USWIB 10th ANNUAL Conference recap

BY SANA SINGH

This year USWIB hosted the 10th edition of its Annual Conference, but it looked slightly different, given we are surviving a pandemic. A week full of exciting panels from the biggest firms in the industry; networking and making new friends; engaging in meaningful conversations; and most importantly, Rising to the Challenge. In an exclusive interview with the Conference Team, we delve deeper into the behind the scenes planning and organization process of the conference and how Alisha, Juliana, Nisha and Lu Lu rose to the challenge!  

Q1. Can you explain the theme of this year’s conference? How did you come up with it?

Lu Lu: The past year has been marked with adversity and challenges for all of us, but we also saw inspiring individuals stand up and fight through the toughest times. We wanted to use this year’s Conference to honor all the strong and resilient women not only stood up for themselves but also stood up for others. At NYU and in USWIB, we are surrounded by perfect examples of what it means to rise to the challenge, so we want to use this space to spotlight and uplift them and all women alike. The Conference Team came up with the theme: Rise To The Challenge! together to celebrate women in business, in our community, and each other. 

Q2. Given the unprecedented circumstances we are in, you were tasked with organizing a conference that is completely virtual. Has that posed any challenges? If yes, how did you overcome them?

Juliana: Yes, there were definitely challenges along the way. The actual planning process was smooth enough considering all of the core team made time every day to communicate. However, deciding on a virtual conference format was high-stakes. We wanted to preserve the sanctity of an in-person conference that engaged attendees even between events and encouraged socializing. At the same time, we hoped to accommodate students and professionals across time zones. We resolved this by hosting a week of smaller events on Zoom culminating in a Summit Day hosted on Hopin. Hopin uniquely provided a singular virtual event venue, allowing attendees to explore company expo booths, polls, and 1-on-1 networking even between scheduled events. 

But new challenges arose from this platform. All stakeholders had to be onboarded and reassured, so we had to create different sets of resources for student attendees, professionals speaking at different types of events, and USWIB board moderators. We knew technical difficulties would be inevitable, so we did our best to provide guidance though everything from virtual office hours to custom tutorials to live demos. 

Q3. The keynote speaker of this year’s conference was Ms. Mary John Miller. How did you make the decision of inviting her? Was it hard to get her onboard given how busy she is?

Alisha: We actually connected with Mary after I reached out to my Risk Management professor, Richard Berner, the Co-Director of the Stern Volatility and Risk Institute. (Pro Tip: Professors really are the best resource!) I let him know about the purpose of our conference and the theme and he passed along the message to a few of his colleagues. Mary was the first to agree to meet with us. 

We knew heading into our first conversation with Mary the “vibes”, for lack of better words, were going to play a big role in whether we actually confirmed her as the keynote speaker or not. But the fact that she was so receptive and willing to work with our team to craft the most impactful speech for attendees sealed the deal. We had discussed for so long how we wanted the keynote speaker to be able to speak to the theme of “Rise to the Challenge” in an authentic way, because many times keynote speakers are so accomplished and engaging, but they lose the audience because they can’t connect or put themselves in the audience's shoes. For Mary to have had such a diverse career path in the both private and public sector and her ability to speak towards roles in finance, government, public office, social impact while conveying the meaning of being a woman in business through all of that, it was incredible. 

And oh my 100% -- Mary is an extremely busy woman, haha! We had to make sure to plan meetings way in advance, but she made so much time for us and we are so appreciative. She sent us her speech in advance for feedback and we had a meeting about Hopin logistics and all of that. Ultimately her genuine willingness to make this Conference a worthwhile experience is something we are truly grateful for. 

Q4. Which speaker/panel were you looking forward to the most?

Alisha: I was really looking forward to the Be Your Own Hero and Connecting the Dots: Crafting the Story of Your Career Path panels, and I’m happy that both ended up being engaging and meaningful discussions. With regards to the Be Your Own Hero panel, it’s really important to keep having conversations about advocating for ourselves as women in business despite how truly difficult and terrifying it can be at times. We need to be able to talk about ourselves, our accomplishments, and be our own main advocates because by doing so we are actually empowering other women to feel comfortable in doing the same. 

The Connecting the Dots panel was also important because I can think of numerous instances when I’ve been told that by doing X, I can achieve Y, and then Z will be the next move. So many people have set ideas of what a career path looks like and how to get from one place to the next, but the truth is all career paths are unique and valid. We shouldn’t have to feel boxed into certain standards in order to be “successful”, and when women share their stories and speak candidly about their experiences and decision-making processes and making career transitions, it eases the stress on a lot of us and essentially starts to normalize change.

Q5. What was your biggest takeaway from the conference experience? (could be from the panels, networking sessions, or the organization and planning process)

Nisha: Communication truly is key! At its very essence, a conference is a confluence of people and ideas, each equally passionate but uniquely distinct in the perspectives they bring to the (in this case, virtual) table. And essential to this entire exchange and planning process was communication. Creating a USWIB conference, with no virtual precedent, presented several challenges in accomplishing this. But it's precisely why we formulated a conference structure that would hopefully tailor to the professional development goals of our attendees and take the networking initiatives of our sponsors into account.

In my role as Corporate Relations Chair, I had several touchpoints in seeing just how integral communication was to this endeavor. I was fortunate to work with an incredibly passionate team, whose willingness to go above and beyond at every decision-making juncture made communication seamless. On a daily basis, I had emails zipping back and forth between myself and our sponsors coordinating event details and fielding questions. And at the very crux of all our efforts was ensuring that we could facilitate connections at the conference itself. As such, we aimed to create a virtual conference experience that offered a variety of opportunities and mediums to communicate. This year's conference had several event days (Series vs. Summit), formats (Zoom vs. Hopin), and types (roundtables, 1on1 networking chats, firm-led presentations, and multi-firm panels). Yet the uniting factor across all of these moving variables was our team's central goal to create a virtual space to make authentic connections. 

Q6. Now that Conference is over, how do you reflect back on the last few months? Were you stressed or excited or both? Do you feel a sense of fulfillment and satisfaction? 

Juliana: Conference being over still doesn’t feel real, especially since we have plenty of things to follow up on. While we have been planning this since August, the last few months of work have been exhilarating but almost automatic. There was very much a feeling of constant acceleration that was mostly fulfilling, rarely stressful. I’m proud of what we accomplished and am even more grateful to have done it all alongside the most #remarkable team I have ever worked with. (You three have my love and respect.)

Nisha: It feels incredibly surreal that conference is over! The past month was a unique concoction of exhilarating and exhausting, but it was so fulfilling to see it come to fruition exactly how we envisioned. This past week I couldn’t help but cheesily reflect on how applicable our theme “Rise to the Challenge” felt. Something unique about this conference was that despite being the 10th annual, it was wholly unlike any other conference preceding it. This conference was distinctly a direct reflection of our team’s response to an “unprecedented” environment and our unfettered goal that we wanted to carry on this tradition with the same fervor and impact that had been done in years past. Knowing that we each put our absolute all into accomplishing this fills me with an incredible sense of pride and gratitude for my team. 

Alisha: Was I the only one who was stressed?!! Maybe that’s just my brain haha! But yes excitement and stress were the constant emotions I felt both leading up to and during the conference. Like the team has mentioned, it does feel extremely surreal that it’s over, but I am incredibly fulfilled knowing that those who attended at any point during the week got something so meaningful out of it. Our whole purpose for this conference has always been for other women in business to feel empowered, whether that be personally, professionally, academically, or in any other sense that is important to them. I’ve received so many messages from people who are grateful for the experience and the platform we created, even in the virtual environment, and everything aside I can say the conference was successful because of that. 

Lu Lu: I was definitely very stressed the entire time, especially in the month leading up to Conference. Although I knew age and grade doesn’t matter, being the only sophomore on the team, I did feel a little bit of imposter syndrome in the beginning. But as time went on, the rest of the team gave me positive reinforcement every step of the way and I was able to grow out of my shell. Now I definitely feel very fulfilled, seeing everything come to fruition. I’m proud that I was able to contribute to this huge Conference and see our collective impact on the attendees and professionals. 

Q7. If there were one thing you could do differently, what would it be?

Juliana: While we did have initiatives to incentivize turnout, I wish we built some sort of community during the months leading up to Conference to get attendees invested and to boost attendance even more. For example, we considered making a Conference Slack directory for announcements and for attendees from our 60+ universities to connect even before and after the event. Involving early registrants in the planning process (e.g. voting on panel topics), perhaps through a community like this, would also have increased turnout. Unfortunately, this year we didn’t have time for both that and the process of acquiring sponsors and confirming their presentation content. 

Nisha: One thing I enjoyed about the Series that was less prevalent at the Summit was the opportunity for the four of us to see and hear from attendees (both professional and students) throughout the events. During the Summit, the four of us were truly in the weeds ensuring that all facets of the conference were running as smoothly as possible, and the day flew right by us! Whereas during the Summit we only had one event at a time to focus on and experience. This tradeoff however was implicit to leading the conference, so while there wasn’t a way to truly overcome it, I would have definitely loved even more opportunities to engage with those who were present!

Alisha: Honestly there were probably some small things here and there we could’ve changed … phrased things a bit differently in marketing materials or pushed up/back some deadlines. But when I reflect on the overall conference and after hearing feedback from some of my close friends who attended, I really wouldn’t change anything. This may sound cheesy but this team just planned one of the first, if not the first student-run virtual conferences at Stern. Us four women. We did THAT. I am incredibly proud of the way we came together and used our strengths to make this conference the best it could be for everyone who attended. My heart feels happy thinking about how we pioneered this new experience and didn’t back down no matter the obstacles. We really did rise to the challenge, and I am so proud.

Lu Lu: I think we really rose to the challenge this year, being handed the first ever virtual USWIB Conference and being all new to this. We did a lot of things that were unique to a virtual Conference that didn’t apply previously, so we had no prior model to build upon. One of the things I didn’t think of was to use LinkedIn marketing. This year, like all years, we focused on marketing on Facebook, Instagram, and through emailing clubs and schools. However, I recently discovered the potential of LinkedIn marketing, and would love to see next year’s Conference team try it out. That is where you can connect with so many business-oriented students from around the world.

And that concludes our USWIB Conference Recap. See you all next year, hopefully in person. Until then, stay safe and wear your masks!