“You will arrive promptly at California Cafe in Los Gatos at 11:30am. The event is
scheduled to go from 11:30am-2:30pm, though we may not use up all that time. Please
come dressed in business meeting/interview attire. I will walk around and publicly
critique your dress so others may benefit from what I'm saying. (No, I will not deduct
any class points for errors, this is a learning experience.)
We will begin with a networking mixer where appetizers and beverages will be served.
I will have name tags and a sign-in sheet for everyone. You will network with each
other as well as a few working business professionals. (I have invited one representative
from each corporation at the BARC conference.) Please practice moving in and out of
conversations; in other words, I want you to practice inserting and removing yourself
from ongoing chats. Do not stay in one place the whole time. There will be close to
40 of us in the room.
When it's time to be seated, you will choose a table at which you'd like to sit. That
table will likely contain one of the BARC corporate members. I will dine with you,
though I will spend most of my time walking around and reiterating the dining etiquette
lessons we learned in that unit. I will, again, publicly critique you. Don't be embarassed!
Remember, this is a class - make your mistakes now without feeling uncomfortable so
we can all learn from them.
I will ask each business professional from BARC to stand up and speak for 2-3 minutes
on what they think is important, etiquette-wise, and offer any examples they can recall
from their own experience.
Then we will have the sommalier do a quick wine tasting lesson for those who wish
to participate. Please bring your money and I.D. (for proof of age) with you. You
will pay for your wine at the end of the luncheon.
After we finish our final course (coffee and dessert), you will be free to continue networking with each other, the BARC professionals, and me. This will be much more informal and may be done over more wine, if you like.”