A leadership conference to be hosted by the Student Association this weekend will focus on the SA’s history, workshops to improve leadership and the experiences of local leaders and alumni.

The second annual Leaders Engaging and Developing (LEAD) conference is set to take place this Saturday from noon to 4:30 p.m. in the Susquehanna Room of the Old University Union. The keynote speakers will be New York City Council Member John Liu, a Binghamton University alumnus, and Clerk of the Broome County Legislature Eric Denk. Each will speak about their own experiences as community leaders.

“I believe the two of us will be bringing two different perspectives to the same general package,” Denk, who was elected in 1995 as one of the youngest Binghamton city council members, said.

According to Student Association Executive Vice President Boris Tadchiev, who organized the event, the program’s goal is to help the different kinds of student leaders on campus, including community governments, student group leaders and Assembly representatives.

“We’re going to have about two hours of workshops, 50 minutes for each,” Tadchiev, a senior majoring in math and philosophy, politics and law, said. “Those are going to be concentrating on the different leaders on campus.”

Tadchiev said the workshops would give leaders the opportunity to learn how to better confront problems.

Ideally, he said, the purpose of the conference is to help participants become better leaders, understand their role within the student body and improve communication, among other things.

According to Tadchiev, planning for the conference began toward the end of the summer. He said he originally wanted the speaker to be someone who would draw attention to the conference.

“[Liu] spoke at my high school graduation,” Tadchiev said. “He was very inspirational, very entertaining.”

Liu, who was the first Asian-American legislator in the history of New York state, served as EVP of the Student Association during his time as a student at BU.

Both Liu and Denk will be speaking about their leadership experiences.

Denk said he was invited to participate at the conference by Liu’s office, and that he would bring a local perspective to the event. However, students will have to attend the conference, Denk said, to find out specifically what he planned to speak about.

Student Association President Matt Landau said he thought it was great that Liu was coming to speak to students.

“I look forward to seeing a program done by the Student Association that helps facilitate student interaction with each other,” he said.