During October’s half term, 21 Sixth Form Business and Economic Students along with 3 members of staff, headed to New York for an unforgettable business experience. Read Jerome’s account of the trip (Upper Sixth).
With our bags packed, we headed to London Heathrow, Terminal 5 for a trip to the Big Apple. Day 1 saw us land at JFK International airport, exhausted but eagerly anticipating the week ahead. We settled for a quick pizza at Il Piccolo Bufalo and headed for bed.
The morning of day 2, we caught the ferry to Staten Island and visited the Immigration Museum where some of us tried to trace our ancestors! We also had time to wonder at the magnificent Statue of Liberty. During the afternoon we had a guided tour inside the world’s most famous arena, Madison Square Garden where we gained access to some exclusive backstage areas. This iconic stadium is home to the New York Knicks basketball team; who we were lucky enough to watch later in the week. A real highlight of the trip for many of us! We rounded off this full first day with a meal at the world-famous Hard Rock Cafe in Times Square.
On Day 3 we had a guided tour of the 911 Memorial Museum, it was a very thought-provoking commemoration of this tragic event. We followed this up with a visit to the top of the Empire State Building to survey the panoramic views of this amazing city skyline.
A morning tour of the Supreme Court started Day 4 for us. It is one of the most iconic buildings in New York and the location where some of the most important legal cases in the US are heard. Afterwards, we had a business tour of the United Nations Centre where we were privileged enough to walk through the corridors of this important centre of international diplomacy. That evening we made a return visit to Madison Square Garden to watch the much anticipated basketball game between the New York Knicks and the Chicago Bulls. The match did not disappoint; the NY Knicks were down 18 points at the end of the third quarter but came back with the final score of 105 ‘ 98 points!
The following morning, we took a walking tour through the New York Financial District and Wall Street, the financial capital of the world! This was followed by a tour of the Deutsche Bank Innovations Labs where they design innovative steps, using Artificial Intelligence, to improve performance across their global banking businesses.
Day 6 started with a fascinating business tour of the world’s largest department store, Macy’s! Here we learned about some of the subtle marketing techniques used to encourage customers to spend more money. Some of our group were tempted and took full advantage of this amazing shopping experience! We continued to explore the world of retail when we visited an Amazon go store. We got to experience what the future of shopping may look like, with a combination of the latest retail technology, deep learning algorithms, sensor fusion and with no check-out tills, it gave a whole new meaning to the term ‘convenience store’. That evening we had dinner in the world-famous Ellen’s Stardust American Diner before moving on to Broadway to see the award-winning musical ‘Evan Hansen’ which was a very thought-provoking production.
Sadly, we had come to the end of our stay in NYC; time to re-pack our bags (heavier now after a little retail therapy) and to make our way back to JFK International airport for the return flight.
A huge thanks must go to Mr Hussain for organising this amazing trip; to Mrs Clitheroe for, amongst other things, her ‘local’ knowledge of New York and not least Miss Woodward for her leading from the front with google maps.
To see more photos from the New York business trip, visit our Flickr page here.