With the changing of the leaves and the influx of cooler weather on Columbia Business School’s (CBS’s) campus comes a series of student-run conferences that give both first- and second-year students the opportunity to expand their knowledge across a variety of disciplines via panels and keynote speaker addresses, and to network with like-minded students, conference sponsors (who are often also big CBS recruiters) and even industry professionals.
In early October is the popular Social Enterprise Conference, during which speakers discuss the ways leaders and managers can use strategy as a tool to maximize social change and how organizations can incorporate a broader spectrum of social gains into their organizational strategies, among other issues. Keynote speakers for the event will include Paul Farmer, founding director of Partners in Health (PIH); Richard Hall, the director of global strategic alliances at Intel Corporation; and Jennifer Crozier, vice-president of global citizenship initiatives at IBM.
The CBS Healthcare Conference follows in early November and this year will feature Marc Tessier-Lavigne, PhD, president of Rockefeller University, and Laura Forese, MD, group senior vice-president, COO and CMO of New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell. The Marketing Association of Columbia (MAC) Conference is up next, in early December, and like the Social Enterprise Conference, usually offers a packed house. Last year, the MAC Conference focused on the brand experience elevated, enhanced and personalized for today’s mindful consumer.
The conference season continues into the second semester and features the popular India Business Conference and the Columbia Women in Business Conference. CBS often touts its New York advantage—students have the business world right at the school’s door, ripe for exploration. Obviously, however, this advantage does not mean that CBS neglects to bring the business world to its students.
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