Cal Poly’s Women in Business (WIB) club will be hosting its eighth annual ‘Defining her Future’ conference on Friday, March 3.
The event will run from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center, including guest speakers, breakout workshops and panels hosted by women involved in the business industry, according to a schedule posted on the WIB Instagram.
This year, the event’s chosen theme is ‘power.’ Business administration senior and WIB vice president of events Briana Gallo said she chose this theme to try and encourage confidence in attendees.
“I feel like every college student, whether they’re already feeling powerful or not, could always use an extra boost in confidence,” Gallo said. “I think that really embodies kind of what WIB stands for.”
Those that have been invited to speak or host at this conference “were selected for their diverse experiences, expertise in tools used to overcome challenges and testimonies to empowerment in the workplace,” the WIB website says.
‘Defining Her Future’ is the largest student-run event on Cal Poly’s campus, according to the organization’s website, annually attracting close to 500 participants. This year, Gallo expects nothing different.
Gallo said she and her team have been planning this event since June 2022 and began meeting in November 2022 to bring these plans to fruition.
Although it’s been a “long process” to plan the event’s logistics, Gallo also said she’s excited for it to become tangible and to see the “energy in the room.”
The WIB club’s mission statement notes that it was originally founded “to act as a resource and community for young women, working to provide students with the skills and network,” but Gallo said she thinks the conference is just as important for people of all identities, including women, to attend.
“They can not only learn how to empower themselves, but also to find a community and find other people that are like-minded and wanting to, are motivated to, not only uplift themselves, but also others,” Gallo said.
Any members of the San Luis Obispo community, including students of all majors and backgrounds, are welcome to attend the conference. Attendees are asked to dress in business casual attire.
The conference will provide free lunch and swag bags for attendees. Participants are free to pick which sessions of the conference they’d like to attend and are allowed to leave and return to the conference as they please.
Online registration is required in advance to attend, but the conference is entirely free for Cal Poly students and staff. Tickets are $10 for students who don’t go to Cal Poly, as well as other community members.