The 5th Annual Young Professionals Conference was held on March 22nd.

The event was hosted by the Greater Wyoming Valley Chamber of Commerce, in partnership with the United Way of Wyoming Valley and regional chamber partners, and presented by UGI Utilities, Inc. This year’s sold-out day-long conference was aimed at developing our area’s talented professionals, featuring amazing speakers in our region.

The event was held in the THINK Center in Downtown Wilkes-Barre. The theme of this year’s conference was “The Future of NEPA” and featured two tracks of breakout sessions, with topics like wellness, personal finance, leadership development, innovation, and getting involved in our community. Over 120 young professionals spent the day learning and networking.

Meet the Conference Speakers!

The session speakers for the day were as follows:

Improve Your Health to Improve Your Wealth
Talia Walsh, Entrepreneur & Business Owner, Quest Studio

How To Be The New Person At The Front Of The Room
Matt Hamilton, Assistant General Manager, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders

Your Financial Future
Mary Hirthler, Wealth Advisor, Jacobi Capital Management & Michelle Pack, Financial Services Professional, Blu Door Financial

The Advantages of Being a Slasher
Kathryn Bondi, Graphic/UX Designer, Posture Interactive

It Takes One to Grow One
Lauren Gorney, Founder & Owner, Grassroots Development & Maegan Zielinski, Chief Operating Officer, Grassroots Development

My Community
Holly Yorkonis, Community Revitalization Coordinator, United Neighborhood Centers of NEPA; Bob Borwick, Sole proprietor, Performance Hi-Fidelity; & Kevin Harger-Blizzard, Small Business Unit Underwriting Manager, Berkshire Hathaway GUARD Insurance

Mayor Roundtable
George Brown, Mayor of Wilkes-Barre; Paige Cognetti, Mayor of Scranton; and Max Conway, Mayor of Dunmore

Professional Development Panel Discussion
Josh Katyl, President, Founder, and Business Coach, The Katyl Agency – Allstate Insurance; Ryan Buchanan, Director of Marketing & Communications, The Greater Scranton Chamber of Commerce; Armando Sallavanti, Financial Planner, Sallavanti Financial Services Co.; and Rose A. Daniels, Cultural Implementation and Youth Engagement Specialist, Catholic Youth Center, Third Vice President, NAACP of Wilkes-Barre Branch #2306, & Founder, The Breakout Heart Movement

The Keynote Speaker for the Day was William Ramey, Chief Everything Officer, Shared Leadership LLC.

A little bit about William:

William has had the privilege of leading teams with combined experiences serving as a U.S. Army Officer, a group leader for a Fortune 50 Company, and leading at the Director level for the Department of Defense. He has led a variety of teams from maintenance and distribution to city management and space control. (Yes, space, the final frontier, where he earned the little-known Army Space Badge.)

Will’s favorite aspect of leadership has been helping others grow & reach their full potential so that teams achieve success together. He’s been a student of leadership and organizational behavior for most of his career. This intrigue led him to study and learn about the relationship of leaders and teams at the doctoral level of academia. Will has researched leaders and teams while receiving his Doctorate from Drexel University. Now, you can find Will currently serving as the CXO of Shared Leadership, LLC, a full spectrum leadership and team development solutions company. He gets the opportunity to work with amazing individuals and teams to positively impact their lives by improving work environments.

The Greater Wyoming Valley Chamber team and partners would like to thank everyone who joined them for the event, including their sponsors, attendees, speakers, and community members. Their team is thankful and excited to build the future of their Chamber with this community.