Nearly 300 students who are interested in developing or expanding their leadership skills will be participating in the Fall Leadership Conference on Wednesday, Oct. 2.

This is the fourth annual leadership conference hosted by the Student Activities Center in collaboration with the Office of Greek Affairs, the Department of Residence and various other departments and student organizations.

The Fall Leadership Conference began when leaders from participating campus organizations decided that rather than having individual leadership conferences, a campuswide conference would be beneficial. This conference is open to all students.

“The goal of the fall leadership conference is to offer any student a leadership growth experience regardless of where they are in their experience level and where they are in their leadership process,” said Leadership and Service Coordinator Kevin Merrill.

The Fall Leadership Conference is broken up into five different tracks in order to give participants an experience tailored specifically to their needs. Three of the tracks focus on various levels of leadership experience. Two specialty tracks focus on leadership habits and leadership perspectives. Students can choose the track that will allow them to get the most out of the conference.

Track divisions make the Fall Leadership Conference feel like five mini-conferences. They allow members of each track to stay with the same group through the whole conference, allow presenters to build upon each other’s material and create a connected, themed experience.

Before breaking off into their tracks, all attendees will listen to keynote speaker Rob Hanson, an ISU student in mechanical engineering, who will discuss his leadership experiences. In their individual track, students will listen to three presentations by a student panel and ISU faculty and staff.

The main goal of this conference is to provide students with different formats for growth. The Fall Leadership Conference provides students with an opportunity to continually grow with a program they can attend year after year and get a different experience each time.

“It really is a catch-all leadership conference for wherever you’re at or whatever organization you’re in or whatever you want to learn in regards to leadership and working with other students,” Merrill said.

This conference is free for all participants. Funding for the conference is provided by allocations to the Student Activity Center from the Government of the Student Body. Participating departments have also made donations and staff members have volunteered their time.

The Fall Leadership Conference is being held throughout the Memorial Union from 6 p.m to 9:30 p.m. Students who have not registered but are still interested in attending can continue registering up until the start time or can show up without registering and will be accommodated.