McMaster’s sustainability office organizes an annual networking breakfast for students to gain exposure to the field of sustainability. Last year’s event was held on campus in Celebration Hall, this year we moved on the Hamilton Art Gallery. More speakers and community involvement was present this year.
The food was unfortunately a step down from previous year’s continental breakfast. Today, we munched on measly bagel spreads and granola.
The event itself actually required attendees to pay a $10 deposit which will be refunded upon attendance. That’s a pretty good way to track participation and prevent no-shows. However they were pretty lenient and allowed people who didn’t rsvp to enter as well. Funnily enough, I noticed the sign in sheet was as long as the rsvp list, suggesting it wasn’t as successful.
The room was organized into round tables, and speakers/professionals were spread amongst the tables. Breakfast was served in the first 30 minutes and we got a chance to chat with the professional at our table.
We kicked things off with a keynote address, followed by a series of speakers. A familiar face stood out, Stephanie McLarty. I’ve seen her at several speaking engagements at McMaster all the time, which is great. What stood out for me was her interesting and nonlinear career path. Right after graduation, she didn’t have a job lined up and opted to travel. She spent over a year travelling to India, Europe and across Asia. That all somehow led her to start REfficient, a telecom recycling company.
The rest of the morning was spent mingling and rotating through round tables to get a chance to meet all of the professionals.
