Two weekends ago was the Dynamic Women in Business Conference at Harvard. We had eight Suffolk students attend which I thought was a great turnout. Most of the people at the conference were graduate students at the Harvard Business School, professionals, and students from the area. There were three keynote speakers as well as many panelists, most of whom were excutives or high-level managers in their companies.
It was such a wonderful opportunity for our Suffolk students to be able to attend this event. We started early in the morning meeting at the Harvard Square T station and headed over to the Harvard Business School for breakfast. The morning keynote speaker was supposed to be the CEO of the (Red) campaign, but she was unable to make it on account of illness, so the President of the Baking Division at General Mills, Ann Simonds, stepped up to the plate. Then there were two morning panels. Each atendee had a choice of eight panels for each session they could attend.
I chose "Work and Life Balance" and "Social Entrepreneurship" as my morning panels. The panel on work and life balance had five highly successful women in the professional world, including one of the Vice Presidents of Merrill Lynch and of Deloitte, all with families and children of their own. One really interesting thing I learned from this panel was that there is no such thing as a work-life balance because work is part of your life. Instead, it should be called work-life integration. I thought it was an interesting way to think about it.
The panel on social entrepreneurship was composed of four women, all the presidents and CEOs of the socially responsible companies they founded. One of the most interesting aspects of this panel watching the passion and persistence these women have as entrepreneurs. They spoke about challenges as "joyful" and had a demeanor that was persistently positive and optimistic. One panels was the founder of UniversalGiving which is a website that allows people to donate to nonprofits without UniversalGiving taking a cut from it. The founder was in her late 20s and almost annoyingly peppy, but she had this quote that I really liked:
"Love without truth is hypocrisy, but truth without love is brutality."
She spoke about how she comes from a stable loving family which has made it difficult for her to deal with conflict. This resonated with me because I come from a stable family and have a lot of issues dealing with conflict. Generally I avoid it by letting myself get walked on rather than dealing with it. But Suffolk group projects have really helped me to deal with that as they have forced me to deal with conflict in my everyday dealings with my classmates because group projects have a direct impact on my grade. It was also reassuring to see that such a young woman could be so successful while struggling with the same challenges that I struggle with.
The afternoon keynote speaker was the CEO of The Limited and the afternoon panel I attended was on Marketing. The brand managers and vice presidents of brand promotion for that panel included women from LARABAR, Coca Cola, and Ben & Jerry's. But my favorite speaker was the last keynote, Christine Day, the CEO of lululemon athletica. She worked for years for Starbucks and then recently took up the position with lululemon. Her speech was bascially her life's story which was inspiring and real. I cannot sum it up into words that would do it justice, but I can relate my favorite line which was, "This is not my practice life, this is my life." I hope that I can live by this every day. My life is not practice, what I do every day should be done seizing all opporutnities and enjoying every moment because all you have is your life. You don't get the time for a trial run before the real thing. Taking risks and going on adventures and savoring every moment is essential because it is not practice, it is your life.
