After board members of Brown Women in Business attended a Harvard business conference last spring, they decided it was time for the University to host its own event of a similar scale. On Oct. 21, the club hosted its first-ever Women in Business conference.
“If Harvard can do it, so can we,” said Aiganym Raimzhanova ’24, membership engagement chair of WIB and one of the primary organizers of the conference.
The six-and-a-half-hour event featured three panelists, student-led workshops, a dinner and a private visit to J. Crew.
The conference’s primary goal was “to inspire and prepare women to embark on their professional journeys,” said Kiara Bose Roy ’25, another conference organizer. Bose Roy added that the mission is not unique to the conference, but rather “one of the overarching goals of WIB, always.”
The featured panelists included Lisa Donohue ’87, board director for Gap, Kat Zacharia, head of organizational effectiveness at JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Meghan Dierks ’84, Komodo Health’s chief data officer.
According to the organizers of the event, they looked for panelists with a range of experiences. Instead of hosting women specific to an industry, Bose Roy explained that they reached out to women who had experienced general success in business, with hopes of catering to the diversity of the members attending the conference.
“We wanted people who came from a variety of experiences so that women could know the possibilities that are out there, and that there’s no one right path to take,” said Bose Roy.
The panel session was an hour long, and was intended to offer attendees a mentorship experience, according to Raimzhanova. Each speaker described their career path, offered advice for women interested in pursuing business careers and gave tips for maintaining a healthy work-life balance.
“Mentors are important,” Donohue said. Zacharia and Dierks echoed this sentiment, emphasizing the influence that role models had in their journeys to success.
After the panel session, students attended three workshops led by student members of WIB focused on LinkedIn usage, resume building and internship searching. Workshop participants rotated between the stations for an hour, receiving peer support, asking questions and getting the opportunity to connect with fellow participants.
“Having this community can help women feel a little bit more empowered to make independent decisions and stand up for themselves, especially in such a male-dominated field,” said WIB member Evani Dalal ’24.
After the workshops, a fraction of participants, selected on a first-come-first-serve basis, had a private dinner at Res American Bistro. These conference members were led by an etiquette coach with the intent of teaching both dining etiquette and conversational skills. The experience, according to students around the dinner table, was one-of-a-kind.
The conference was meant to prepare women for a well-rounded career, Raimzhanova said. “That’s why we had a dining etiquette workshop and student-led workshops.”
The conference finished with a private shopping session in the Providence Place Mall J. Crew, with the purpose of educating members on dressing for the workplace. All participants received 20% off the entire store, along with refreshments, a gift at purchase and personalized advice from employees.
The educational aspects of the conference were helpful, Dalal said. “The food and everything was just a nice perk on top.”
The workshop, according to organizers and students alike, was a success. It had a higher turnout than any other WIB event, and according to Bose Roy, the participants were highly engaged in every aspect of the conference. WIB board members hope to host similar events in the future.
“We’ll just make it bigger and better every year,” Bose Roy said.
Maya Kelly is a Metro senior staff writer who covers health and environment. When she's not at The Herald, you can find her hanging from an aerial silk, bullet journaling, or stress-baking.
