Something new: Micro-blogging (via Twitter) during the AIM student equity pitches will begin this Friday

Students will be Tweeting during the AIM equity pitches starting this semester

The AIM student equity pitches have always been one of the main highlights of the program. The opportunity for students to actively manage domestic and international equity and fixed-income portfolios has been an important part of Marquette AIM program’s experiential learning since its inception.

Each AIM student is responsible for closely following a specific domestic or international equity sector (i.e. healthcare, industrials, energy, etc.). The students are responsibility for actively managing the stocks within their sector (making timely buy and sell recommendations that are voted upon by their peers). All AIM students are required to do a minimum of four equity pitches during their tenure in the AIM program.

Starting in January 2016, the AIM program will be integrating micro-blogging (via Twitter) into the Friday afternoon student equity pitches. Students and guests in the AIM Room during the pitches will have up to 140 characters to post comments or questions to the presenter. These tweets will appear real-time on the digital display board in the AIM Room. Those professionals viewing online will also be encouraged to post comments and questions via Twitter at the MarquetteAIM account --- instructions including the proper hashtag will be provided to ‘followers’ of the AIM Twitter account.

The student equity pitches take place each Friday afternoon during the semester – either in the AIM Room or at a local investment company (an activity we have taken to calling our ‘road shows’). The students prepare and distribute a professional equity write-up (note: every AIM write-up since the inception of the program in 2005 is archived here). 

The students are then responsible for making a five-minute pitch before their peers, faculty and any alumni or investment professional in attendance (note: the Friday afternoon equity presentations are also webcast live). Following the student’s pitch the floor is opened for questions and answers for about ten minutes. This has been highly instructive as the students must be prepared to defend their investment recommendation and answer questions in an extemporaneous manner.

Beginning this semester, the students in attendance at the AIM pitches will be micro-blogging their questions and comments during the AIM presentations. Using #AIMpitch within the tweet will enable the students to view the message during the AIM presentation --- which will be shown on the large digital display board in the AIM Room. Using our Rise Digital Display, the various tweets will be posted real-time during the presentations.

The goal of using Twitter during the AIM pitches is to: 

1. provide immediate feedback to the equity presenter; 
2. allow students and professionals in attendance or viewing online to pose questions that require additional clarification; 
3. extend the discussion beyond the student’s 15-minute live equity pitch and Q&A session; 
4. provide permanent documentation of the discussion, questions and responses; 
5. provide students and professionals who could not view the live presentation an opportunity to participate and offer input; and 
6. to help spread information about the AIM program and the student-managed equity presentations.

Please feel free to email the AIM Coordinator, Jessica Hoerres, 

(Jessica.hoerres@marquett.edu) if you wish to obtain instructions on how you can view the AIM pitches live on the web and  how you can post questions and comments via Twitter on the MarquetteAIM account.