Moncton’s Young Professionals Plan To Break A World Record
MONCTON – On Wednesday, October 3, the Hub City Young Professionals Network (HCYP) will attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the most people attending a business speed-networking event in a single venue.
HCYP founder and president Patrick Richard said after two years of hosting networking events for young professionals in the city, the group wants to do something bigger.
“We definitely want to put Hub City Young Professionals on the map, so we’re looking for getting our name out there. And we’ve basically gone out and said that we’re the most connected city in the world, so we need to prove it,” he said. “And just kind of getting Moncton out there, propelling an unbelievable action.”
The HCYP aims to create business and social networking opportunities for Greater Moncton’s young professionals, entrepreneurs and leaders.
Now, the group hopes the community will pull together to help it break the world record that’s currently held by JCI Limburg, an organization catering to young people, in Flanders, Belgium.
At that time, 1,068 people attended JCI Limburg’s networking event. HCYP wants to have 3,000 Greater Moncton residents in its event.
“We’re counting on the people of Moncton to come through and pull through for us. We have different walks of life coming to the event – we’re looking for students so we’re going to approach the local institutions to come out,” Richard said. “We’re going to look at local partners, different sectors, different businesses, we’re looking for associations, all different kinds of people to come.”
Currently, the City of Moncton and the Greater Moncton Chamber of Commerce are the event’s community partners.
If 3,000 people attend, there will be 75 sections of groups of 40 people that will face each other. One row will move one seat to the right once the allotted time is up.
Each person will meet 20 different individuals during the course of the event. Each pair will have a minimum of three minutes to talk.
HCYP plans to complete the whole activity in about one hour and a half. That will be followed by an official count of attendance and keynote speakers from sponsors like TD Bank and Opportunities NB, and possibly a panel interview with young professionals.
“Guinness is very interesting. They’re strict, so we’re going to have a judge on site. There’s going to be an official timekeeper. It’s going to be high energy,” Richard said.
The event will be held at the Moncton Coliseum on Wednesday, Oct. 3, from 8 a.m. to noon. Those interested to take part can register on Eventbrite for free.