OwenBloggers | Featured Content

WBA Panel 1: Dust Off Your MBA - Tim Vogus

The first Dust Off Your MBA panel ran, and it went very well. Professor Vogus gave a presentation on negotiating and how gender effects that process. He had some very interesting insights, and I got to listen to women share about their own experiences - from negotiating a salary to a deal with other companies as part of their job. There was a lot shared in the room, and it was another great example of how this Symposium has brought together women from various backgrounds and given them a chance to share their experiences. Everyone seems to be really enjoying the weekend - so back to work I go!

WBA Keynote: Beth Canavan

Wow. The keynote just finished her prepared speech and is taking questions from the audience. She gave a wonderful speech that was very inspiring. She made sure to point out that balancing a career and a family will never be easy, and there is no plan for everyone to follow, but the hard work will pay off. A fulfilling career and family life takes a great employer, a great partner, and a lot of optimism. You can go to our homepage to hear the speech, which I highly recommend you do, and below you can see a picture of Beth in action.

WBA Breakfast

The morning has started and we are waiting for the keynote to speak. We've had a great turn-out for a Saturday morning, and the breakfast was pretty good, too. Chocolate chip muffins, quiche, cinnamon buns, bagels... definitely a good start to the morning. We also had people break out of their circles and sit with women from all over in order to meet others and network. Each table had a fishbowl in the middle with a couple of questions on them in order to spark conversation. They ranged from "Who's your role model" to "Can a woman have both a career and a family". All in all a great start. I'm off to listen to the keynote, but enjoy the picture below of some participants at breakfast.

WBA networking night

It’s not all that easy to describe what a room full of business women feels like. You may ask why it’s difficult. On one hand it’s simple, we behave differently. On the other it’s more then that. There is no boasting how great we are, what we have achieved. There is no ego trip or a power struggle to dominate the room, the conversation, or what ever else one wants to show off. But last night at the Women's Business Association
Networking Conference there was a buzz of excitement as business women, at various stages of their careers, talked about how to be successful. Conversations ranged from babies to startups, and went through the whole array of “what are doing,” “what do you want to do,” and “here is my card, let me know if I can help you in your career search.” It was a great evening, and having a massage therapist giving a quick pick me up massages was a spectacular idea. I can’t wait for today’s events, to meet all the wonderful women and to hear their stories of success.

Technorati tags: Owenbloggers.com, Owen Graduate School of Management, MBA, Women's Business Association, Networking, Vanderbilt, Business School