First Annual Business Conference a Success

This past Saturday, the business school was bustling with leaders from the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and Delloite for GW Women in Business' first Spring Conference. Over 100 students, faculty, alumni, and friends from the GW community attended the event.

The daylong conference opened with a presentation by Dr. Eliane Karp-Toledo, former first lady of Peru and anthropologist. The program included panel discussions led by twenty executives from both corporate and government sectors. The topics discussed were entrepreneurship, international business, business government relations and corporate social responsibility, which provided a comprehensive and insightful exchange of workplace dynamics.

The day concluded on a high note with an energetic presentation by Chad Holliday, former chairman and CEO of DuPont, who encouraged students to continue to broaden their knowledge of the business world by attending conferences, being a leader by bringing out the best in people and maintaining ethics when doing business in other countries.

The day was sponsored by corporations such as Coca-Cola, TD Securities, Deloitte and Bloomberg. All of the conference attendees received Juan Valdez coffee, gift certificates for FoBoGro, Vineyard Vines and Aveda Spa, clothes from BCBG and food from SweetGreen.

The idea for the event stemmed from Harvard’s annual business conference, with top professionals and university faculty meeting with students and providing learning and networking opportunities for students from all majors.

“Today's GW Women in Business conference successfully bridged the gap between classroom lessons and real world experiences,” said Kathleen Duffy, associate director of undergraduate career management. GWWIB is working hard to make this an annual event across campus and to make it bigger and better every year.

Besty Smith, executive coordinator of GWSB undergraduate programs and previous member of GWWIB, was incredibly proud of the young women that organized the day’s event. “GWWIB has been a pioneer amongst GWSB student groups since its inception, and the School of Business eagerly awaits whatever they plan to tackle next year!” said Smith.

For more information on GW Women in Business, go to http://www.gwwib.org/