The amount of passion in the room at the Tampa Firefighters Museum Thursday evening quickly became apparent as the crowd began to gather to engage a panel of "Not Your Average Speakers'' in conversation about "Bring 'Em Home! Transforming Military Might Into Civilian Talent.''
Even before panelists could take their seats, veterans seeking jobs and employers with jobs were trading contact information. Social service groups, military reps, nonprofit organizations and coaching consultants were talking about collaborations. College students and business leaders were considering how to help each other as well as friends of friends make additional connections.
The hubbub among attendees quieted down only long enough to make introductions, including Col. Scott DeThomas, base commander at
MacDill Air Force Base; Kiersten Downs of
USF and
Student Veterans of America; Ryan Moran of
LVI Environmental Services and
TheVeteransEdge; and Brian Murphy of
ReliaQuest.
What followed were personal stories about making successful transitions, examples of individual and community challenges in connecting veterans with jobs, anecdotal evidence of great opportunities with local companies and a whole lot of sage advice.
Moderator Howard Altman of The Tampa Tribune got everyone engaged in conversation and the rest is history.
Read all about it in this account written by Reporter Keeley Sheehan and published the Sunday Tampa Bay Times in honor of Veterans Day:
Tampa Bay veterans get job advice.
The event was made possible by
Nielsen,
PNC Bank,
MOSI Tampa and the
Tampa Firefighters Museum.
83 Degrees Media's next "Not Your Average Speakers'' event -- featuring thought leaders who know their subjects but don't always have the bully pulpit to convey what they think -- will be in 2014.
Sign up to receive 83 Degrees delivered free to your inbox to learn more about it in weeks ahead. Enjoy the holidays!
Diane Egner, a longtime journalist in the Tampa Bay region, is publisher and managing editor of 83 Degrees Media. Comments? Contact 83 Degrees.
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Read more articles by Diane Egner.
Diane Egner is a community leader and award-winning journalist with more than four decades of experience reporting and writing about the Tampa Bay Area of Florida. She serves on the boards of the University of South Florida Zimmerman School of Advertising & Mass Communications Advisory Council, The Institute for Research in Art (Graphicstudio, the Contemporary Art Museum, and USF’s Public Art Program) Community Advisory Council, Sing Out and Read, and StageWorks Theatre Advisory Council. She also is a member of Leadership Florida and the Athena Society. A graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BA in journalism, she won the top statewide award for editorial writing from the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors while at The Tampa Tribune and received special recognition by the Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists for creative work as Content Director at WUSF Public Media. Past accomplishments and community service include leadership positions with Tampa Tiger Bay Club, USF Women in Leadership & Philanthropy (WLP), Alpha House of Tampa Bay, Awesome Tampa Bay, Florida Kinship Center, AIA Tampa Bay, Powerstories, Arts Council of Hillsborough County, and the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce. Diane and her husband, Sandy Rief, live in Tampa.