CGC Takes Kansas City By Storm

CGC Lends a Hand at the 2017 SHPE National Conference 

CGC-client the Society of Professional Hispanic Engineers (SHPE) held their national conference in Kansas City, MO on November 1-5. CGC was honored to join in the festivities, working with the SHPE staff on social media, development, and general marketing for the event, as well as, eating BBQ, watching the Dodgers lose (sad face), and trying to stay warm. It doesn’t snow in Santa Monica, but it does in Kansas City. Who knew?

While we didn’t see much beyond the convention center, what we did see at the conference was truly impressive. The SHPE staff is not a large one, but they pulled off a 5-day event for 6,600+ attendees across multiple venues and they made it look flawless. Even though we were privy to the flurry of activity for the months leading up to it, and certainly saw much of the effort put into the planning, we had no idea of the sheer scope until we experienced it firsthand, from the career fair and the workshops to the competitions and the special events.

SHPE’s mission is to “change lives by empowering the Hispanic community to realize its fullest potential and to impact the world through STEM awareness, access, support and development.” Their national conference furthers this mission in several ways. They offer workshops for student and professional members across a variety of topics from professionalism to networking to specific skill sets related to STEM.  They honor high achievers including students with consistently high GPAs, engineers making a difference in the world, mentors helping those who follow them, innovators making a name for themselves in STEM, and many other role models. They offer young people a chance to compete head-to-head solving real-world problems under real-world pressure. And they offer an unprecedented opportunity for networking, interviews, and on-the-spot job offers from the world’s largest and most sought-after companies.

But what really amazed us was the professionalism of the young people in attendance. They came to the conference prepared to impress, to be leaders, to learn, and to better themselves. This was the best dressed group of conference-goers that we’d ever seen, and we’ve been to a lot of professional conferences! And their attitudes matched their attire. They were quick to reach out a hand and introduce themselves and they spoke with authority about why they were there and what they want to do with their lives. Those honored gave speeches about innovation, resilience, and gratitude.

The conference and those young people renewed our faith in SHPE’s mission and our energy to continue to go above-and-beyond in service to SHPE. We’re so grateful to have had the opportunity to be there and experience it. Congratulations to SHPE and the “SHPE familia” for the success!

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