Northern Kentucky University and Haile/US Bank College of Business faculty and staff will host the ninth annual business week for all NKU students on Sept. 26-27.

This two-day business week event will take place on NKU’s campus and provide an opportunity for students to get acquainted with current practices and insights from key business leaders across a range of industry sectors. Students will be able to hear from experienced managers operating in different functions from companies all around the world.

This year’s business event will host two keynote speakers from Procter & Gamble and Ford companies along with over 50 sessions in the format of workshops, concurrent speaker discussions, and leadership and career activities.

On Tuesday morning, Craig Wynett, Chief Innovation Officer at Procter & Gamble, will give a presentation in NKU’s Mathematics, Educational, and Psychology (MEP) building. In the evening, students will gather to listen and engage with a roundtable made up of local business CEOs.  Wednesday afternoon, Scott Cauvel, U.S. Retail Marketing & Consumer Incentives Manager at Ford Motor Company will give a special presentation sharing business insights and experiences.

Greg Martin, Associate Dean of the Haile/US Bank College of Business, helped organize the university’s annual business week and said that the premise of the two-day event is to provide an opportunity for students to interact with business professionals as well as provide more resources for navigating their future careers.

“Students are able to learn from professionals about their career possibilities and what people do in those careers,” said Martin. “Over the years, we’ve learned that students are very interested in it. In our previous business week, we had a little over 1200 unique students who attended one or more events.”

Classes for business students will be canceled on Tuesday and Wednesday to encourage higher participation; moreover, all other NKU students are welcome to attend the event once they go through an online registration on NKU’s website.

“We won’t turn anyone away,” said Martin. “We do have a limited seating for many of those events and that is an online registration function.”

Both keynote speakers and the CEO roundtable will take place in MEP room 200. Additional information, including registering, time and place can be found on the NKU and Haile/US Bank College of Business website.

Aside from keynote speakers and other sessions, NKU Haile/US Bank College of Business and Career Services will present career connections fair on Wednesday afternoon.

According to Olena Pilyayeva, Director of Retention & Recruitment in the College of Business’ Advising Center, who plans to volunteer for business week, students can explore business-related employment and co-op/internship opportunities with more than 90 companies.

“We have a plethora of different companies from different business fields: management, and marketing, and construction management,” said Pilyayeva. “In addition to those companies, known worldwide Big Four accounting firms such as KPMG, Delloyd Industries, Ernst & Young, and PwC will be presented for accounting students.”

Pilyayeva said she is hoping to attract as many students as possible to this event as well as to make personal connections with guest speakers and faculty members.

“I want to attend as many sessions as possible and hope to volunteer,” said Pilyayeva. “Of course, it is a network. If I get to know professors better, if I can invite them to events, I’ll be able to recruit more students.”

Rachel Shirley, a junior accounting major, expects that despite two days without classes, the business week will be a little daunting due to a professional setback, but said she must be prepared for that in order to get internships.

“I’m looking forward to a little break from classes,” said Shirley. “I’m planning on going to the event called ‘Meet the Firms’ for accounting majors. I’m focused on accounting internships.”

Another College of Business student, Alexi De La Cruz, a junior business management major, thinks that business week is always a great opportunity for students and helps to structure a resume professionally.

“People should really take advantage of the LinkedIn photo-shoot,” said De La Cruz. “They will come to make professional headshots for your LinkedIn profile. I did it last year and was happy with it.”

The Haile/US Bank College of Business two-day event is organized with a combined effort of NKU faculty, staff members and advisors of the College of Business, and various student organizations.

“Literally everyone who works in the College of Business and Career Services is very involved,” said Martin. “And there are a lot of students who work hard to make it happen.”

The Dean of the College of Business, Rebecca Porterfield, plays a major role in arranging the two-day event along with Coordinator Amberly Nutini, who deals with all organizational issues and details.

Business week and similar events are designed to help students to stay at NKU, to retain, to get good grades, and graduate from university.

“The whole point for students is to be a part of College of Business, get to know and be excited about College of Business, and be a part of something bigger than themselves,” said Pilyayeva.

The primary funding for business week comes out of donations and sponsorships from College of Business partners in the community.

The whole two-day business week event will be accompanied with free food sponsored by Kroger and CDK.