Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1098973
22 SMT007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2019 going to take you, but you keep following your intellectual nose. That all being said, this event gives young professionals an opportunity to see different things, and there's probably a fork that they hadn't expected here. The last two students that I spoke with were getting ready to grad- uate this spring or summer, and they came up to thank me. One said that something he saw had struck a chord, and the second one wanted to meet me because he thought I was pretty unapproachable until they heard me speak. They liked that I did unrehearsed, spur- of-the-moment introductions around the room during the last session; they thought that was great. I've talked with many of the attend- ees that had the same kind of reaction to the topics presented and to the speakers. We made a difference in the lives of these young profes- sionals. Johnson: That's fantastic. Andrews: It's interesting that many of our attendees have never participated in this kind of conference. Johnson: Right. It's the first one for many of them. Andrews: It's not only the first one, but it's unlike any other conference they will attend. Most conferences include a presentation of academic papers. At that kind of conference, a paper presentation might attract a dozen people if you're lucky and have brought friends and family. At this conference, all four of the concurrent sessions were well attended. Every time I looked in one of the breakout rooms where we had seating for 85–90 attendees, they were consistently full and all had good audiences and great participation. So, why do we do this conference? It's because of what the speakers have to share, and the response from the audience being phenomenally interested in what they have to say, how they say it, and how they interact. It's an interesting dynamic to watch, and it makes a difference. Johnson: Being here for the first time myself, I think you're on to something. You've struc- tured something here where you're showing an audience who has largely never been to a conference how to go to a conference. Andrews: There are a lot of layers in this. We have our keynote speaker on the closing day, and that session was on "The Next Big Thing." That's by design because what we want the last panel to deal with what is in the imme- diate horizon, not what's going to happen in five to 10 years. We want to hear about what's going to happen in the next two to three years, and how we can be prepared for it. If I'm a young professional or in school and looking toward graduation, what tools do I need to have in my quiver to make me employable or The Cybersecurity workshop at IEEE Rising Stars was led by Chris Humphreys. Find our interview with Humphreys in the March 2019 issue of SMT007 Magazine.