This weekend, my sister (fellow Her Campus writer Steph Duffy) and I made the hour and a half drive down from Connecticut to attend the two-day Her Campus National Intercollegiette Conference. It was a weekend full of fun activities and seminars hosted by the Her Campus National Team in a gorgeous space at Columbia University. The conference (find #HerConference on Twitter and Insta) was a truly once in a lifetime experience filled with inspiring speakers, great food, and free stuff thanks to our corporate sponsors! The first day of the conference, Saturday, was for Her Campus writers only while Sunday was open up to the public. Each day was jam-packed with fantastic sessions and keynote speakers, including founder and CEO of TheKnot.com and the publisher of Town and Country Magazine. Although I myself am a business major and the conference focused heavily on careers in editing and public relations, I highly recommend the event for any collegiette. The advice I received while listening to the keynote speakers and high-powered women entrepreneurs and bloggers was certainly invaluable!
Okay, first let me make it clear that a large amount of dedication went into attending this conference on my part, since arriving on time meant leaving my sleepy Connecticut suburb at six in the morning. Upon arrival, however, I knew that the early Saturday was worth it: Steph and I were immediately handed nametags and goody bags weighing approximately 50 pounds. Seriously, guys, these bags were amazing (see proof below): if anything, go for the free stuff. (Just kidding…)
After enjoying a delicious breakfast including all the Chobani I could handle and all the Luna bars I could shove in my purse (shh), we took our seats for the first speaker. Carley Roney, founder and CEO of The Knot, walked us through her whirlwind experience in film school and her decision to start a business. Carley described her experience with 15-hour work days, raising a child, and having her husband as a business partner. The main take away from her story is that in order to get what you want, you have to work your butt off. After doing this, everything else will follow. Today, Carley holds the position of co-founder and Chief Content Officer of XO group, a publicly-traded company which includes The Knot, The Nest, and The Bump, three online guides for women experiencing major milestones in their lives.
brb #DYING
Carley Roney, co-founder of XO Group
As a member of Mendoza, I felt pulled to the first seminar entitled How to Make your Startup a Success: Female Entrepreneurs Share their Stories. There, I listened to the stories of four female startup owners with varying circumstances: one dropped out of Harvard at 19 to become CEO of Minga and later BrightCo, another left Wall Street to co-found vivestyle.com, and a third created her own company to educate young adults about good wine. All the panelists stressed the importance of a good business partner, the grit and obsession needed to make your startup a success, and how being young and having a low opportunity cost is key. Rebecca Kantar, second from left in the picture below and founder of BrightCo, left us with these parting words: don’t be afraid to live an unconventional life in hopes of greater experiences later on, and be scrappy but stay smart. Great panel, ladies!
from left to right: Morgan First, Co-founder of Second Glass; Rebecca Kantar, Founder and CEO of BrightCo; Allana Gregory, Founder and CEO of VIVE; and Vanessa Liu, COO of Trigger Media Group
For the second panel of the day, I found myself in a seminar entitled How Top Bloggers found their Niches. While not a blogger myself, I recognized one of the panelists (The College Prepster) and decided to sit in. Most of the bloggers started their work as a creative outlet and soon blossomed from a hobby into a profession. In this panel I learned how big the online blog network really is, how to find the right platform for your blog, and how to give people content that is different from everyone else’s. (Going back to the blog network thing: it’s also slightly creepy. Apparently it’s not uncommon to meet people online through their blog and then meet up in real life. Two of the panelists actually met through Twitter and are now good friends!). Bloggers should also keep three key things in mind in order to captivate an audience: intent, authenticity, and consistency. The ladies on the panel also stressed the importance of cultivating relationships with coworkers while doing internships, because you never know when those connections will come full circle. The best advice from this panel came from Hallie Wilson, author of the blog corals & cognacs: “Focus on what’s worth your time, not what’s worth your money.” Again, thanks for the awesome panel ladies!
me with The College Prepster, Carly Heitlinger
After a fantastic lunch catered by Chipotle, my sis and I sat down to listen to the second keynote speaker of the day: Jennifer Levene Bruno, publisher of Town and Country Magazine. Her inspiring work ethic and dedication to success was certainly memorable! She shared some great advice for sending standout emails: send them very early or very late in the day, add the person’s name in the subject line, make it easy for the person to respond by suggesting a meeting time, and make your emails short and concise. After her talk, I got a chance to chat the publisher one-on-one and ask about her best advice for summer internships and beyond. She said, “Do your work and forget the other stuff, and have a vision and make it happen.” Inspiring words!
Jennifer Levene Bruno
For the third and final session of the day, I chose to sit in on a panel where Her Campus National Team members discussed ways to have the best event on campus and increase readership. I won’t disclose all the great ideas we brainstormed, but rest assured you’ll be seeing great things from HCND in the future!
Sunday
After speed-walking to the stiflingly hot subway terminal on 76th and squeezing into a seat next to a guy with questionable tattoos, Steph and I finally made it back to Columbia for #HerConference Day 2. Structured exactly like the previous day’s events, we enjoyed a yummy breakfast before hearing the third keynote speech of the weekend. This one was given by Susan Kaufman, Editor-in-Chief for People StyleWatch. She described how meeting a friend at a party allowed her to get her foot in the door, how her hilarious fashion faux-pas moments early on helped her grow, and how she was able to take a leap of faith and spearhead her own project. One of the best pieces of advice she gave was to always write a sincere thank-you note after an interview or job experience. You never know when those relationships will help in the future!
The first seminar of the day was given by Freyan Billimoria, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Levo League. Levo is an online community dedicated to the success of women in their professional fields by using networking tools. There are even mentors on-site who will respond to your questions. Her presentation was extremely interactive and engaging: she started off the session by having us go around the room and introduce ourselves and name what we wanted to be when we were little (to which we heard some hilarious replies!). She then described that in order to succeed at any of our goals, we need a game plan and steps to follow. To show us what this meant, we wrote down what we visualized ourselves to be like in five years and then pinpointed the steps needed to achieve this. Showing ourselves what was most important to us was extremely eye-opening and definitely helped get the ball rolling. Thanks, Freyan!
The second session I attended was another panel of female entrepreneurs, who highlighted the importance of the relationship between co-founders of a company. They described starting a business with another person as being married to them – it requires commitment and responsibility. It is also crucial to divide up tasks; if both people are good at the same things, conflict will arise. They reflected upon the feeling of freedom and control that owning your own business brings, but also how the lack of a safety net can be terrifying. We learned the top things that startup owners look for in employees: people who ask about the job itself during an interview and not about the salary, high levels of enthusiasm, an ability to multitask, and (my favorite) the capacity to be asked the same question about the business a million times and still be excited about answering it. My favorite piece of advice from the seminar came as a group consensus from the panelists: don’t give up on your options too early in life, because pretty soon society will force you to choose a path. Very well said, ladies!
From left to right: Meryl Natow, Co-Founder of Six Foods; Courtney Spritzer, Co-Founder of Socialfly; Rachel Hofstetter, Co-Founder of guesterly; and Dana Hork, Founder and CEO of REFINE and Change for Change
After another lunch by Chipotle and an inspiring talk by Inbar Barak, Senior VP of Martha Stewart Living, we were off to our third and final panel discussion of the day. I chose to attend a talk entitled Keeping your $20’s in your 20’s, where the founder of Down-to-Earth Finance Galia Gichon talked us through budgeting during college and beyond. Her best tips? Save and invest early, build credit at soon as you can, and learn how to budget effectively. Her rule of thumb is to put aside 50% of your paycheck for essential needs, 20% for savings, and 30% for your “wants” (shoe shopping, obvs). She also recommends budgeting tools like mint.com, levelmoney.com, and YNAB.com to handle all the moolah you might be making from a summer job or internship. To learn more about Galia and her company, visit downtoearthfinance.com or collegecfo.org.
Aaaand that wrapped up a fantastic weekend filled with freebies, food, and fun! I learned so much from the panelists and am now more inspired than ever to bring my ideas to life. I highly encourage anyone interested to attend next year- remember, Sunday is open to non-Her Campus team members. Thanks for reading, until next year’s Her Conference!
Me with the three Co-Founders of Her Campus: Windsor Hanger Western, Annie Wang, and Stephanie Kaplan.
Me and my sister, Steph, at the Amtrak photo station.
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Images 1, 2-11 provided by author