Our graduation ceremony was ok – I say ok and I mean good.

On the one hand, it was GREAT to be around all my classmates, thinking back on this fabulous year and to share one last moment of joy with them. It felt good to finally be able to handle this piece of paper, the results of all these efforts and late nights. We all grew sad, as people left the club for new skies…

Here is the feedback I got from Singapore
- The guest speaker delivered the most inspirational speech ever. He is a very influential business leader in Asia and managed to get half the Insead crowd to cry.
- The reception was excellent: they had good drinks and good food
- The venue was superb (Raffles Hotel, one of the most expensive and luxurious colonial style hotel in Singapore) – got loads of Singapore Slings at that place
- The dinner was very good
- The faculty was there

In Fontainebleau, we actually all met at the Maison de la Chimie, in the middle of the various French Ministeres. All of my comments are minor as my overall impression of the graduation ceremony is fantastic. I will recall this as one of my grand moments at Insead – not because of the piece of paper, but because we were all there, at the end of our journey in the land of INSEAD, brothers in arms.

- parking sucks and the police is everywhere guarding the ministere, not a good idea to forget to pay for parking over there
- there was not enough seating for guests and families. INSEAD allows you to bring three people to graduation and knows in advance the number of guests, yet I know that many people had to stand. Some people crossed Ocean and traveled across half the planet to be there. It is respectful to seat them. In fact, the room is very small. I think that the venue was generally too small and it might be beneficial to look for a bigger one in the years to come, even if it means breaking up with the tradition (is the Chateau de Fontainebleau open for such ceremony?)
- I saw two or three faculty members. Our professors, all excellent, have largely contributed to making this experience an unforgettable one and it was sad not to have them share our little moment of glory.
- The speakers were good but not as inspirational as our fellow MBA
- The cocktails were very good as the Maison de la Chimie offers a very respectable face

Finally a couple of suggestions: would European business leaders value an invitation to such a ceremony (if it is made professional) and offer an opportunity for INSEAD MBAs to network during cocktail time? Or perhaps some French officials (after all, they were all neighbors on that day…)

Wouldn’t a weekend day easier on guests, who had to leave their work to attend the ceremony? My guests would have been able to stay with me after the ceremony were it not for the necessity to travel back to the other end of Europe to be on time at work on the next day.

The graduation party afterwards was awesome. MBAs rented a whole club in Paris, called Bus Palladium, near Pigalle. We had free drinks all night and our own DJ. Sandwiches were distributed throughout the night and we finished right on time to get our café and croissants in the early hours of the morning. T-Shirt marked INSEAD MBA July 2004 were distributed to all grads (and their cost must have been included in the price of the ticket) and we were all wearing them at the club. I painfully drove back around 6am, with two Japanese fellows…Actually, when I reached my car, some idiots parked on a “Stationnement Interdit” slot behind it, leaving me no space to manoeuvre. I had to move out of the parking spot, inch by inch and bumper to bumper. It took me close to 20 minutes…

We will miss such diversity, such an incredibly bright crowd. I will miss such a fast-paced and stimulating environment and the artificiality of a student status that allows you to concentrate on growing personally.

I long for becoming part of a new family, I can’t wait to work again – to build and contribute something tangible to my personal career, to a company, to society.