Students sporting oxford shirts and nametags filed into the French Family Science Center for Duke's first ever Spring Business Conference Friday.
Features of the conference included keynote speaker Dan Vermeer, executive director of the Corporate Sustainability Initiative at Duke, a business panel and a networking lunch.
"[This conference] is really a great way to tap into resources offered by a seemingly unending number of Duke graduates," said Torrey Glass, Trinity '74, a loan officer for Mortgage Network.
The Spring Business Conference was hosted by The Duke Association for Business Oriented Women, The Duke Entrepreneur, Duke Venture Forward, Duke Consulting Club, Alpha Kappa Psi, Duke Investment Club, the Duke Career Center and the Duke Alumni Association. Leaders of the conference said it will become an annual function.
The topics of questions posed to the panel, which consisted primarily of Duke alumni, ranged from the economic dominance of the United States to how different industries have changed and are changing.
Most panelists noted that the economic crisis has had a significant impact on their industries.
Scott Albert, Engineering '77, managing general partner of The Aurora Funds-a venture capital firm that offers guidance to entrepreneurs in health care and information technology-said the number of venture capital firms has dropped dramatically since its peak in the late 1990s and he expects this trend to continue. Nevertheless, Glass said he is optimistic about the future.
"If you realize your model needs to change, that you need to change the way you do business, you'll survive it. You always do," he said.
Panelists encouraged students to be creative and take initiative in their career searches. They said that students today should look beyond employment and seek "opportunities" and to use the same innovation and entrepreneurship in looking for work that they use in their undergraduate careers. Speakers also encouraged students to forthright by making cold calls, hand-writing letters and anything else they can to pursue their interests.
Jonathan Feifs, engagement manager for McKinsey & Company and Engineering '99, noted that firms like McKinsey and Goldman Sachs are not hiring the sheer numbers of students they once did.
Feifs added that people often joke with him about why someone would want to "go into these industries where there are a bunch of smart people constantly stabbing each other in the back to move up a ladder," noting that excelling in a nontraditional field is valuable to those seeking successful careers.
Panelists also said strong networks are necessary in today's job market.
"I never, ever got a job I went out and interviewed for-it all came out of my network," said Bill Brown, Law '80 and visiting professor of the practice of law.
Brown also spoke with high hopes for current students, comparing today's economic climate to the one that fueled unparalleled innovation in the early 1930s.
"Rather than having ineffective use of capital, we're now back to ideas and cash flow, to the good old bases," he said. "For people who graduate from universities today, opportunity has never, ever been brighter."
Junior Alex Mistretta said she liked that the panel gave a positive spin to not knowing as an undergraduate what career to pursue. She noted, however, that she would have liked more time for the audience to question panelists.
But the conference was not just useful for student attendees, said senior Claire McConnell, vice president of finance for BOW. She added that the Spring Business Conference helped unite previously disconnected business-oriented clubs and organizations.
McConnell, who helped organized the event, said this year's conference focused on shifting industries because many students are having trouble finding jobs. She added that the theme of the Spring Business Conference will change yearly.
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