According to Hootnick, the luncheon that followed gave the younger women an opportunity to talk with the older women about their experiences in business.

"You could sit at industry-specific tables," Hootnick said. "Conferences like this one form an informal support structure for women to see women who have succeeded while still having families."

The organizers strove to teach partipants about balancing business and personal issues with a series of "Business and Life Skills" sessions on topics such as communication skills, running a family business and cross-cultural issues facing women entrepreneurs.

Mentoring is integral to the Committee of 200, whose members own businesses with annual revenues of more than $10 million in annual revenues or manage corporate divisions with more than $50 million in annual revenues.

"They're constantly looking for ways to improve the role of women in business," Grig- orieff said.

The conference ended with a cocktail reception,a presentation of artwork to commemorate the 40thanniversary of female students at HBS and aperformance by "The She-E-O's," HBS's female acappella group.

Grigorieff said the conference provedespecially important to HBS because its studentbody is only 29 percent women.

"Women came out of this conference excitedabout the opportunities and they saw really greatrole models," she said