Reflecting On A Year Without Events and On Their Importance for The Bocconi Community

Spending almost an entire semester away from campus, and for many, away from Milan, means that most of us feel that we are missing out on a lot of things. After all, our routines have changed, many plans have been cancelled, and the way we’ve gotten used to living has completely been altered.

For the Bocconi community, this feeling even includes all the things we often complained about, like 8.45 lectures, queuing up to find a good spot at the library, or studying in the bunker for who knows how long during exam sessions. It of course also includes all the more fun parts, like hanging out around campus with friends and taking much-longer-than-necessary study breaks. But there is another level to the Bocconi life that we’re missing out on now: events.

“POSSIBLY THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF EVENTS IS THE FACT THAT THEY ARE KEY FOR BUILDING A SENSE OF COMMUNITY ON CAMPUS. BRINGING TOGETHER PEOPLE THAT SHARE THE SAME INTERESTS MAKES EVENTS A GREAT WAY OF CONNECTING WITH LIKEMINDED PEOPLE AND FEELING MORE UNDERSTOOD. ”

— Selin Hatunoglu

Glancing up at an event poster was basically part of the ritual of waiting in line for your vending machine coffee. In addition to all the social media promotion, they led everyone to look forward to events. Being organised by a variety of associations with great topics and guest speakers, it has undoubtedly been disappointing to miss out on them. They have always been great opportunities not only to learn, but to network too.

Having the opportunity to spend a little more time after the event to personally talk to the speakers has to be one of my favourite parts of events. Discussing with countless CEOs, Creative Directors and many more people who are great at what they do has given me so many insights that are very valuable to me.

More than just offering the possibility to get a deeper understanding of a subject you’re already be interested in, events were also great ways to find brand new interests, and see what different associations have to offer. Although not every event may spark your interest (I’m looking at you, that one event I attended about M&A), they’re definitely going to be perfect for someone else, given the broad variety of people at Bocconi. 

Possibly the most important part of events is the fact that they are a key for building a sense of community. Coming together with people that share the same interests and that want to learn more makes events a great way of sharing ideas and questions with likeminded people. 

Another level of this sense of community has to do with the events teams of associations, and all the teamwork and coordination necessary to make these events possible. Personally, being in many associations, and especially being in the events team of Business&Arts, all the intricacies and planning that go on behind the scenes are very familiar to me. Seeing an event come to life after months of hard work is extremely rewarding, and has to be one of the things I miss the most.

But no on-campus events doesn’t mean events teams are sitting idle. We constantly brainstorm for possible future events, think of attention-grabbing topics and speakers that may be the perfect fit. So it all means that although we can’t have any events happening just now; we get to have even more time to perfect every aspect of future events, so we come back better than ever. 

So on that note, a whole semester without events seems quite frustrating, and thinking about missing out on opportunities may make it worse. But keeping in mind that events teams are still at work to pick up even better than where we left off adds even more excitement for what is to come.