Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1098973
APRIL 2019 I SMT007 MAGAZINE 21 conference, everybody fell in love with it; it was something different. It was a complete departure for IEEE, and it worked. Tom has since relocated Storage Visions because of facility and timing issues. However, there are a number of our Rising Stars attendees that go to CES and some of them work in the IEEE booth at CES. Johnson: I've run into a couple who have asked if I was staying for CES and if I would stop by the booth. Andrews: As I said, it's interesting, and the idea behind this all was to provide an experience for young professionals that would get them as excited about our industry as we were when we were young. It makes you think about where we were and the influencers we had. This year, we added a Connections Panel on the first evening. At a previous conference, I had a conversation with a guest panelist where we started talking our connections, how important they were, and how we wish we had access to more. The result was the creation of the Connections Panel. Do you remember James Burke and the book Connections as well as the TV series on PBS a million years ago? Johnson: I loved it. Andrews: Me too. I met him a couple of times and had great conversations with him. One of this year's panel members is a friend and colleague. We get together about once a month for breakfast or lunch, and we invariably find out something about each other that we didn't know before. The last time we met, I found out that he had worked with Stephen Hawk- ing while Stephen was at Stanford, and that he had spent time at the labs in New Mexico doing plasma research. I had also been at the labs regarding plasma issue eons ago. You never know what connections will influence your career. I also talked with Daniel Schweiker this afternoon after he had finished his presen- tation about the same idea about the vari- ous unexpected twists and turns your career can take. It's like when you see a fork in the road during your career; your career will have multiple forks, and you won't know where it's Mike Andrews kicking off the 2019 IEEE Rising Stars Conference at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas. Students attending the IEEE Rising Stars Conference learned a number of professional skills from industry veterans and staffing recruiters.