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“This year, the BMA took a moment to reflect on our collective past and think about the most pressing issues facing the community today,” says Professor Tonya Williams Bradford, one of the co-founders of the BMA. “That led to the conference's focus on health, wealth generation, and the future of work.”

The first BMA conference was in 2021, celebrating the first full year of the organization and creating the foundation to move into the future. At that time, the university was shut down due to the pandemic, and the conference was fully remote on an online platform. “We didn’t allow the pandemic to stall progress, and thankfully, we had several speakers willing to participate! This attracted community leaders, business partners, alumni, and students for an impactful half-day experience,” says Professor Kevin Bradford, co-founder of the organization.

Rising Up Through Adversity

In May 2020, George Floyd was murdered, and several students asked for a virtual space to connect and process the personal and collective trauma Mr. Floyd’s televised murder triggered for many. “We were all at home due to the pandemic, and people felt isolated,” Tonya Bradford recalls. “From that tragedy, there was a recognition that having a broader sense of community amongst students and alumni would be beneficial. What started as gatherings on Zoom led to participants asking for a more systematic opportunity to engage with the Merage School and with one another. From those conversations, the BMA was born.”

Building Strong Connections

After that first conference, each conference has been in person, with new programming added to allow students and alumni the opportunity to interact with each other as well as Southern California business partners and community leaders in more intimate settings. “These interactions have enabled BMA to foster a sense of community across Orange County with our campus,” Tonya Bradford says, “and it is tremendous to see recent alums returning for the conference to give back a bit of what they received through their participation as students.”

Elevating Talented Leaders

Each year, the BMA strives to improve the experience for all participants. A constant over the years has been dynamic speakers at the annual event. “We have been extremely fortunate to have incredible individuals willing to contribute their time and talents to help the next generation of leaders,” says Kevin Bradford. “In the third conference, we added a pitch competition—this aligns with the School's focus on entrepreneurship and technology, and the BMA's focus on innovation. Like our dynamic speakers, the pitch competition provides opportunities for our students to shine in front of a larger audience. It's also an opportunity for them to explore entrepreneurship. It’s exciting to see some of our BMA alums starting their own companies! We are excited to see how those entities evolve over time!”

A Different Approach

This year, the BMA Pitch Competition sponsored by KIA America featured incredible students who sought to solve real-world problems employing emerging technologies, many of which they have exposure to through various courses at the Merage School and across the UCI campus. “While we have always attracted students from across campus to the conference and pitch competition, this year, we had the most diverse set of schools across campus represented,” Kevin Bradford says. “That is truly encouraging.”

The Future of Work

The keynote address by Dean Ian Williamson spoke about how work is changing in unexpected ways, and was inspired by his recent book, The Conversation on Work (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2024). “Dean Williamson’s keynote was inspiring,” Kevin Bradford says. “His research on demographic shifts and technological innovations helped to provide insights for us into how to prepare for all the ways that work may be different in the future.”

Looking To The Future

“We have two pillars at the Merage School—technological innovation and inclusive excellence,” Tonya Bradford says. “We recognize that there are many benefits to welcoming and learning from different experiences, because it is often through those differences that innovation thrives. In the years to come, we hope that the Innovate Conference remains a unifying experience where people with diverse experiences are brought together to think about and work towards solving the biggest challenges facing our communities. In a few short years, it is clear that Innovate is becoming the event students, alumni, and business partners don't want to miss.”