Charlotte Beers says she doesn’t come up to the Boston area much — usually when a Harvard Business School class is examining her case study on leadership, “Charlotte Beers at Ogilvy.” On Thursday, she will be one of the keynote speakers at the eighth annual Massachusetts Conference for Women, where nearly 10,000 people are expected to come to the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center for a day of talks, networking, and business opportunities. Beers, 77, former chairman and CEO of the advertising and marketing firm Ogilvy & Mather, was undersecretary for public diplomacy and public affairs after the 9/11 attacks, and is the author of the new book “I’d Rather Be In Charge.” She spoke with the Globe last week by phone.