Career Development Committee Hosts Panel on Business in Boston

 

“While our committee has held several well-attended events over the past few years and has been seeing increased attendance, we’re hoping some innovative programming attracts people for the first time, or those who haven’t attended in a while,” explained Stoller. “People are so busy these days. Especially in the morning, they want some ‘justification’ for giving up their time, beyond getting a few business cards, making another LinkedIn contact, and eating fresh fruit.”

 

The planning efforts were spearheaded by Larry Glazer, president of the Alumni Council, and the team in the Rivers Advancement Office.

 

“This was clearly our most well attended event, to date,” said Glazer. “The hope was to combine both networking and information exchange, so that attendees could walk away with not only more insight on the Boston business community, but also some more qualified leads for job changes or new searches. Hopefully we can further expand this format for other committee events moving forward.”

 

A 30-minute breakfast reception was held as an icebreaker, with the panel itself beginning at 8:30 sharp. Jared Perry ’95 of Bain Capital; Larry Epstein ’87 from Colliers International; and Charlie Saponaro ’92, president of his company, Medical Record Associates, LLC, each provided brief introductions and then responded to general questions by Stoller regarding their own respective industry’s dynamics and future trends. By design, however, the balance of the time was spent on Q&A with the audience. Each panelist also provided some networking tips at the end, punctuated by how best to leverage the collective resources of the Rivers community.

 

“Compared with other events I generally attend, this one was head-and-shoulders above,” commented Daniel Corcoran ’13. “I’m currently on leave from school in order to build my start-up, and hearing both business and networking advice in this more intimate format is invaluable. Given that everyone is affiliated with Rivers, there are no trust or credibility issues to be concerned with, either.”

 

Roger Tackeff ’72 offered a similar review.

 

“Taking advantage of contacts you find at events like this is exactly what you need to do if you’re starting a job search for the first time, transitioning into a new role, or doing an industry change,” said Tackeff. “This is the ‘who’ portion of the very expression ‘it’s not what you know, but who you know.’ This format just makes it so much easier to meet those people.”

 

“There’s nothing wrong with the good, old-fashioned cocktail receptions or morning breakfasts featuring a speaker,” explained Epstein. “But, let’s face it, how many can you take the time to attend? For me, the Q&A was the best, since people could ask me questions specific to their own careers.”

 

Jared Perry agreed.

 

“Career development is the name of our committee. This is what it’s all about.”

 

The Career Development Committee’s charter is to attract Rivers alumni from any era who are looking to re-connect with one another and the school. It holds events throughout the academic year in Boston, New York, California, and DC. The committee publicizes its events on the Rivers website through interactive media, and pushes them out to the alumni network and business community by leveraging social media.

 

If you have questions about the January event, or have other event or speaker ideas, please contact Heather Jack at h.jack@rivers.org.

 

Click here for a video of the panel and here to view a photo gallery of the event.