By Kara Sherrer
On Nov. 3, the Vanderbilt Business Healthcare Conference will bring together industry veterans, MBA students, and the Nashville community for a day of learning about upcoming health care trends. The student-run conference, celebrating its 10th anniversary, will be held at the Aertson Midtown hotel, located across the street from the Owen Graduate School of Management.
This year’s theme is “Disrupting Healthcare: The Radical New Ways to Consume and Deliver Healthcare.” Speakers include Dr. Peter Pronovost, Director of the Armstrong Institute; Dr. Brent James of Intermountain Health; Dr. Brian Fengler, Founder and CEO of EvidenceCare; and Jesse Spencer-Smith, Director of Data Science for HCA.
“You have speakers from companies that may have no affiliation with Vanderbilt from a recruiting perspective or a networking perspective. It really opens up your opportunities for learning engagement,” said Arielle Samet (MBA’18), who attended the conference last year.
The day-long conference concludes with a career fair and happy hour, giving attendees the opportunity to connect with each other and company representatives. Event organizers say that having a shared experience to talk about makes the networking process more natural.
“One of the best ways that you can provide value to (attendees) is to provide a networking happy hour at the end of any event,” said Ethan Hall (MBA’18), one of the conference co-chairs.
Everything from managing the budget to securing sponsors are handled by a student board of 20 people (10 first-year MBAs and 10 second-years) who work throughout the year to make the event a success. Organizers expect about 200 students from Owen to attend this year, plus a few dozen people from other schools and the surrounding community.
Attendees come to the conference for a variety of reasons, from gathering insights from industry leaders to networking with companies at the career fair; for many Owen students, it’s an early foray into a new career in an unfamiliar space.
“For me, that’s exactly why I wanted to come to Owen, to get involved in that health care space and get those hands-on experiences, such as through the Healthcare Conference,” said Dan Concepcion (MBA’19), who plans to attend this year’s event.
A significant number of Owen graduates accept jobs in the health care industry; in fact, 24% of MBAs from the class of 2016 (the most recent data available) took positions in health care. Given that Nashville is a major center of health care management and innovation, organizers believe the conference is a mutually beneficial way for talented students and area employers to connect.
“We think that we can help position Vanderbilt as the top health care-focused MBA in the country if we really push hard,” Hall said.
The Vanderbilt Business Healthcare Conference will be held on Friday, Nov. 3 at the Aertson Midtown. Learn more or register to attend at the conference website.
