Suggested Timeline

ASAP

Once you decide to host an event, please decide the following as early as possible — then you can relax a bit! Learn more about each at First Committee Meeting Agenda .

Create a planning committee.
Choose students (schools and grade levels) you’ll invite to participate.
Choose an event date.
Find a location for the event.
Determine which of our 12 breakout sessions you’ll include in your event (or customize sessions of your own!).

Invite a welcome speaker and invite potential speakers to participate in each hands-on breakout session. Professionals working in your community or faculty at a post-secondary institution make the most obvious choices for event speakers. Get sample emails at Recruit Speakers and Volunteers .
You will need two or three speakers for each breakout session. Speakers will each provide some background information about their company and career, then they will lead activities to let kids “try out or try on” things related to each career path.

Finalize speakers for each breakout session, secure room moderators and volunteers, send out guidance about what can and can’t be done in the event space as well as information about the location’s audio/visual capabilities. (This email is not provided in this toolkit. You will need to customize this information based on your event location.)

Confirm with your speakers that they are still planning to attend and make any necessary substitutions.
Send out the link to our speaker training video to help speakers plan their sessions.
Send educators links for students to register for breakout sessions before your event’s enrollment deadline. This will be provided to you by the HirePaths team.
Determine where buses will drop off and pick up students and which door they will use to enter the building. This will help you position volunteers appropriately to help students find their way.

Send instructions to speakers, room monitors, and other volunteers. See sample emails and scripts in Event Day Resources .

All students need to register for the event and select their industry session interests by this deadline. (This will give the HirePaths team time to create individualized schedules and prepare materials to ship to schools. Materials will be distributed the morning of the event.)

Remind teachers to distribute lanyards with individualized schedules to students as they load or unload the buses the next day.
Make sure school district transportation offices know where to drop off/pick up students.
Make sure all guest speakers know where to unload their belongings and park while at your facility.

Post breakout room signage outside each room, plus any wayfinding signs for hard-to-find rooms.
Make sure audio/visuals are set up and functioning in each breakout room.
Set up snack station(s) as appropriate in your facility.
Set up a check-in station for speakers and volunteers so you know if everyone has arrived. As they check in, be sure to thank them for giving their time to help.
As room moderators check in, give them their large signs, which they’ll use to lead students from the welcome session to their rooms. Encourage them to visit their rooms, meet their speakers, then return before the welcome session ends so they’re ready to meet their first round of students. Also provide the room moderators with surveys to hand out and collect at the end of the third session.
As transition volunteers check in, assign them a post within the building where they’ll stand to help direct students to their stations. Be sure to give them a list of the breakout rooms they can refer to if students have questions, and make sure they know how to find the rooms.