LA Informational - The EMT Trek

Only a few weeks ago, a group of Sternies sadly and reluctantly left behind all the great things that the city offers in the wintertime - freezing weather, gaggles of tourists, and a distinctly gassy smell that city officials repeatedly assured folks WASN'T a gas leak - for the warmer and sunnier confines of the city of angels, Los Angeles. Drawn by the prospect of employment in the entertainment business, these brave souls, ably led by second-year student Chris Preston and his first-year posse of Felicia Bono, Melissa de la Rama, and Sheetal Karhade, navigated a number of movie, music, and general media companies over the course of three days, learning a great deal about the overall industry and maybe, very probably, a little about themselves too.

The first day of the trip began bright and early with various first- and second-year students meeting in the lobby of our hotel, where it was rumored a number of adult films had taken place. That would certainly explain the mirrors that take up entire walls in many of the rooms. After a brief discussion on the subject, the group took to our rides - two sweet econo-vans - and headed to our first stop of the day, Fox Studios. There, we were entertained by the extremely enthusiastic CFO of Fox Searchlight Films as well as a recent business school graduate whose picture should be listed next to the word "perseverance" in the dictionary - he applied an astounding six (yes, that's right, SIX) times before finally receiving an offer. So take heart, MBA2s. After a brief lunch, we traveled across town to EMI, where we were greeted by a gaggle of employees who looked they had been through a war. The recent Internet revolution, it seems, has not been kind to our friends in the music industry. The company's readying its 1,260th Beach Boys compilation, so that should stop the bleed nicely. Get in line now if you want a copy. The day ended with an alumni mixer in Westwood, which was well attended and provided just the right amount of alcohol for folks to forget that they might be sleeping on a former adult movie set.

The second day's activities began later in the morning, which was much appreciated by everyone in attendance. The first event was a corporate presentation at Warner Brothers, where we met the first Stern alum of the trip, a Senior Vice President of Home Entertainment. After a three-course meal in the studio commissary, the group split up, with one half staying on the lot to take a VIP studio tour and the other half driving to NBC Universal. While on the tour, one male member of the group, who shall remain nameless, completely lost the respect of his colleagues by recognizing parts of the Gilmore Girls set. Luckily, Matthew Perry passed the tour shortly afterwards, taking some attention away from me…I mean, the gentleman in question. Just before leaving, the tour guide pointed out George Lopez's Bentley, parked just outside the studio where his show is filmed. Apparently, mediocrity pays. A lot. Later that night, the entire group reconvened at a bar in Santa Monica for a mixer with the two local business schools - UCLA and USC. Sadly, Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush did not attend.

The final day of the trip promised to be a busy one, so our fearless leaders set an early meeting time. First up was a visit to the magic kingdom, Disney Studios. There, we shared an audience with students from the two famous Boston-area business schools. After hearing two or three Harvard folks tell everyone they used to work at McKinsey and a similar number of MIT people talk about their previous job in software, you couldn't help but think there maybe is something to business school stereotypes. Following a discussion that focused on Disney's growth strategy (in short, it's all about ESPN, which makes up a significant portion of company revenues and profits), we headed to the beach, and more specifically to Demand Media, a company started by the former chairman of MySpace. We listened to the founders' recollections of negotiating with Rupert Murdoch, who actually overpaid for MySpace because he misread the balance sheet, and knew that somewhere far away Gode was smiling. We then headed back into the entertainment fold with Sony Studios. There, we listened to a corporate presentation by another Stern alum and desperately tried to convince her to show us part of Spider-Man 3. No dice. On that note, our LA trip ended and many of us returned to the airport for our flights home. We boarded our respective planes a little bit older, wiser, and show busier, if that's a word.