PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Expand Your Network, PART I Build Your Skills Build Your Business Build Your Professions — Face-to-Face
BY CORINNE LUTTER Member & Internal Communications Coordinator
Building a new business from scratch isn’t easy, especially when it comes to growing your client base. For Craig Boris, P.Eng., co- owner of Red Deer-based start-up 908 Engineering, it's been all about making connections — lots of them. “We’re a new firm and we’ve got the majority of our business through networking,” says Mr. Boris, an electrical engineering consultant. His advice is simple. “Go to everything. Meet everybody you possibly can. You never know what doors it might open.” He’s attended several events put on by the Consulting Engineers of Alberta (CEA) Young Professionals Group, and recently helped launch the Central Alberta Engineering
& Design Group with fellow professional Fahim Quamrul, P.Eng.
Their aim is to bring together engineering and design specialists for social activities, with an emphasis on knowledge sharing and professional development. Since organizing the group last fall on meetup.com, about 50 people have joined. An inaugural social night was held in December, and more technical and social activities are being planned for 2015. There’s only one rule: No office politics. “The overall goal is to provide a good networking forum for the members
to meet. With most of the electronic communication that goes on these days, a lot of time you never get a chance to actually meet people that you work with face-to-face,” notes Mr. Boris. APEGA’s biggest networking and professional development event is Summit 2015: the APEGA Annual General Meeting and Conference, which takes place in
Calgary this year, April 23-24, at the TELUS Convention Centre. See pages 27 to 34 for full information. APEGA offers a variety of other networking opportunities for Members at all stages of their careers. Regional branches, for example, hold regular luncheons and social mixers, which are advertised online at apega.ca.
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