Penn State Behrend to Host Annual Conference for Business Educators, Professionals
Edinboro, Gannon and Mercyhurst are participating as co-hosts
The Midwest Region of the Decision Sciences Institute (MWDSI) will hold its 39th annual conference from April 17-19, at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College. The two-day conference targets educators in business and related disciplines and serves as a forum to keep them abreast of the issues and technologies related to these disciplines.
The conference is open to the academic and professional business communities as well as students. Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, Gannon University and Mercyhurst College are serving as co-hosts. Representatives from the four colleges and universities chose to collaborate and have been coordinating the conference for about a year.
"This special consortium of academic institutions provides a lot of energy and a wealth of new ideas and approaches to the conference planning process,” said Diane Parente, conference chair and associate professor of management at Penn State Behrend. “We have implemented a number of new initiatives this year and are hopeful that the conference will attract attendees from outside of the Midwest region as well as non-academics.”
Business Community Invited to Attend Keynote Address, Reception
The MWDSI will host keynote speaker Albert H. Brinkman, director of equity derivatives marketing for the Philadelphia Stock Exchange (PHLX), on Friday, April 18, at 4:30 p.m., at the Courtyard by Marriott, 7792 Peach St.
Brinkman is responsible for equity, sector index and currency option marketing and educational services for investors, brokerage firms and institutional clients. He also has more than 20 years of experience as a member of the PHLX. Brinkman earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. He is a graduate of the Securities Industry Institute and holds Series 7 and Series 4 licenses from the National Association of Securities Dealers.
Brinkman’s keynote address is free and open to the public. Immediately following, MWDSI will host a networking reception with Brinkman and other experts well-versed in the latest business concepts and tools. Tickets for the hors d’oeuvres reception are available for $20; advance registration is required. Please visit www.mwdsi2008.org to register by April 11.
Tailored Activities Offer Something for Everyone
MWDSI conference events will be held at three locations. The annual doctoral consortium for Ph.D. candidates will be at Logan House at Penn State Behrend on Thursday, April 17. Afterward tours of the GE-Transportation plant and Mazza Winery are open to all conference attendees.
On Friday, April 18, events will be held at the Courtyard by Marriott, 7792 Peach St. Attendees can choose from research presentations in various business tracks as well as one of four seminars tailored to their interests.
“In an effort to reach out to the smaller colleges in the Midwest region, we developed a number of new, cross-functional tracks designed to incorporate the faculty from a range of business and economics departments—even those in the liberal arts schools,” Parente explained. “Some of these tracks include information security, innovative education and on-line instruction, ethics and sustainability, and business economics.”
The conference returns to Penn State Behrend on Saturday, April 19, for a series of new, interactive demonstrations in three laboratories, including the Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Center of Excellence, the trading and financial services lab, and an SAP (systems, applications and products in data processing) software lab, as well as an online procurement auction.
These labs are in the college’s new $30 million, 160,000-square-foot Research and Economic Development Center (REDC). The REDC houses the Sam and Irene Black School of Business and the School of Engineering at Penn State Behrend, making the college one of the first institutions of higher education in the country to co-locate its business and engineering schools under a single roof. For a campus map, click here.
For more information about the conference or to register, visit www.mwdsi2008.org online.
Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, is a comprehensive residential college offering 32 baccalaureate, six associate, four pre-professional and two graduate degree programs with 22 minors to more than 4,400 students. Focused on providing a student-centered environment, Penn State Behrend is the link that connects its students to a major research and land-grant institution on a campus enriched by more than 110 clubs and organizations, 21 NCAA varsity teams, 19 intramural sports and modern facilities. Penn State Behrend is named as such due to a donation by Mary Behrend, widow of Ernst Behrend, who founded the Hammermill Paper Co. in Erie in 1898. The Behrend family lived on the 400-acre Glenhill Farm, which is the core of the Penn State Behrend campus today. For more information, visit behrend.psu.edu.
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