Top Female Executives, MBAs and Corporate Recruiters to Gather at Smith for National Conference for Women in Business

A year of planning and hard work culminated in a hugely successful national conference Nov. 2-3, attracting more than 1,400 women MBA students, executives and corporate recruiters to the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. The 25th Annual National Association of Women MBAs Conference and Career Fair featured panel discussions, workshops, a career fair and networking events all designed to advance women in their professional lives.

Smith second-year MBA students Rita Mullane and Loretta Goodridge co-chaired the event. They worked with the Smith School team and the National Association of Women MBAs to line up speakers, plan panel discussions and workshops, and coordinate logistics for the schools largest event, which followed the theme of Take the Lead: Globalization, Entrepreneurship and Technology.

The event drew in more people then we ever expected, Goodridge said. It is great for the organization to see such a growth in this years conference. Everyone commented on how well the conference was put together. Participants were very happy with the information they were able to take away from the event and the new contacts they had made throughout the weekend. And employers were thrilled with the high caliber of women they met.

Recruiters from more than 70 top companies representing an array of industries including financial services, consulting and consumer packaged goods, were present at the career fair. Lehman Bros., Google, Home Depot, eBay, Bank of America, were just a few of the companies that came to recruit top women MBA talent from around the country. The booths filled the ballroom at the Marriott Inn and Conference Center on the university's campus.

Conference attendees spent much of the day Friday at the career fair. They took a lunch break to hear keynote speaker, Irene Chang Britt, vice president and general manager of Campbell Soup Co.'s sauces and beverages division. Britt spoke about her career as an entrepreneur and business leader, her exuberance and candor often drawing laughter from the captivated audience. She encouraged women to be innovators and entrepreneurs, even when working within an organization. And she pushed them to be spectacular and let the things they were most passionate about shape their careers.

Friday afternoon six team representing five schools Georgetown University, Georgia Tech, Rice University, University of Texas- Dallas and the University of Maryland gathered in Van Munching Halls Frank Auditorium to compete in the final round of conferences inaugural case competition, sponsored by Thunderbird School of Global Management and Hilti Corp. Each team had 30 minutes to present a PowerPoint presentation and answer questions from a panel of judges.

Participants and conference attendees gathered at Van Munching for a cocktail reception after the case competition before heading back to the Marriott for dinner and the evenings keynote speaker, Deanne de Vries, senior manager of Global HR at Agility. De Vries told stories of her past experiences working abroad and encouraged women to take chances in their lives and careers. Case competition winners were also announced: Georgetown took the top prize, $5,000. University of Texas-Dallas placed second and won $3,000, and Georgia Tech, third, took home $2,000.

Saturday, Nov. 3 was packed with conference workshops and panel discussions. Keynote speaker Lisa Tondreau, a partner in Healthcare Industry Leader, U.S. Public Sector for IBM Global Services, tied her speech back to the three main themes of the conference, Globalization, Entrepreneurship and Technology. She tied all three together with a video on the potential spread of a disease like bird flu, could impact the world. Afternoon sessions to wrap up the conference covered topics including branding, leadership development, entrepreneurship, and pitching business ideas to investors, technology, international careers, and corporate social responsibility.

More information about the conference and career fair is available at www.mbawomen.org.

▓ Carrie Handwerker, Office of Marketing Communications, 
& Lettie Goodridge, MBA Candidate 2008, Smith Media Group