Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1098973
24 SMT007 MAGAZINE I APRIL 2019 position myself well enough to be in demand? Or if I'm in early career, what might the next steps be? Ultimately, we would like to close the conference with an outbound challenge that is actionable by each attendee. Johnson: A couple of minutes ago, you mentioned having that moment where you find a fork in the road and have to make a choice that will influence where you decide to go with your career; that seems to happen a lot, but that's qualitative. It's hard to measure, but some of what you're doing also seems to be pretty measurable. You also mentioned gather- ing metrics about how attending the confer- ence changes their professional behavior. Andrews: I was curious because, at some point, you have nights when you ask, "Why am I doing this?" Sometimes, you're not sure if it matters, so we do surveys asking about what parts of the conference the attendees like or dislike, etc. It gives us an understanding of their level of satisfaction. We're pleased with the outcomes, and like any other good engi- neer, we always find something wrong with it, and work on tweaking and improving it. I also contacted IEEE Member Services and asked them to contact the 400–500 who had attended Rising Stars over the past four years because I wanted to know what they're doing now. Are they still involved with IEEE as members? And the number was exceptionally high. Johnson: Validatingly high (laughs). Andrews: Yes. The retention rate within IEEE of the individuals who attended Rising Stars is 85–90%. If you talk with any other engineering society, including IEEE, and ask, "What's your retention rate for 20–24-year-olds?" They'll look at you and say, "Typically, 20–30%, and depending on conditions, maybe 40%." We're seeing high enthusiasm and return attendance. If we could generate other conferences or continue to expand Rising Stars, that would be a win. It's an unusual conference because it doesn't follow the typical conference pattern. We invite senior-level industry executives to present real-world applications of technology. Funding for the conference is a challenge. We want to keep the registration cost as low as possible for attendees, bearing in mind that they're young professionals and may not have the discretionary funds available to attend the conference. Another significant aspect of the confer- ence is corporate outreach, sponsorship, and involvement. We ask all of the companies that