Alumni News

As she made dinner in her Duesseldorf, Germany, apartment one night this summer, Kate Wheeler '08 decided to meet some UNH alumni. Logging on to her computer, she began chatting with a woman on the East Coast. Three minutes later, she connected with another alum on the West Coast. "It's a super thing for UNH to harness this technology," says Wheeler, who is working as a waitress while learning the German language. "There's a huge network of alumni out there, and we're not always going to be within 15 miles of Durham."

Perry Smith/UNH Photographic Services THREE MINUTES: Alumni attending a speed-networking event in Portsmouth, N.H., in early September.

Welcome to the world of online "speed networking," one of several new free initiatives started by the Alumni Association in the past year to create easier and more productive ways for alumni to connect with each other on a professional level.

Since the first online speed-networking event last March, there have been two in-person speed-networking events, in Boston and Portsmouth, N.H. Starting in September, online speed networking will be held the first Wednesday of every month using a company called Brazen Careerist. Additional in-person events are planned for the future.

In speed networking, each participant chats for exactly three minutes and then moves on to the next person. For the online version, registrants provide their name, location, year of graduation and "what they are looking for and what they can provide," says Megan Hales '01, assistant director of student engagement and young alumni programs.

"There have always been alumni events where there has been networking," says Hales. "But you have a cocktail and some hors d'oeuvres and get to talk to two or three people. With speed networking, it's set up so you meet 10 to 15 people."

"It was a great opportunity to meet folks outside my typical scientific work circle, and people who are older or younger than people I typically meet," says April Blodgett '87, a scientist at Visterra who attended the speed-networking event in Boston. "I loved that the expectations were clear—meet and greet, perhaps find common ground, exchange business cards, shake hands and walk away." Among the connections she made, one may lead to a speaking engagement; she also offered job-search advice to a new graduate and promised to help connect another alum with a friend of hers who is hiring.

Emily Louick '09, a television producer who works with MTV, tried online speed networking from her New York City apartment. "I didn't know what to expect," she says. "But I found it was a great opportunity to meet people."

Alums will get a lot more out of speed networking if they look at it as a way to be "a connector," Hales says. "The more you help other people connect, the more that will come back to you. It's a cliche, but it's true that it's not so much what you know but who you know."

Louick was interested in career networking, but she also wanted to connect with UNH. She wound up being invited to join the board of the New York City alumni chapter. Real estate agent Kathleen Rush '76, who attended the Portsmouth event, says she loved "jumping in and out of conversations. You don't get bored talking with just one person."

Krystal Hicks '07, an employer relations specialist at UNH who attended the Portsmouth event, says for alumni who are hesitant about meeting new people, "it forces you to meet more people than you probably would at a typical event."

Wheeler appreciated getting more connected to UNH. "I have my feet on the ground here in Germany," she adds, "but I have the opportunity to meet fellow alumni from all over the world." ~

To sign up for speed-networking events, visit www.alumni.unh.edu/speednetworking/.