Business and Policy Conference

Business Today, since its inception, has been about identifying communication gaps and developing programs to fill those gaps. In 1968, when Steve Forbes, Michael Mimms and Jonathan Perel formed Business Today (then, The Foundation for Student Communication), they saw a lack of interaction between executives and undergraduate students and created the Business Today magazine to explore those perspectives through meaningful articles, editorial content, and student-focused themes. Later, the Foundation expanded to host a series of conferences called the “Business Tomorrow” conference, which grew into the premier forum for undergraduates and business leaders. That’s a legacy we’re proud of and are constantly hoping to build upon.

In 1989, our flagship international conference was held in Washington D.C. and explored the intersection of Business and Politics. We had a keynote from Henry Kissinger, panels on “Innovating in the National Interest” and on “Business’ expectations of Government.” In my view, this was one of our most interesting themes and is a subject that gets too little attention, especially from an undergraduate point-of-view. It is in that vein, of exploring perspectives, that we are excited to launch a new program.

Today, Business Today is refocusing its programs to be better aligned with our mission. With that goal in mind, we are introducing a new conference series in Washington D.C. called the “Business Today: Business and Policy Conference.” We believe that a forum does not exist where thinkers in economics and politics can interact with business leaders as well as top undergraduate students. We believe we can create that forum.

This conference has been designed from the ground up to give undergraduates the opportunity to interact with key players from both sides of policy issues: representatives from both the public and private sphere.

How do companies navigate a regulatory regime? What are the key considerations in crafting policy? What synergies exist between the public and private sphere? To what extent are business people able to affect the regulatory regime?

All of these are questions the BT: Business and Policy conference will explore.

The conference is set for February of 2014; as the date approaches, we will release more details about the event, our speakers, and our theme.