The Darden South Asia Society (DSAS) is one of the School’s largest student-run organizations. Many clubs host themed weeks throughout the year, creating opportunities for the entire MBA program to hear from guest speakers, student panels, sample regional cuisine and more. DSAS opted to take advantage of the broader University of Virginia community this year, organizing the inaugural ‘Darden South Asia Conference: India Chapter’ conference, held 11-12 February.
Post-event update: With this session recording, experience how Darden cases generate discussion, foster classroom interaction, and equip students with skills to analyze real-world problems and communicate ideas and solutions. This session was led by Bobby Parmar. View the rest of the programming on the Darden South Asia Conference YouTube channel here.
The event will feature a keynote address from Narayana Murthy, legendary founder of tech giant Infosys. In 2017, Murthy was awarded the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Global Innovation, sponsored by UVA Darden. In 2012, Fortune magazine listed him among the “12 greatest entrepreneurs of our time,” and The Economist ranked him among the 10 most-admired global business leaders in 2005. In 2014, he was ranked 13th among CNBC’s 25 global business leaders who have made maximum impact on society during the last 25 years.
President of DSAS Chaitali Pandit (Class of 2022) recently shared details about the upcoming event, which is open to all prospective students.
On the programming for the event, Pandit shared, “This global conference will bring together business professionals, academicians, thought leaders and students around the globe to discuss emerging ideas on growth and sustainability in the Indian economy. Some of the interesting topics we will be discussing are recent technological revolutions in Healthcare and Education sectors, Energy Generation & Sufficiency, Careers in Entertainment beyond Bollywood, Women in Business: Challenges and Support Systems, Make in India, Impact of COVID on the startup ecosystem and VC growth, Data protection and Privacy, and Darden Experience showcasing the Case Study Method.”
“This event is open for all. The prospective students might find the ‘Darden Experience’ session of particular interest as it will showcase the Darden Case Study method! Since faculty members will be moderating the panels, it will also give them the opportunity to interact with them.”
When asked why DSAS decided to organize a global conference, Pandit shared, “As part of the UVA community, we have access to a large network of business professional, entrepreneurs, academicians, and industry experts. We have an amazing faculty and a diverse base of alums who have rich experiences that can be truly valuable for students and young professionals.”
“At Darden, the students take pride in the case study method and interactive classroom experience where we discuss trends and emerging ideas from around the world. We wanted to give a glimpse of this experience to the world. This conference would give those within and outside the UVA community an opportunity to witness the strength of our network and indulge in interesting conversation with the leaders in various fields.”
“Many leading universities have their own student-run global conferences. We saw this as an opportunity to organize a global conference to complement the global MBA program at Darden!”
