Inaugural KSU Women in Business Summit aims to increase interest in opportunities

Oct. 25—Organizers of the inaugural Women in Business Career Summit at Kansas State University say they hope the event will encourage more women to pursue business professions.

The university's College of Business held the summit Friday as a way to launch the Women in Business initiative and provide opportunities for students to learn more about business careers from professionals. Different speakers scheduled throughout the day covered a variety of topics, from negotiating salaries to understanding gender dynamics and increasing social media savvy. More than 400 people pre-registered for the event, but organizers didn't have the number of people who attended the various breakout sessions.

One of the event's main speakers, Manhattan native Tracy Britt Cool, is the co-founder of investment company Kanbrick and is a former financial assistant to Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffet. Britt Cool, who held a virtual session Friday, also served as CEO of Pampered Chef, a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary. Britt Cool said her firm buys and builds companies over decades for long-term success.

"We bought our first business last July," Britt Cool said. "We'll plan to buy one to two businesses a year. It's been a fun journey."

Britt Cool, who received her undergraduate and MBA degrees from Harvard, said K-State "has always had an influence on me." She ran a women-in-business organization while in college and started Smart Woman Securities, a nonprofit that provides personal finance and investment education for undergraduate students. Smart Woman Securities is now offered at about 40 college campuses nationwide, and Britt Cool said she wanted to be involved in the summit because she is "really passionate about helping women in leadership."

"From a knowledge and learning perspective, (this summit) is really valuable to get access to elders that students can look up to," Britt Cool said. "Learning from women and men, especially strong women, has been very impactful for me."

Britt Cool, who graduated from Manhattan High in 2003, said she was "really excited about giving back" to K-State and her hometown.

"Personally, I've mentored a lot of women over the years," Britt Cool said, "so it's really exciting to continue to help mentor women, albeit in a little bit different format."

Assistant professor of management Clarissa Steele said the summit is meant to act as a catalyst to get more women involved in business studies, or to get them thinking about careers in business while they're still in high school. Steele is conducting fresh research to determine what people think about business schools and how events like the Women in Business Summit may impact someone's notion of business careers.

"A lot of this research is 10 to 15 years old, so we don't know what college students today think about business schools," Steele said.

Steele said one-third of the students enrolled in the K-State College of Business are women.

"It keeps dropping for the percentage of women, and we're just trying to figure out why," Steele said, "because we were at parity not very long ago, and now we're not."

Steele said part of the concern may stem from perceptions or stereotypes of what it means to be a business student, starting in high school. She said the number of people who pre-registered for the event tells her there's plenty of interest in business-related knowledge and careers.

"We had a lot of men here, too, who want to be allies to help women succeed in business, so that's always good to see," Steele said.

The goals behind the Women in Business initiative are to reach 50% enrollment by women within the College of Business, provide more personal and professional development opportunities for current students, and engage with alumni and corporate partners to offer learning opportunities and scholarship support. Event organizers said the success of this first summit may warrant a second event in the spring semester.