Conference to Give Rising Stars Tools for Success

Two young entrepreneurs who began their company while still at Montgomery High School and then went on to sell it last year for more than $100 million will explain how they had the vision and fortitude to tackle the business world as young professionals at the Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce’s Young Professionals Conference.

The Young Professionals conference will take place November 9 at the National Conference Center in East Windsor. The Chamber’s young professionals program, Princeton Leeep, is hosting the morning-long event, which includes multiple breakout sessions and a panel discussion.

Siblings Catherine and David Cook began myyearbook.com in 2005 while they were a sophomore and junior in high school with $500 in seed money from their older brother Geoff Cook. The company, after being purchased by West Palm Beach based-Quepasa for $100 million, comprised of approximately $82 million in Quepasa common stock and approximately $18 million in cash, is known as meetme.com and the Cook siblings have remained deeply involved in the company, running operations and making sure it stays true to the principals it was founded upon. Last year the siblings launched the iPad application for MeetMe.com.

In 2012, Ms. Cook and Geoff Cook received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year^® 2011 Greater Philadelphia Award.

In addition to the Cooks, attendees will attend one of three breakout sessions and hear from a panel of their peers about intrapreneurial and entrepreneurial skills.

The breakout sessions will focus on three different skill sets all young professionals can use. The first, facilitated by Glen Gabe of G-Squared Interactive, will focus on personal branding and building an online personal brand. The second, influencing leadership, will be hosted by Dale Caldwell, CEO of multiple companies, author and speaker, where attendees will learn how to distinguish themselves from their peers to upper management. The third session will be about the art of negotiation. Michael Powers, an attorney with Buchanan Ingersoll and Rooney, will offer tips and tools anyone can use in all aspects of life from negotiating their first job to closing a major deal.

Panelists include Cornelia Huellstrunk, associate director for external affairs of the Keller Center at Princeton University; Stephen Shueh, managing partner at Roundview Capital, and Atul Sood, founder of Only Insight. All three will be discussing how they made career decisions and what they have learned on their individual paths to success. Suzanne Kaplan, founder of Job Talk 4 All will moderate the 45-minute discussion.

Caliper is the conferences’ title sponsor. Buchanan, Ingersoll & Rooney PC is the supporting sponsor.

The conference runs from 8 a.m. to 11:45 a.m. on November 9. Registration is $45 for chamber members and $60 for future members and includes a heart-healthy breakfast. Registration can be done online at www.princetonchamber.org.

Princeton Leeep is the young professionals program at the Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce. It is focused on creating a business, cultural, philanthropic and social community for high potential young professionals in the Princeton Region through an organizational philosophy of “Engage. Exchange. Excel.”

The Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce is a membership organization committed to promoting business growth within the Princeton Region and surrounding areas. With more than 1,700 individual contacts and more than 880 Member companies, the Princeton Regional Chamber of Commerce membership is primarily focused in five central New Jersey counties and stretches as far as New York, Philadelphia and Canada.