Students from the School of Business rubbed elbows with area professionals and practitioners in several events on campus recently.

Accounting students ‘meet the firms’
Twenty accounting firms, businesses, government agencies and organizations attended “Meet the Firms Night” for Metro State accounting students.

Sponsored by the Accounting Students' Organization (ASO), the Sept. 12 event, held in the Tivoli Turnhalle, brought 80 students together with 49 business people, many of whom are Metro State alumni.

“Meet the Firms” evolved from a more informal joint event with UCD in previous years. In this year’s redesigned event, students and professionals met one-on-one to discuss career opportunities.

“From all feedback, the first annual ‘Meet the Firms Night’ was a resounding success,” says Accounting Professor and Chair Rick Crosser. “The firms, businesses and government agencies appreciated the professional appearance of the Metro State accounting students and how well prepared they were with questions for the representatives of organizations.”

Inventors convene on campus for conference
About 80 inventors or would-be inventors came to campus Sept. 20 to attend the “Mother of Invention” regional conference.

Presenters covered a number of critical phases in the inventing process, ranging from intellectual property to patents to marketing strategies.

The conference was sponsored by the Metro State student chapter of the Association of Information Technology Professionals, among others. Fifteen student volunteers helped out with the conference.

“We had a wonderful response from the attendees about the energy level and information gleaned from the sessions,” said Miguel Bustamante, assistant professor of computer information systems.

Speaker addresses “The U.S. Financial Meltdown and the U.S. Mortgage Crisis”
Students, faculty, staff and members of the community attended a timely lecture on "The U. S. Financial Meltdown and the U.S. Mortgage Crisis” on Sept. 25 in the Tivoli.

Given by Bryan Roche of Propriety Capital LLC, the lecture was sponsored by the Metro State chapter of the Financial Management Association and attended by about 130 people. After his talk and a question-and-answer session, Roche stayed to answer students' questions and then met for another 30 minutes with the Financial Management Association’s student leaders.

“(The lecture provided) a great opportunity for our students to interact with a local business leader,” said Dean of the School of Business John Cochran. “A special thanks to Dr. Mohammed Akacem, who brought the speaker to campus, to the Finance Department and its Financial Management Association which sponsored the event, and to Student Activities which promoted this successful event.

Strickland headlines Certified Fraud Examiners meeting
Former Assistant U.S. Attorney Cliff Strickland was the keynote speaker at the Colorado Chapter of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (COCFE)monthly meeting, held in the Tivoli Sept. 26.

Strickland was a prosecutor in the cases involving former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio and former Enron executives Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling and Andy Fastow.

“Cliff's presentation was especially enlightening given the recent appeals by the Nacchio defense team to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals,” Cochran said.

Metro State accounting students, faculty and alumni were among the more than 60 people who attended.

“Attendance by such a high proportion of Metro State accounting students and faculty reinforces the strong relationship the Department of Accounting has with the practitioner community,” Cochran said.