On 7th November, UCD Smurfit FinTech Society organized its first event “Blockchain: Beyond Cryptocurrency” at the UCD Smurfit School. We had an exciting panel from Deloitte Blockchain lab and ConsenSys, Ireland to talk us through the innovations happening in Fintech and the role of Blockchain in industries such as finance, supply chain and food. The session started with the basics of Blockchain, but participation and inquisitiveness of society members drove discussion towards more complex topics on ethereum development and use of technology across sectors. To our surprise, many MBA students turned up for the event although it was happening on the day before Economics mid-term exam (Dear Jim, I wish this can be used as an excuse for my not so good performance in the economics mid-term exam). The part that was most fun around organizing the event and running Smurfit FinTech society has been meeting like-minded people who want to use or are using the Blockchain technology to power their own ventures and the aim of our Society is to bring together those people.
Also, the support that we got from Smurfit LDP and Careers office has been tremendous. Ailish Lynch, our MBA Leadership Development Manager, supported us from the very start when we pitched our idea to start a new club aimed at FinTech innovations. Mark Davies, UCD Smurfit Careers Manager also helped us to reach out to companies to help us with eminent guest speakers. There is a lot to explore in Blockchain technologies, and UCD Smurfit’s strong alumni network is of huge benefit for people who have desire to reach out to people from the field of their interest.
Shubham Sahai, FTMBA 2018/2019