Over 100 Smith community members and employers attended the 15th Annual William D. Bradford Minority Awards Banquet on April 2, 2008 at the Samuel Riggs Alumni Center. Sponsored by the Black MBA Association and the Hispanic MBA Association, the event aims to celebrate excellence in the African American and Hispanic communities at Smith. Dr. William Bradford, a professor of finance at the University of Maryland from 1980 to 1994, initiated the first banquet in 1994.

Second-year MBA student Tekisha Harvey, first-year MBA student Corinne Talley-Hobbs and Tiffany Grossman present on the dos and don’ts of public speaking.

On Friday, Feb. 29, 2008 Smith first-year MBA students were once again treated to a presentation from Vik Khanna, owner of Galileo Health Partners LLC, a health consulting firm that provides innovative and creative consulting services to a wide range of corporate and government clients. Khanna, who spoke at MBA orientation in August, returned to the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business to hold two sessions on the topic of Organizational Leadership on Fitness.

On Feb. 26, 2008, the MBA Finance Association of the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland hosted a panel discussion on the current state of the U.S. economy. About 30 MBA students gathered to listen to two panelists from the department of logistics, business, and public policy, Peter Morici, professor of logistics, business and public policy, and Curt Grimm, Dean's Professor of Supply Chain and Strategy. The students were invited to prepare questions for Morici and Grimm and engage them in discussion about the challenges facing today's economy.

On Friday, Feb. 15, 2008, the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland welcomed S. Tien Wong, CEO of Opus8 and entrepreneur-in-residence at Smith, to its MBA Speaker Series program. Wong is the chairman of Opus8, a private investment firm based in Washington, D.C., that focuses on mid-market buyouts and venture capital. Opus8's investment focus is on firms in North America and China that deal with business process outsourcing, call centers and customer relationship management, and marketing services.

Each year every chapter of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG) in the United States runs a regional case competition for the MBA programs in the area. This year the D.C. chapter of the ACG held their competition Feb. 4-11, 2008. The competition places the student teams in the role of a financial investor. This year’s case was centered around two fictional companies that were named GrowCo and MarginCo. The industry that they operated in was aerospace & defense.

The first Graduate Marketing Association (GMA) event of the semester kicked off on Feb. 13, 2008 in Van Munching Hall with a presentation from Anthony Pappas, president and creative director of the Pappas Group. Around 40 MBA students and faculty attended the presentation, entitled "The Business of Branding: How Creative Efforts Meet Corporate Goals."

On Feb. 8, 2008, Smith students gathered at both Van Munching Hall and the Samuel Riggs IV Alumni Center for the MBA Consulting Forum. This is the ninth consecutive year that the MBA Consulting Association Executive Board has partnered with faculty, staff and student volunteers to host this daylong interactive event for students, alumni and industry professionals. Students in attendance had the opportunity to interact with consulting professionals from varied backgrounds, levels, firms, and industries both collectively and individually throughout the day.

Every year the MBA Entrepreneurship Club hosts a local round of the Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC), whose winner then moves on to a regional competition. This year the local round took place on Feb. 8, 2008 and featured three local startups that are currently in the process of looking for funding—Prepchamps, Inspire and mpowerplayers.

Undoubtedly the one of the most anticipated events of the Smith MBA program, the annual MBA Case Competition puts strategic thinking and analytical skills of full-time second-year MBA students to the test. The six-day competition started on Friday, Jan. 25 when 20 teams of students received a case about Teva Pharmaceuticals. Students went through three rounds of competition and the final four teams competed for a grand prize of $1,000 per person.