Five Takeaways from the 2023 GEL Forum

The  Global Entrepreneurial Leadership (GEL) Forum—hosted annually by the F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business—brings the Babson community together to learn from and connect with global leaders and innovators who are addressing entrepreneurial challenges in industries such as biotech, pharma, fintech, social investing, management consulting, and more.

This year’s daylong immersive experience on February 24 featured diverse speakers from all over the world around the theme of “Navigating Uncertain Futures,” a topic that served as a great reminder to students like Olivia Dynan MBA’23, marketing lead for this year’s event, that it is important to look at uncertainty as an opportunity, embrace it, and be adaptive.

A student-led event, the GEL Forum also provides a learning opportunity to graduate organizers on event operations, fundraising, marketing and management. The GEL Forum committee members and event attendees weighed in on their biggest takeaways, on planning and organizing such a large event, as well as some lessons learned from networking and the panel discussions.

Team Work, Dream Work

“The team worked extremely hard to bring a diverse set of speakers, increase attendance (150 attendees) and improve GEL’s overall brand recognition. The greatest lesson I learned is that hosting such an event is a team sport, because the forum would have not been remotely as successful without the innovative ideas and contributions made by the team members, and the assistance provided by the Babson ecosystem.” — Mitali Nag, MBA’23

“Being part of the GEL planning committee was one of the most challenging and rewarding parts of my time at Babson. Our whole team worked to overcome many obstacles and challenges to ensure a successful event. It was truly inspiring to see all of the different components of the planning process come together to form an exciting and impactful forum.” — Lizzie Chmura, MBA’23

“I learned that over a period of time, GEL wasn’t just a team of students organizing an event, it became a family. At the end of the event is when I knew what we’d achieved together and why it was all worth it. GEL is an expression of happiness, satisfaction, and most importantly, teamwork.” —Kkhush Aggarwal MSEL’23

Prioritizing People and Passion

“I enjoyed Luis Montoya’s session a lot. He explained the importance of making decisions not only in terms of financials and business concepts but also in terms of people relationships. He shared his views on how he approached the problem by understanding the relationship first instead of going directly to metrics and results.” — Leonardo Fernandes MBA’23

“The greatest lesson I learned is, leaders that operate at the intersection of ‘the 3Hs’—Head (setting strategic direction), Heart (passionately taking others with you along the journey), and Hands (executing with excellence and doing it in the right way)—could deliver transformational and sustainable performance.” — Mario Terceros-Arce MBA’23

Check out more photos from the 2023 GEL Forum:

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