Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1098973
APRIL 2019 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 13 people and appeal to them so that they want to network with you; it goes both ways. We took off with that idea and have had several speakers that felt very passionate about it as well. We've created network- ing sessions where people can practice. They can go to a networking session, learn how to do it, and immediately go and network with other people and apply what they've learned. Johnson: As an older-than-average adult at this venue, I've been the recipient of some of that practice, as a matter of fact. Smith: That's good to hear. Johnson: Some students are consciously choos- ing to step out of their comfort zone. You can see the thought process: "I don't know you, and you're older than me, so I'm going to talk to you" (laughs). Smith: That's good. It's working! Johnson: You have some high-powered speak- ers here too. Already this morning, a VP of research from Western Digital spoke, and multiple high-end folks who have work on Titan missile systems in their backgrounds— even more have presenters are aerospace. How did you get them to speak? Smith: Essentially, we apply the techniques we teach everyone else. We go through our networks and reach out to people that we've met in the past. We might not necessarily know them directly, but we know someone who knows them through a second or third party. We'll reach out to them and say, "I'm putting together this conference. This is what our goal is. Do you think you could get me some time with them?" Usually, it works, so we put our own advice to use. We design the program from the perspective of, "If I was an attendee and wanted to go to a conference to better myself from a professional perspective or a skill set, what topics would we cover? What would make me excited and enthusiastic about going to this conference?" We ask our own volunteers and gather feed- back from the surveys that we have. With that knowledge, we handpick every speaker. We personally invite them and work with them throughout the year to figure out what their topic is going to be, what they're passion- ate about. We aim to make sure that everything blends together to create a nice balance between the professional and technical aspects in a way that students can pick and choose between the four tracks that best apply to what they want to learn about and what they're trying to do in their life. Committee members and attendees at the IEEE Rising Stars Conference.