Thrilled By the Bell: MTV Takes Over the New York Stock Exchange for a Day

There are many grand venues in the United States for business meetings and events, but only one can put you at the heart of capitalism itself: The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). 

The Exchange building at 11 Wall Street is both a landmark and an icon, a place where the more than 8,000 companies listed on its famed “Big Board” account for 40 percent of the world’s stock trading volume. And it is a venue that any of those listed companies—and, as of last year, non-listed companies—can rent for a corporate event. 

“It is a venue like no other,” says Beth Oporto, managing director, global marketing and branding, for NYSE Euronext, the NYSE Group’s holding company. 

That is why mtvU, the college-only channel run by Viacom’s MTV Networks, chose the historic building as the venue for the culmination of its Movers & Changers contest, an annual competition in which viewers are invited to submit an innovative new business plan, with the winner receiving $25,000 in startup capital. In November, the network brought its three 2010 finalists to New York for the final pitch and judging, which was filmed in the NYSE Board Room for a four-part reality show on mtvU. 

“You just walk in and feel the history,” says Carlo DiMarco, vice president of strategic partnerships and development for MTV Networks. “There’s just a certain historical energy in this building. You can’t help but be inspired and feel motivated to go out and succeed.” 

mtvU, a 24-hour television channel that reaches nine million college students on 750 campuses, created the Movers & Changers business plan competition in 2009 as part of Global Entrepreneur Week. In addition to awarding a cash prize and providing mentoring from a panel of celebrity and CEO judges, mtvU wanted to offer the finalists something more: the opportunity to ring the stock market’s opening bell.  

“If you’re a business student and going to school in Tennessee, or anywhere in the country, imagine having the opportunity to come to the Exchange, see what it’s all about,” DiMarco says. “Anybody could give seed money, but to give someone the opportunity to stand on that bell podium—I can only imagine what it must feel like to stand up there. [Is there] any more incentive to make somebody want to succeed in their business than saying, ‘I want to come back here some day on my own, running my own company’?”

For the finalists, making it to the podium to ring the bell was no easy task. Eligible business plans had to incorporate social media, either in the company operations or in the marketing plan. From the several hundred entries from around the U.S., three finalists were chosen and brought to New York, where the would-be entrepreneurs were given one-on-one mentoring time with Ben Lerer, co-founder and CEO of Thrillist, a leading web-based men’s lifestyle publication. Lerer gave advice on honing the pitches the finalists would be making to a panel of judges the next day.

The day began in a spot familiar to anyone who has watched business news on television: the podium overlooking the NYSE’s storied trading floor, where the finalists and judges got together to ring the opening bell. Then they made their way to the NYSE Board Room, where the rest of the Movers & Changers event took place. Awash in dazzling turn-of-the-century details such as soaring ceilings, ornate moldings, and intricate gold filigree, the Board Room blends the historic and modern in a way that was very fitting to the nature of the event and to the theme of entrepreneurship in general.

The space has been updated with the installation of brand-new A/V equipment, including a large projection screen set up against a backdrop of blue draping, which completely covers one wall. Rows of chairs face the screen, where the ringing of the bell was broadcast live to the audience mtvU had brought to the Exchange to share in the experience. Audience members included several hundred business students from colleges in the greater New York metropolitan area. The broadcast was followed by a question-and-answer   session that extended the NYSE experience to all those attendees.

“They were super pleased to be invited,” DiMarco says. “Sitting in the New York Stock Exchange, listening to established CEOs tell stories about how they started and succeeded—this is not stuff you learn in textbooks.”

Attendee Lisa Sampedro, a student in the business management department at Borough of Manhattan Community College in New York City, thinks that was a great idea. “This really gives us the opportunity to be exposed to what is going on—the rush-rush-rush, the excitement,” she says. “The whole experience opens you up to a whole new world.” 

And the contestants, needless to say, were thrilled. “Being in the financial hub of the world—I don’t think there could have been a better place to have this forum,” says Aeron Glover, who  with teammate Kaliv Parker would go on to win the Movers & Changers contest for their project, howstheliving.com, a student housing forum. 

Following the bell-ringing ceremony, Jim Cramer, host of CNBC’s Mad Money and co-founder of TheStreet.com, delivered a brief opening address, in which he furthered the idea of old-meets-new by encouraging the free flow of information between young would-be entrepreneurs and experienced investors. Each can learn from the other, he stressed. 

“The New York Stock Exchange is the pinnacle of capitalism in this world, and that’s never going to change. I think that people who feel it will get excited,” Cramer told Successful Meetings before his address. 

“It’s the younger people who can get started [investing] now. Most people get started too late. This is when you can make mistakes. You can take some risks, have some excitement, and recognize the power of being able to identify a company that you like. Get a piece of it.”

Cramer’s speech was followed by a panel discussion on entrepreneurship, which was moderated by CNBC’s Michelle Caruso-Cabrera, co-anchor of Power Lunch. Time was reserved following the discussion for Q&A, during which the panel addressed such questions as: Is entrepreneurship innate or learned? The answer is both, the panel decided; more importantly, entrepreneurship is defined by adaptability, uncovering opportunities that don’t exist, overcoming fear of the unknown, and acting quickly, they said.

Several panelists also told their own stories of young entrepreneurship. Charlie Kim, founder and CEO of Next Jump Inc., which offers loyalty and employee discount programs, created the company while still in college—largely to pay for the huge phone bills he racked up calling his high school sweetheart. The key to building a company, he told the audience, is drive. “The DNA of a business is defined by every mistake you make, and how you respond,” he says.

After the panel, the finalists came up on stage to make their 10-minute pitches to the judges, who gave extensive feedback during the process. The winner, however, was not announced that day, but on the final episode of the mtvU Movers & Changers show, which aired in mid-December. 

One day of filming was turned into a four-part series on mtvU, DiMarco says. “The first episode introduces the three teams [and their business plans]. The second is about the mentoring. The third is about the presentations. And the fourth show is the judging. We tape it and roll it out over the next four weeks.” The episodes can be viewed online at www.moversandchangers.com.

Until recently, the NYSE’s event spaces were exclusively for the use of its members and listed companies. 

“Our goal has always been to be our listing companies’ marketing partner,” says Oporto, who has worked at the Exchange for 12 years. “Companies that hold events here get the use of our marketing staff.” That includes the media relations team, which has excellent contacts at virtually all national and New York-based business news outlets.

The NYSE has four basic event spaces: the main dining room, the Lounge & Card Room, and the trading floor inside the building, as well as what Oporto calls Experience Square—the section of Broad Street closed to the general public for security reasons—that offers an outdoor venue with built-in grandstands. It uses the Exchange’s facade as a backdrop, with the option to hang corporate or event-specific banners. The three indoor spaces can handle groups ranging from a 10-person board meeting to as many as 700 on the trading floor. The event spaces are available from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays, except the trading floor, which is in use until 6 p.m. weekdays. As for lead time, Oporto says they’ve managed to put on events with two weeks’ notice, although to secure a bell ringing opportunity, a longer lead time and some flexibility is a good idea. 

The oak-paneled walls of the Main Dining Room can hold 240 for a banquet or 324 theater-style, while the Lounge & Card Room—formerly the Stock Exchange Luncheon Club—can seat a combined 120 banquet-style or 170 theater-style in the connected spaces under vaulted, gilt-filigreed ceilings. 

A relatively new feature is the VIP entryway, which opened in September next to the restaurant. And in December, the Exchange added an LED video wall that can be used for promotional purposes. An in-house A/V team can help planners use the video wall and other screens throughout the facility. Oporto says that the technological opportunities at the Exchange often initially overshadow the history of the venue.

A member company’s affair and, in particular, the initial public offering (IPO) of a new company take precedence when it comes to ringing the opening or closing bell, which is probably the most desirable aspect of holding a meeting or event at the NYSE. 

That can lead to an eclectic calendar. On November 18, for example, two days after the Movers & Changers event, Dan Akerson, CEO of General Motors, rang the opening bell to celebrate the automaker’s $16 billion, out-of-bankruptcy IPO—one of the largest in history. That evening, the closing  bell was rung by Randy Ewing, the chairman of the Louisiana Committee of 100 for Economic Development. 

And last month, a senior executive from Marriott International—which is listed on the NYSE—was joined in ringing the opening bell by the executive director of the Greater New York Dental Meeting, which has long been held at the New York Marriott Marquis hotel. 

•Allen Gannett from The George Washington University. Gannett created PreppingTogether to help high schoolers prep for the SAT and ACT by leveraging social media. PreppingTogether is an application that allows students to challenge their friends to answer test questions via Facebook, get instant feedback and ultimately win online scholarships.