BECon, the business & entrepreneurship department’s annual conference, drew nearly 100 attendees this year. Highlights of the conference, organized by students for students, included a mentorship luncheon. “We had 20 mentors from the Harker community join us for lunch at the upper school to provide the students with insight on their careers,” noted Lucas Wang, grade 12, one of 13 students who organized the conference. “Each mentor facilitated a discussion at a table in two networking rounds of 30 minutes. Students were encouraged to meet with different mentors in each round.”

Highlights included the keynote speaker, Colleen Haight, San Jose State University economics department chair, who spoke on international trade and the morality of capitalism.

Another highlight was this year’s “sHarker Tank,” wherein six teams of Harker student entrepreneurs – five from the upper school and one from the middle school – presented their business ideas.

The conference included workshops on user interface design and how to start a business. Cooper, a design and business strategy agency, held a workshop on user interfaces and the user experience, and Satish Dharmaraj, entrepreneur, speaker, angel investor and venture capitalist, and general partner with Redpoint Ventures hosted a Startup 101 workshop.

 Corporate exhibits also exposed students to innovative technologies. For example, Google VR exhibited its new Daydream product and its programs on HTC Vive viewers.