Hello, Nextworkers! Don’t you love autumn? If you’re anything like us, you’re savoring this time of year by reuniting with your favorite sweater from storage, watching enough football to qualify you as an ESPN analyst, and sipping on your favorite seasonal beverage – whether it be hot apple cider or pumpkin ale. Mmm!

While you’re busy enjoying the spectacular fall, take a break to catch up on what’s happening on the Nextworking front! This issue of The Spot offers information on our 7th annual wine tasting event this winter; a chance to meet Steering Committee Member, Barry Vanderloop; some fun (and finance-friendly) app recommendations for your smartphone; the important but often overlooked soft skills of great leaders; and so much more!

Before you dive in, we’d like to thank the nearly 200 of you who joined us for our first ever Career Conversations with Local Leaders event at Target Field in September. We received incredibly positive feedback from it and hope to host a similar panel-style event in the future. With so much to learn from senior leaders in the area, it was an honor to hear about their experiences (good, bad, and otherwise) along their professional journeys. Special thanks to our local leaders for making it an insightful and inspiring event from start to finish!

Sally Mainquist of Certes Financial Pros, Tom Velin of Experian Health Care, Jody Feragen of Hormel Foods, Steve Fritze of Ecolab, and Mary Jepperson of St. John's University / College of St. Benedict

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Hey, what’s that sound? Do you hear it? It’s the unmistakable buzz about the Annual Nextworking Wine Tasting, of course! We are busy gearing up for what’s become our most popular event of the Nextworking year. Mark your calendar today and heck, if you know nothing will stop you from being there, you might as well get registered, too!

What: 7th Annual Wine Tasting Event
When: Friday, January 27
Time: 8:00 – 11:00 p.m.
Where: International Market Square
275 Market Street, Minneapolis, MN 55405
Register: Email Molly at mdeterman@certespros.com

This event centers around four main things:

• Networking. With 300+ young finance and accounting professionals all in one place, this event brings more bang for your networking buck than any event in the area. (But it’s FREE, so forget the buck reference.)

• Job opportunities. The event is hosted by Certes and SNI Financial (we’re finance and accounting recruiters) and we have some outstanding jobs we’re working on for our clients. If you want to hear about them, great. If not, that’s fine too. We’re not pushy; we’re pleasant.

• Wine. (Duh.) And we’re not talking two-buck-chuck, folks!

• Hors d’oeuvres. We’ll pair some delicious D’Amico bites with the array of wines.

We hope to see you there! It’s bound to be an evening rich with networking potential and oh-so-generous pours.

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A humble leader in business, an active participant in life, and a steady force on the Nextworking Steering Committee. That’s how we would describe Barry Vanderloop, Audit Manager at Deloitte. He encompasses a refreshing combo of characteristics: likeable, hard-working, unassuming, dedicated, and bright. Barry has been an absolute asset on the Nextworking Steering Committee for the past three years by singlehandedly more than quadrupling participation rates from his firm since 2008. Barry is likely the person to whom you owe thanks if you’ve ever met someone from Deloitte at one of our events.

Read on to discover more about what keeps Barry busy, involved, and inspired at work and on the ride of life.

                                                                                                             Learn more about Barry

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