament started on Thursday evening with a boxing match during which we invited volunteer boxers to box against international boxers from the French team. We then partied all night before the games started, in glorious sunshine, on Friday. The tournament turned out to be not just a contest of talent but also the ability to last over four days with very little sleep, a lot of booze, and physical endurance. As one of the events officers, I found myself hecticaly scrambling during every entertainment event sorting out backstage issues. I also averaged three hours of sleep each night and I am the lucky one! There are some officers and coordinators who did not sleep at all! Some of us looked, look, like zombies, wearily loitering around campus but putting in our best efforts to make sure that everything remained smooth and calm on the surface for our guests. And, what brilliant guests we had. We had the extremely excited Latin spirit from the Spanish and Italian schools, and London Business School, who came with a London double-decker loaded with beer and a jeep for a trailer, provided us with some competitive spirit and they did end up winning the tournament. HEC Paris came third and IESE came second. And, we had a small but spirited participation from NYU Stern. It has been a fantastic event and, though, I am so tired that it hurts to wink, I take great delight in reporting to the world how much fun we have had! And, for this, I thank the participating schools and the players, and all those who came to the tournament. Personally, being involved in organising the parties has been a great opportunity to network with some of my own colleagues at a level that only a demanding, stressful, and cooperative environment can facilitate. Things did not always go right - we had far too many impromtu events within events, and unexpected delays in setting up the party venues but when the time came to open the doors, we were there, with a smile, to welcome our guests. And, we have performed beyond expectations (yes, we will have to work on the food though) to give you the best ever MBA Tournament. I am glad I was part of it, and I hope you will someday choose to help HEC Paris organise another such event. What a wonderful experience it has been! And, at the end, everyone was a winner.

The schools that made MBAT possible and a lot of fun are:

London Business School
Oxford University Said Busienss School
Manchester Business School
INSEAD
IMD
SDA Bocconi
Instituto de Impresa
ESADE Business School
Cambridge - Judge Business School
IESE
Cass Business School (London)
New York University - Stern Business School
...and Tias Nimbas (Utrecht, the Netherlands)

PS: This is my first and last blog as a resident on campus - we had rooms for events organisers to make things easy but it is time go home. The campus is now very quiet and it tickles my sentiments to think that this was a once in a lifetime experience, one that I will remember forever.