Campus Celebrity: Wharton Women President Lauren Gibli

On January 20th, members of Wharton Women got the incredible opportunity to listen to the wise words of women leaders in the business world at the annual Wharton Women Business Conference. The diverse panel of speakers ranged from the CFO of Ralph Lauren to the corporate vice president and chief strategy officer of the Xerox Corporation. Needless to say, this conference served to be very valuable for all the attendees – even a Forbeswomen contributor was inspired to write an article about all that she learned.

Learn from the other UPenn campus celebs.

With the great success of the conference it is sometimes hard to remember that there is always someone who put many hours of hard work into running the conference as seamlessly as possible. Her Campus UPenn chatted with junior Lauren Gibli, President of Wharton Women and New Jersey native, to try and understand just how she was able to pull this all off. And after only a few minutes talking to Lauren, it was clear that this Wharton woman has taken the Conference’s theme of Lead-her-ship to a whole new level. 

What is your role in Wharton Women?
I plan the conference as Chair and support Wharton Women as President.
 
Why is it important to have an only women business organization at Penn?
Having a strong network of women is very beneficial for women looking to succeed in the business world. The network allows for honest advice and opens up opportunities. It is also a lot of fun! 
 
How has WW helped you?
It has allowed me to be exposed to different industries and meet very inspiring women. I have learned about myself professionally but I also have made new friends and grown my personal network.
 
What is the Wharton Women Business Conference?
The Wharton Women Business Conference is a learning conference for women who want to learn what it takes to be a successful businesswoman.
 
What happened at the conference?
Participants heard from keynote speaker, Uta Werner, VP and Chief Strategy Officer of Xerox, and women on two wonderful panels titled “Stories of Success: Leader-Her-Ship in the Corporate World” and “The Road Ahead: Women Driving Business Innovation”. A unifying theme of the conference, evident not only in the messages of our speakers, but also by their presence, is the importance of a female network and community in the business world.
 
How do you choose what speakers to bring in?
We choose speakers based on our sense of what would be interesting for participants. We always make a point to get a variety of speakers from different industries so there is something that would appeal to everyone. 
 
Were the speakers geared towards women?
The speakers are all women so in that sense they are geared towards women.
 
What was the best part of the conference?
The best part of the conference is that the speakers all stayed for the conference’s entirety, speaking with our participants over lunch and exchanging contact information. The interactions were very meaningful and honest. 
 
 What is some of the advice you have been given?
 I think some piece of advice that I’ve received from a lot from older girls and all the speakers at our events is to follow your heart and success will come later. I know a lot of people come to college and think they need to find a path but really it’s more to find what you enjoy instead of planning out your life per se.

What goes into planning a conference?
We started planning about six months ago and it’s a whole mix of contacting speakers, making sure you have the venue, and really advertising and marketing­– we make a point to not forget a pretty extensive gift bag. Our conference is actually on Forbes Women.
 
What was the hardest part about planning the conference?
I think the hardest part was managing the capacity and the flow. At some point there were more people who wanted to come and we just didn’t have space for them, at least during the registration period. It’s hard to constantly have to adjust, to keep on growing the conference when you expected it to be 100 and then the next thing you know you’re accommodating for more people.
 
What was the most fun part?
Meeting women and just sharing an experience with Wharton Women members.
 
Are you doing OCR?
I am participating in OCR. 
 
What role does Wharton Women have with OCR?
Wharton Women helps women explore professional opportunities through mentorship programs and networking events with corporate sponsors.
 
How has your experience in OCR been so far?
My first interview is on Tuesday!