I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – the Her Campus National Intercollegiette Conference is my favorite weekend of the year.
The conference is the one time each year that our writers, campus correspondents, bloggers, editors, chapter advisors, chapter team members, and high school ambassadors get to meet one another face to face. It is so incredible to get to put faces to names and to get to hear firsthand why these inspiring young women believe in Her Campus. The best part of my weekend was hearing from countless girls how the conference was “the highlight” of their summer, how they were “so upset” that they couldn’t come last year, and how they “can’t wait” for next year’s conference! Her Campus would not be what it is today without the dedication of the 3,000+ young women who contribute to our community, and I find it incredibly humbling to get to meet them and listen to them tell me about why Her Campus is such an integral part of their college experience.
Each July, hundreds of Her Campus girls decend upon New York City. This year, attendees traveled from as far as Oregon, Puerto Rico, California and the U.K.! We work very hard to make the conference live up to its reputation and work tirelessly to try to find partnerships that will really make the experience fun and exciting. This year, Amtrak gave us the hookup and got nearly 100 of our girls to the conference with a complimentary New England regional train ticket. Eighteen of us, including most of the Her Campus national staff (there are 11 of us now!) and our summer interns, traipsed down to NYC together rocking matching neon “Campus Cutie” tanks and black spandex. We got lots of looks and quite a few people asked us if we were a sorority or a dance team. We just smiled and told them we were a company!
We got into NYC on Friday around 2 p.m. and headed straight over to Convene to set up for the conference! Setting up included stuffing 600 (!) amazing goody bags. The goody bags had swag from a ton of Her Campus partners, including LeSportSac, LUNA, Veet, UNREAL, BCBGeneration, Josie by Natori, Merck, Intel, Chipotle, and Amtrak. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to stuff 600 goody bags in less than three hours, we made a video:
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This year, the conference spanned two days and we had sold-out crowds of 300 attendees each day! On Saturday, we heard from Josie Natori, Founder and CEO of The Natori Company, and Jaqui Lividini, Founder and CEO of Lividini & Co., in our morning keynote session; Fran Hauser, President of Digital for Time Inc.’s Style & Entertainment Group, in our lunchtime keynote session; and Nikki Nash, Marketing Manager of U.S. Consumer Campaigns for Intel, in our afternoon keynote session.
Saturday’s panels included “Does the Devil Really Wear Prada? Life In An Entry-Level Editorial Position,” “Well-Read: Opportunitites in the Book Publishing World,” “Mapping Out Your Future: Plan It Forward,” and “A Collegiette’s Guide to Freelancing.” Workshops on Saturday included “Content and Cupcakes: Chapter Building 101” and “How to Be a Content Queen on Campus.” One of my favorite things about Her Campus is the fact that SO MANY of our girls go on to get KILLER jobs in journalism! It was incredible to see so many HC Alums speaking on the various panels. Her Campus alums who came back on Saturday included Alison Goldman, Assistant Editor of WomensHealthMag.com; Katie Sanders, Contributing Editor at Glamour; Elizabeth Wagmeister, Editorial Assistant at TV Guide; Sarah Weinberg, Assistant Editor at Country Living; Elyssa Goodman, writer and photographer for Miss Manhattan; and Ben Kassoy, “Badass Content Writer” for DoSomething.org and Sex and Love Blogger for Glamour.com.
On Sunday, we heard from Chandra Turner, Executive Editor of Parents and Founder and President of Ed2010, in our morning keynote session and Jason Wagenheim, Vice President and Publisher of Teen Vogue, in our lunchtime keynote session. Jason even showed us his best sorority squat:
Some panel highlights from Sunday’s conference included “How To Be Your Own Best Publicist,” “How to Make Your Blog a Powerhouse,””How to Make Your Start-up a Success: Female Entrepreneurs Share Their Stories,” and “Jobs in Marketing and PR: How to Break In.” Workshops included “Action Verbs and Power Words: How to Get Your Resume Noticed,” “How to Write the Best Cover Letter Ever,” and “How to Ace Your Interview.” HC alums who came to share their wisdom with us included Alice Chen, Special Sections Assistant at Lucky; Amanda First, Assistant Editor at Brides; Taylor Trudon, Associate Editor at HuffPost Teen and The Huffington Post; Genifer Delman, Communications Assistant at SANDOW; Kelsey Garvey, Account Executive at Ogilvy & Mather; and Sarah Nadler, Senior Account Executive at Digitas.
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In addition to all of the incredible speakers and workshop leaders we had at the conference, some of Her Campus’s favorite partners were there to help us take the event to the next level. At breakfast, Maia Yogurt came and gave away their low-fat probiotic greek yogurt (I was personally a huge fan of the vanilla bean flavor – it had real vanilla bean specks in it!).
Just like last year, our buddies over at Chipotle gave us the ultimate lunchtime hookup with free Chipotle for all of the attendees! Not only that, each of our attendees left with a gift certificate good for a free Chipotle catering party for 20 people. How amazing is that???
On Saturday, Josie Natori provided custom bra fittings and free perfectly fitted bras from their Josie by Natori collection for nearly 100 women! They also accepted applications for their soon-to-debut “Josie Girl of the Month” program.
Merck sent representatives to promote our “Pledge to Plan it Forward” partnership and had girls strike a pose with their custom pledge written on a sign reading #PledgeTo. You can read more about the Plan it Forward program and make your own pledge here!
BCBGeneration hosted an awesome sample sale and set up a super swanky beauty, braids, and buns bar with Amika haircare products. They also gave away two head-to-toe looks styled by Joyce Azria, BCBGeneration Creative Director (read our interview with her here!)
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None of this would have been possible without Intel coming on board as our headlining sponsor to power the conference again this year. We are so excited to have them as a partner and were thrilled to be able to give away two of their 2-in-1 Ultrabook devices over the weekend!
All in all, the weekend was absolutely incredible and we are already excited about next year’s conference! If you have any ideas or questions about the conference, feel free to reach out to me at windsor@hercampus.com!
You can check out all of the awesome Facebook posts, Tweets, and Instagrams from the conference here.
Also, make sure to watch our highlight reel below!
See you next year, collegiettes!
HCXO,
Windsor