Hi James—of course! The vision for our final event was to give our fellows a sense of achievement and direction post-fellowship. We wanted fellows to come away from the event with knowledge about relevant internships, other fellowships, short courses, and people to go to for advice. We were going for a business casual networking event vibe.
We started the night with drinks (and had a system in place to enforce a one per person policy—important if you have 18 year olds) and had our fellows lay out their projects. Then we moved to lightning talks from speakers, after which we ate dinner and gave everyone time to chat.
If you were thinking about incorporating some of this into your own event I would tell you:
- The drinks were unnecessary but nice. I probably wouldn’t spend that money on them again.
- The talks were a good format. Having a brief intro to the speakers before letting our fellows chat with them 1-1 was probably better than having them give longer, more detailed talks about their projects. We received feedback that speaking to our guests 1-1 was one of the most valuable parts of the night.
- The dinner was unnecessary but also nice. I think that nice snacks might have also gotten the job done, but given the choice I would spend the money on dinner again. I think it was especially nice for our external guests who traveled to be there.
Let me know if you make any changes based on this—I would be interested to see how they go for you.
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