Hello lovely engineering students! As my term as VP External is winding down, I wanted to share my thoughts on a topic that has been discussed in EngSoc for some time now. What benefit do we get from being members of ESSCO, CFES and sending delegates to various conferences throughout the year? I am a strong supporter of conferences for leadership development, personal networks and inspiration; and this article will hopefully serve to convince you of the benefits of these conferences.
Every time I open up applications for a conference, I think about who the ideal delegate will be and look for that as I am reading applications. It changes based on the conference. For example, an ideal National Conference on Women in Engineering would be someone with a passion for diversity and social change, whereas the ideal candidate for the Professional Engineers Ontario Student conference would be someone who loves policies and governance. Applicants’ passion show in their responses and it is always very exciting when someone who fits the conference perfectly applies.
However, people who are that passionate about policy are few and far between, so what then? How do we try and select someone who will benefit the most and take the most out of the conference experience? That is where the most important takeaway from conferences comes into play: inspiration. That feeling when you leave on Sunday morning after a weekend of discussion on how to make a change and how to make the most of your skills stays with people and serves as motivation. Those are the people who benefit from conferences, the people who dive right into the sessions and bring back the ideas they learn to benefit Waterloo.
Conferences did this for me when I attended the First Year Integration Conference in my 1B term. Before the conference I had not been fully sold on university life and what I as a random first year could do to make a difference. That all changed during that weekend after being surrounded by the crazy energy that is 80 hyper-active first years for over forty-eight hours straight. I came back energized and had discovered my passion in engineering outreach after a session run by some other schools’ VP externals.
This experience is not unique to me and my favorite part of every conference is afterwards when I can ask delegates what they learned. They never fail to have an answer, and the answers change year after year. Our delegates are still engaged, productive, and active learners at all of the seven conferences we attend every year. Until the answer to my question,”What did you learn?” changes to “Nothing,” conferences will still be important and still be worthwhile.
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