Nine students from the Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) program at American University of Sharjah (AUS) went on a study tour to the United States recently. The trip included students from the program's cohort one and two, and comprised visits to the cities of Washington, Philadelphia and New York.

The tour began with two seminars held at the offices of Triway, a company which organized the trip. Discussions with an official at the Federal Reserve Bank and an economist from American University gave the participants a sense of the economic issues facing businesses in the United States and provided insights into the future of financial markets, particularly with respect to government regulation. The group also took a cruise trip on the Potomac River and sightseeing around the US capital. That was followed by a session with the CEO of China Telecom who gave the students an opportunity to learn about expanding business relationships with China and the opportunities they are creating for one of China's largest telecoms operators.

The US-UAE Business Council then hosted a luncheon and introduced the EMBAs to the importance of government relations. An afternoon visit to the Middle East Institute offered a sense of the level of interest in the region in Washington as well as the challenges of a nonprofit organization.

The Philadeplhia leg of the tour included a visit to the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania where a professor provided a heterodox view of the future of information technology and its attendant risks.

In New York, a senior research scientist from one of the major pharmaceutical companies shared some of the challenges of working in a high-tech, high-risk industry. One highlight was a visit to the NASDAQ exchange to witness the closing bell; another was a tour of the United Nations. Company meetings included meeting executives at Ernst & Young and a discussion with a real estate entrepreneur who also shared a number of political perspectives based on his contacts and work in the Middle East. Most intriguing, perhaps, for the students was the final session: an informal meeting with a 32-year-old entrepreneur who had just sold his web hosting company.