Starting in October, the TAPPI Young Professionals (YP) Division will be taking over TAPPI Connect at 10 AM EST on the second Monday of each month until the end of the year. These interactive sessions, which will act as an extension of the virtual orientation event the Young Professionals Division hosted in August, will feature interviews with the three keynote speakers from the event, John Edwards, Lexi Ivan, and Mark Lewis. The virtual orientation, which helped introduce early career professionals to all that TAPPI has to offer, generated a lot of interest from participants, so the YP Division decided to continue conversations with the keynotes on TAPPI Connect, a virtual forum for the TAPPI community. The discussions will focus on important soft skills areas including leadership, communication, and professional relationships.
During each interview, facilitated by Garrett Fisher, YP member and host of the TAPPI YP Perspectives Interviews, keynotes will share their personal experience and advice on a variety of topics including how to handle adversity in the workplace, advice on career transitioning, and ways to build a foundation to become a strong leader. Throughout the week, Garrett and Stephen Bussa, TAPPI YP Division Director of Membership, will also be posting a series of discussions questions on Connect based on that week’s keynote interview so participants can weigh in and gain valuable feedback from other industry professionals, as well. Paper, pulp, packaging, tissue, and related industry professionals of all experience levels are invited to participate.
If you are interested in watching the interviews or want to participate in the forum discussions, simply log in to TAPPI Connect and click on the Open Forum community tab at any time after the interview has been posted. This programming is just one example of the type of resources TAPPI can offer early career professionals. For a list of other membership benefits, or to join the TAPPI YP Division, visit yp.tappi.org. Want to get your boss on board to help fund the membership? Here’s a sample email for new members looking to join.
TAPPI Connect Takeover Schedule
Week of October 12th: John Edwards of Domtar
John's session will include broad topics primarily focused on how to handle adversity in work settings and how to build a foundation to become a better leader.
Week of November 9th: Lexi Ivan of Yates Engineers
Lexi’s session will focus on career transitioning, management of young generations newly entering the workforce, and the barriers that young professionals must surmount when pursuing introductory leadership positions.
Week of December 14th: Mark Lewis of Sustainable Fiber Technologies
Mark's session will examine what it takes to run a company, as well as some advice for those looking to challenge the status quo of the industry.
About TAPPI Connect
TAPPI Connect is a free resource for all TAPPI members and can be accessed by logging in with the same username and password used to log into TAPPI.ORG. Not familiar with Connect? Here are a variety of resources and how-to videos that can help.
About the TAPPI YP Division
The TAPPI Young Professional (YP) Division is where undergraduate and graduate students, recent graduates, and early career professionals come together to develop their leadership and technical skills, and to build relationships with peers and experienced industry professionals from across the pulp, paper, packaging, tissue, and related industries. If you’re interested in learning about other upcoming activities or resources the TAPPI YP Division can offer, or if you would like to get involved in the YP Division, visit yp.tappi.org.