Robert Nesmith
Communications & Marketing
Each Wednesday during the academic year, the College of Management’s LeCraw Auditorium serves as a forum for business leaders and entrepreneurs from across the country.
Attendees are given an up-close look into the speakers’ thought processes, leadership and business strategies, often involving one-on-one conversation.
Officially started by Professor Terry Blum during her tenure as dean, the IMPACT Speaker Series has welcomed a diverse group of speakers, from Tech alumnus Ray Anderson of Interface Inc., S. Truett Cathy of Chick-fil-A and Bernie Marcus of Home Depot to Jack Welch of General Electric, best-selling author Thomas Friedman and former Vice President Al Gore. Blum said she chose the name for the series because, as a noun and a verb, it can describe both action and results.
| |
 |
| |
IMPACT speaker Martin Melaver speaks with an attendee prior to giving his Oct. 7 presentation. Afterward, he signed copies of his new book. |
Blum established the Institute for Leadership and Entrepreneurship (ILE), which currently sponsors the series, in 2003. The group works to establish partnerships throughout the campus, city and around the world. ILE also works with students to develop values-based leadership skills and become socially responsible entrepreneurs.
“[Professor] David Ku and I had developed a curriculum in technology entrepreneurship for biomedical students that expanded to other engineering and science students,” she said. “We were part of the Roundtable for Engineering Entrepreneurship at Stanford and saw that they had speakers coming to campus routinely, so we captured the idea and morphed it to include corporate entrepreneurship and innovation, as well as leadership that is all about imagining and enacting alternative futures.”
For the last three years, Dóri Pap—an ILE research scientist—has worked to assemble the speakers and keep the series moving successfully. Locating and requesting the speakers is one of the most interesting and exciting parts of the job, she says.
“We try and find a good mix [of speakers]—both from for-profit and non-profit [organizations], as well as from established and new corporations,” Pap said. “The main concern [for those of us in ILE] is being an interdisciplinary Institute, and the main topics we cover are entrepreneurship, leadership, sustainability, innovation and corporate social responsibility.”
Attendance has been robust since the inception, Pap says. Originally drawing 60 or 70 attendees, each week’s seminar averages roughly 200 to 250 people. “When Gary Schilling came [last spring] to deliver the Thomas R. Williams Distinguished Lecture, we probably had close to 400 people,” Pap said. “Tom Friedman and Jack Welch also drew as many.” When Gore spoke the seminar was moved to the Ferst Center for the Arts. Each seminar is recorded and available on the IMPACT Web site.
“We may provide a wide range of topics, but speakers ultimately select what they will speak about,” Pap said. “We don’t think of it as ILE’s speaker series—we think of it as Tech’s premier speaker series.” The presentation is usually a 30-minute talk and then 30 minutes of question-and-answer from the audience. “If we have a reception, then students are invited to stay and speak with the guest,” she added.
Selecting speakers for the series is an opportunity for ILE to fulfill its collaborative agenda with other schools and colleges around the Institute. Last week’s guest, Harvard Business School Professor of Management Practice and Tech alumnus Bill George, spoke in the Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience building.
Another speaker in this semester’s line-up was invited in partnership with The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, whose vice president for Sports and Philanthropy, John Bare, is an ILE fellow. At Bare’s invitation, entrepreneur Kristin Grimm, president of a marketing firm that specializes in assisting non-profit organizations, held a workshop in conjunction with her IMPACT presentation. “It’s a great avenue for the speakers to connect with Tech students and faculty,” said Pap, who added they hold receptions when able for students to network and speak with the speaker. “If we’re working with another department, they may want to hold a dinner or reception for [the speaker],” she said.
Hosting a speaker every week means little downtime. The week prior to the fall semester series kicking off, Pap was busy lining up speakers for spring. Speakers are selected based on various considerations. “We try to have leaders from both the for- and non-profit sectors, from across various industries and we are especially thrilled to host women and minority leaders.”
| |
 |
| |
The Institute for Leadership and Entrepreneurship is comprised of (front row) Alan Flury, Bob Thomas, Terry Blum and Dóri Pap. Joel Cowan, Ann Lynch and Blake Cherrington are in the back row. |
Pap and her team also take care of the logistics each week, ensuring the transportation for the week’s speaker, setting up the auditorium at about 3:30 p.m. and checking the PowerPoint, if one was submitted. When the speaker arrives around 4 p.m., ILE gives them a tour around the College and wires them up for the seminar. “Students and faculty get a chance to meet with the speaker,” Pap said.
In addition to scheduling transportation and operating PowerPoint presentations, there can be other issues. “It’s always a nice glitch when you have a president- or CEO-level speaker who has quit the company—and forgot to cancel his speaking engagement with us,” she said. “It’s only happened a few times, but it can be stressful.” Pap adds that typically “replacement” speakers are amenable to speaking and relatively easy to find.
“We get outstanding support from our own College of Management staff and lots of technical advice and support from the great folks in the main Communications and Digital Media offices on campus,” Pap said. “The Al Gore event was a classic example of various departments at Tech working together with ILE to deliver a flawless event.”
Often, Pap says, other College events are tied into the IMPACT series, such as a book signing or a workshop. In March, awards for the Georgia Tech Business Plan Competition and the I2S Competition (Ideas to SERVE: Socially and Environmentally Responsible Value Enhancement) will be presented during a seminar.
“We have expanded as topics have emerged, hopefully taking some leadership in convening on topics of interest even before the tipping point when they become institutionalized,” Blum said. “Some of these have to do with sustainability, social entrepreneurship, B corporations, microfinance and nanotechnology.”
The College and ILE provide funding for the series, as does an endowment from the Herman Brown Foundation. WABE 90.1FM is a media partner, and Peach New Media provides the recording for the series. IMPACT is without a title sponsor at the moment, but despite the difficult economic environment Pap says she is convinced a local company will recognize the great potential that lies in partnering with the leading speaker series at one of the nation’s top universities.
“While the speakers do not get honorariums and are super about volunteering their time and expertise, there are costs of video- and Webcasting, staff costs for the production, advertising and communication costs,” Blum said.
Pap’s move into her position with ILE came as a natural extension of her educational path at Tech. A transfer student in 2000, she came to Tech from Budapest, Hungary, to join the women’s volleyball team. After completing her dual International Affairs and Business master’s degree she was asked by Blum to join the ILE. In addition to managing the IMPACT series, Pap works on research projects with Blum in the area of organizational behavior, and from next semester will co-teach some of the courses offered by ILE.
“A great series depends on great speakers and on great listeners,” Blum said. “We try to prepare the students and community members for being open to hearing new and different things—or older things in new ways.”
In addition to the IMPACT Speaker Series, ILE offers the Cowan-Turner Program in Servant Leadership and Georgia Tech’s Leadership Roundtable and it is closely involved with the Business Plan and I2S Competitions, as well as various student organizations and initiatives on campus. Projects funded by the Cowan-Turner Program include the Women’s Resource Center, the Humanitarian Logistics Center, the African American Student Union, the Student Leader Retreat and LeaderShape.
|
