Feedback from the CEMS Alumni Networking Dinner

Dear fellow Alumni, few days back on Thu Aug 23, we organized another social networking event for CEMS Alumni based in Prague. Nice atmosphere and service in La Boca restaurant (http://laboca.cz), decent three-course dinner, interesting mix of junior and senior Alumni and facilitated rotation around tables made this networking dinner a very pleasant evening for most attendees (1.25 rating on a scale from 1-best to 5-worst).

After free welcome drink, guests were seated to four tables based on industry/field or type of work they do. We had following groups who enjoyed delicious tapas starters together:

Table 1- IT/telco/engineering/construction (5 Alumni)

Table 2 - Advisory/Finance (8 Alumni)

Table 3 - Enterpreneurial minds (5 Alumni)

Table 4 - Consumer goods/advertising (5 Alumni)

Main course was dedicated to seating based on current professional priorities:

Table 1- Thinking about new job opportunities (7 Alumni)

Table 2 - No changes planned/fresh work-life balance duties (6 Alumni)

Table 3 - Change of employer in last 12 months (4 Alumni)

Table 4 - Recent or planned relocations/expansion of business opportunities (6 Alumni)

For desserts, everyone could choose their own seat and talk to other Alumni or continue discussing interesting open topics.

I also wanted to share with you few suggestions and comments, which I received from 8 out of 22 participants through a feedback form sent to all attendees one day after the event:

• Mixed tables were very nice concept, overall: nice people and nice evening
• I want more of these - this concept is great, when is the next one? Definitely engage more senior alumni and focus on attracting the
• Great food, good choice of place in the city center
• There was a good mix of people I had already known and people I had not met before; it was also good that people from various generations were present
• Probably some more moderation could be good? - but not 100% sure about this as people really had fun and enjoyed it. I am quite interested on what the other will say on this topic.
• Price of food vs. quality might have been more balanced.
• Not everybody talked just business, which was positive. Maybe table according to age of participants might be good idea.
• Next time, we could also mix "recently changed job" with "looking for jobs"
• Great to meet fellow CEMSies and compare lifestories and hear about the current development in CEMS/VSE.
• More space in the venue please (was a bit crowded, hard to mingle), more air conditioning :-).
• Maximum six people per one table would be better.

For more pictures, click here

We thank you for this feedback and will continue preparing some interesting events for you going forward, taking above suggestions into consideration.

To conclude, you may enjoy  this short video, which I took precisely at a moment when there was a serious talk about fresh blueberry juice at the most senior Alumni table :-).

Olga Nydlova (olga.nydlova@gmail.com)
On behalf of CEMS Alumni Association Prague Board team