College women from around the world will attend the 2014 Intercollegiate Business Convention this weekend–and this Campus Celebrity is the talented woman responsible for making it all happen. Meet the collegiette serving as this year’s IBC Chair, Rosalie Nathans!Â
Tell us about your role in this year’s convention!Â
I am the Chair of the tenth annual Intercollegiate Business Convention, which will take place this Saturday October 18th at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston. My team and I are so excited to welcome college women from all over the world to the conference, which will feature our annual IBC Talks speaker series (like TED Talks), panels in a diverse range of industries, interactive workshops, a delicious catered lunch, networking sessions, and a career fair! We are also honored to host three incredible keynote speakers this year: Maureen Chiquet (Global CEO, Chanel), Lyndsey Scott (Model, Actress, App Developer) and Jill Abramson (former Executive Editor, New York Times). Our mission at IBC 2014 is to build a global support network and community of empowerment for college women interested in business.
How has IBC changed since its inaugural convention in 2005? What goals do you have for its future?
This fall, we celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Intercollegiate Business Convention. In ten short years, IBC has become a globally recognized convention, bringing together young women from across the world who share a passion for business and the drive for success. In 2005, the inaugural IBC attracted 400 girls from 30 US universities. This year, we are excited to welcome over 1,000 attendees from hundreds of universities in over 50 countries worldwide. Over the past ten years, IBC has grown both in size and in opportunity, with the introduction of programs including the Innovation Competition, the Campus Ambassador Leadership Program, Women in Business Weekend, the IBC Talks speaker series, the Loyalty Program, and most recently the Harvard Hosts program, and the IBC Scholarship. IBC has touched the lives of thousands of aspiring businesswomen, and we hope to continue expanding both in scope and opportunity as we build a global support network and community of empowerment for women in business.
What has been the most rewarding aspect of your work for IBC?
The most rewarding aspect of preparing for the Intercollegiate Business Convention has been speaking with the young women who plan to attend the conference. It’s empowering to realize how much of an impact our programming has on the delegates who attend, and we hope that our convention will be a step towards enabling college women to pursue successful careers. In order to bring the opportunities and resources of IBC to as many young women as possible, we have launched a new and exciting program to help students around the world join us IBC 2014. Based both on talent and on need, the IBC Scholars program awards very bright and driven delegates who do not have the means to attend IBC on their own. It has been so rewarding getting to know these incredible young women, and we are glad that we could play a role in their growth and development as aspiring business leaders.
What are you most excited for at this year’s convention?
There are so many incredible aspects of the Intercollegiate Business Convention every year, and I am not sure I could choose just one. I’m excited to meet the IBC Scholars who I mentioned earlier—there is one young woman traveling from Kosovo, a partially recognized state in Southeastern Europe, who has such an incredible story, and we are thrilled that we could help her attend IBC.
I am excited about the press coverage that we have secured this year. We will be welcoming representatives from outlets including Forbes and the Wall Street Journal, and I hope that this will enable us to share the IBC experience with even more businesswomen around the world. Goodness knows I am beyond excited to meet our keynotes! These three incredible women have such a diverse set of experiences, and I am looking forward to hearing how they address the next generation of female business leaders.
On the IBC webiste, it says that Harvard Undergraduate Women in Business “seeks to empower future female leaders by uniting them through business education and experience.” How does IBC contribute to accomplishing that mission?
The Intercollegiate Business Convention embodies HUWIB’s mission through our unique conference programming. In keynote addresses, IBC Talks, panels, and workshops, inspirational speakers from a wide range of industries discuss personal experiences and provide industry insights to our delegates. This year one of our new initiatives is the introduction of more interactive workshops on topics including personal branding, social media presence, pay negotiation, entrepreneurship, and case study preparation. We hope that these workshops will enable to our delegates to develop concrete skills at the convention itself, further contributing to the “business education” aspect of our mission. Meanwhile, our Innovation Competition empowers aspiring entrepreneurs by connecting them with venture capital and entrepreneurship experts for the chance to win $10,000 to fund their startups, an important first step towards “business experience.” Ultimately, through the Intercollegiate Business Convention we strive to unite over 1,000 college women from universities around the world to build a global support network and community of empowerment for college women interested in business.
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Collegiettes interested in attending the convention this weekend can register here. For more information on the Intercollegiate Business Convention and event updates, visit the IBC website and like the Intercollegiate Business Convention page on Facebook.