Make the most of your career by Building Your Brand!!

The 4th Annual Women's Leadership Forum showcases world-renowned women executives and entrepreneurs as speakers and panelists in an exciting one-day event. Our dynamic speakers and interactive panel sessions will give you the rare opportunity to participate in lively conversations and discussions with a variety of successful women leaders. Learn the tips and techniques that helped leading women executives and entrepreneurs build their personal brand and rise to higher levels of achievement.

Discover how developing your own personal brand can:

• Help you craft and communicate your unique competencies
• Empower your career and rise to higher levels of achievement
• Create opportunities and establish your credibility
• Inspire you to take risks
• Help you overcome stereotypes in a male-dominated workforce
• Open paths for you to achieve personal and professional goals

Featured Keynote Speakers Include:

ROSA GATTI, Senior Vice President of Communications, ESPN
Rosa has been responsible for ESPN's public relations since its first year of operation as a single network. Today, she oversees the communications initiatives for ESPN, Inc., a multimedia sports entertainment company including domestic and international television, radio, Internet-based programming and other media. She and her staff also coordinate publicity with other ESPN ventures, and the ESPN Zones, sports-themed interactive restaurants. She has received numerous honors for her work in the community.

HELEN GREINER, Founder and Chairman of iRobot
As Chairman of iRobot, the makers of the Roomba robotic vacuum, Helen was named the Ernst and Young New England Entrepreneur of the Year for 2003 (with iRobot co-founder Colin Angle). Under her leadership, iRobot has been delivering robots into the industrial, consumer, academic, and military markets. She was honored as a Technology Review Magazine "Innovator for the Next Century," invited to the World Economic Forums as a Global Leader of Tomorrow, and has been awarded the prestigious DEMO God Award at the DEMO Conference. Her 15 years of experience in robotic technology includes work at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and MIT's Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

MARGARET HEFFERNAN, Entrepreneur and Author
Margaret's diverse career includes producing prize-winning films, documentaries and comedies for BBC, developing software products with Tom Peters and serving the role as a savvy entrepreneur of ZineZone Corporation and iCAST Corporation. She currently sits on the boards of several companies in the United States and United Kingdom. She has commented on women's business issues for NPR's Marketplace and Fast Company and Real Business magazines and lectures widely to business schools and conferences. Her book, The Naked Truth: A Modern Woman's Manifesto on Business and What Really Matters, was published in October 2004. .

PANEL AND WORKSHOP SESSIONS:

Panel Sessions
Four panel discussions are offered throughout the day. During the morning sessions you will explore how branding can accelerate your career in either an entrepreneurial setting or an established company. The afternoon panel sessions focus on ways to define your brand either early in your career or as your career progresses. These interactive sessions give you the opportunity to hear from role models as they provide valuable insight into the skills and tactics that helped them become successful leaders and trendsetters in their industry. Their personal stories of business triumphs and disappointments will inspire you to take risks in your own career and discover the value of personal branding.

Panel Speakers Include:

• Beth Boland, Partner, Bingham McCutcheon LLP
• Therese Byrne, VP Marketing, Blalock Corporation
• Olivia Ho Cheng, CEO, Aurora Imaging
• Kathryn Korostoff, President & Founder, Sage Research
• Nina McLemore, President & FOunder, Nina McLemore Designs
• Donna Mullen Good, Executive Director, CWE
• Susan Wagner, VP of Marketing Research, Gillette Company
• Kathryn Yates, Director, Global Communication Practice, Watson Wyatt Worldwide
  

Panel Sessions Topics are:

Accelerating Your Brand in an Established Company

You CAN build your brand, even within a large company with well-established policies and procedures. Learn how to distinguish and promote yourself in order to move up within an established company.

Building Your Brand in an Entrepreneurial Environment

What does it take to ‘build your brand’ in an environment where you may wear many different hats at the same time? This panel will discuss the unique challenges facing women in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment.

Defining Your Brand Early in Your Career

Young workers want to put newly learned skills into practice and have an immediate impact. Come hear how these panelists applied their knowledge and skills in a way that helped them define themselves within the workplace early on in their careers.

Repositioning Your Brand Throughout Your Career

We all go through many phases during our careers which challenge us to stay fresh and keep our skills marketable. Our panelists will discuss how they have managed to reposition themselves throughout their careers and maintain both relevance and differentiation in today’s marketplace.

Workshops
Two concurrent workshops are offered at the 2005 Women's Leadership Forum. The first workshop entitled: Building Your Brand: Financial Implications is sponsored by Smith Barney. Great brands are built through solid, consistent financial investment – and building your own brand is no different! At this workshop, the workshop leader discusses the steps necessary to building and supporting your brand as you move through your career. The second workshop entitled: Negotiating with Confidence, shows you how to successfully prepare for each negotiation, manage the messages you send, and identify powerful moves and counter-moves that will launch your career forward and help brand yourself.

Sponsored by Brown Rudnick and Merrill Lynch in partnership with NEWBO (New England Women Business Owners), Smith Barney & WorkVision

For more information about future sponsorship, contact Tara Benedict: 617-358-1971 or cwel@bu.edu

For more on building your brand,
check out the
BU School of Management's
newest executive Leadership program:
Leading The Brand Called You:
Leadership Advancement Program for Women