Wharton's 125th comes to a close

One hundred and twenty-three speakers are gathering today to conclude the year-long celebration in honor of Wharton's 125th anniversary.

This year's two-day conference, taking place at the Philadelphia Convention Center, is the biggest event in the business school's history, Wharton Associate Dean Steve Oliveira said.

Keynote speakers include Jon Huntsman and Stan O'Neal, chairman and CEO of Merrill Lynch.

Tickets to the summit are $499 for regular attendees but only $25 for students.

But for some students, the discounted price isn't enough of a draw.

"It looks interesting, but I have finals coming up, and Spring Fling is this weekend," Wharton freshman Brian Finkel said.

"It cost money I didn't have, it was the same weekend as Fling . and it's just a busy time of the year," Wharton freshman Alex Anderson said.

But conference directors did their best to reconcile the event with Friday's Spring Fling.

"We were aware of [Fling] and, unfortunately, we could not work around the scheduling," Oliveira said. "We were hopeful we might be able to have Bono come as a speaker" and give a concert as well.

In addition, organizers promoted the event with ads on Huntsman Hall's plasma screens and packages of red and blue M&M;'s sent to students with information about the conference.

And some Whartonites managed to find time in their schedules to attend.

"I feel it's a waste of going to an Ivy League school if you don't take advantage of the things that go along with it," said Wharton freshman Andy Stafman, who is attending only the first day of the conference so as not to miss any of Fling.

Oliveira estimated that 400 of the conference's 1,000 registered attendees are students.

In addition to students, alumni and faculty, organizers hope to attract members of the general business public to the event.

"I am expecting to learn as much from the practitioners as hopefully they will learn from me," said Raffi Amit, academic director of the Wharton Entrepreneurial Program, who will lead a panel on family business.

The conference "help[s] people get the best current thinking based on scholarship and research," said Management professor Michael Useem, who is leading a panel on creative leadership.

The anniversary celebration, which began in January of last year, also included a worldwide faculty tour of 30 cities, including Beijing, Rio de Janeiro and Istanbul.

"For most of the past 18 months, we've been reaching out, and now we're bringing people back to campus," Oliveira said.

"Our overall objective is [to] get alumni engaged and involved with the life of the school," he said.

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