Speed Networking: Fast Facts!

(back l-r) Neil De Young, Jaime de Pablos, Stephen Acunto, Jr, Karina Mikhli, Lavinel Savu, Laura De Silva, Angela Bole; (front l-r) Kastoory Kazi, blogger Rebecca Hytowitz, Mark Steffen, Liz Peterson

Ever wondered how to build a personal brand? (Hint: remove your home address from your résumé and add your LinkedIn URL instead.) How about best practices for social media? (Engage and interact with your audience instead of just pushing content!) These were just some of the topics and comments tossed around at the first-ever “Speed Networking” event hosted by the newly-constituted NYU Publishing Alumni Committee last week at NYU’s Torch Club. Committee co-chairs Laura De Silva and Jaime de Pablos and their devoted event committee members have been working on this for months—and their efforts showed. The committee invited seasoned and senior publishing alumni to serve as “speed facilitators” at each of five tables. Each facilitator was assigned a specific theme to discuss. Committee members were also assigned to each table to help with the discussion.

“You’re Hired!” One Student’s Story

Daniell Maupai: from the Capstone to a job at Condé Nast

“I was SO nervous,” remembers Danielle Maupai of the moment she stood up at an NYU Center for Publishing Board of Advisors meeting and summarized key elements of her graduate thesis, or “Capstone.”  After delivering a flawless Capstone presentation the week before in front of her fellow graduate students in the NYU M.S. in Publishing program, Maupai had been selected to tell the Board members about her thesis.  Maupai knew this was a wonderful opportunity to outline her business plan for a new magazine for American teachers in front of executives like Nina Link, President and CEO of MPA: The Association of Magazine Media; John Q. Griffin, former Executive Vice President of Time Inc. & President of Time Inc. News Group and current President of Griffin & Associates; and Louis Cona, Chief Marketing Officer for Condé Nast.

Expert Advice

Mary Ann Bekkedahl will speak in NYU's "From Idea to Empire : New Business Development" class."

We love our faculty members at NYU’s Master of Science in Publishing program, but it’s still nice to have a fresh face in the classroom now and then. Enter the guest speaker, an expert who spends an hour or so imparting a new publishing viewpoint,  strategy or way of doing business to the class. This fall, we’re fortunate to have a number of guest speakers sharing their wisdom with our students.

For faculty members, luring a top publishing executive to NYU’s evening classes after a long day on the job is a feat in itself. In fact, snaring speakers requires the reach of a casting agent, the tenacity of a talent scout and the clout of a speakers’ bureau combined. One must be very persuasive to convince a guest speaker to put together a PowerPoint presentation, scramble around for interesting handouts—think bestselling books or hot magazines—bolt out of the office early (stomach grumbling), and race to NYU in time to face a sea of equally hungry and weary students.