Forbes Under 30 Summit—a Networking Experience Unlike Any Other

Villanova Engineering seniors Anthony Busa (2nd from left) and Branden Garrett (right) participated in the Forbes Under 30 Summit in Boston with Villanova Nursing students Tony Garcia and Lauren Munter.

Over 7,000 of the world’s top innovators and entrepreneurs under the age of 30 gathered last month for the fifth annual Forbes Under 30 Summit in Boston, MA. Among representatives from Villanova University were College of Engineering seniors Anthony Busa ’19 ChE and Branden Garrett ’19 CpE.

Both Anthony and Branden were exposed to an unparalleled networking experience with over 200 world class speakers ranging from investors to sports stars. Participating in Forbes’ first official hackathon, Branden boasts, “While my team did not win, one of the best things I took away was the networking experience. I had extraordinary individuals on my team. One of them is speaking at a cyber security conference in Tokyo!”

With 24 industry-specific tracks, including A.I. and machine learning, cybersecurity, manufacturing and robots, the Under 30 Summit is an environment ripe for learning, recruiting and exchanging ideas.

Branden was drawn to the event as an opportunity to learn more about cybersecurity and to search out a research topic for classes here at Villanova. He says, “I had a presentation due in two classes and I wanted to know if I could meet with individuals in the industries for potential research topics. I got to listen to Rachel Tobac, a UX researcher and so-called human hacker, give a presentation on how social engineering works and how she would employ these tactics on individuals. I managed to pick out a topic in the area of social engineering for both classes based on her talk.”

The opportunity to meet with up-and-coming leaders your own age is an unreal one, and Branden appreciated the opportunity. “I was informed that this is an event that many entrepreneurial individuals and CEOs attend. I always wanted to network with other entrepreneurs near my age so I can bounce ideas off of them and understand possible marketing strategies for moving my ideas forward.”