By Edith Gong (SJ ’87),  Co-hub leader for Bay Area

AIESEC Life Bay Area hosted an outdoor happy hour at a new hotspot in downtown San Jose – San Pedro Square Market.  Approximately 30 people came to this new venue comprised of 10+ restaurants and plenty of public seating.  It’s like a food truck event, but without the trucks!  With plenty of food choices such as Greek/Mediterranean, pizza, crepes, Vietnamese, seafood, French/California cuisine, there’s something for everyone. And to top it off, Blush Restaurant offers music for the outdoor crowd every Thursday.

The weather was picture perfect for the event with plenty of sunshine and mild temperatures once the sun went down.  We had recent alumni as well as graduates from the 70′s – 90′s attend.  Matt Levine (Columbia, ’71), sports marketing guru and 2011 Winter Conference speaker, was very generous with his time in speaking with LC members and their efforts in the Bay Area as well as how he could help further build and support alumni events going forward.  Mike Alvarado (San Jose, ’80) was very keen to assist the LC members with sales skills and in raising traineeships.

As a new AIESEC Life Hub, many alumni simply enjoyed meeting others and sharing their AIESEC stories.  They all overwhelming expressed an interest in coming to future events.  As Hub Leaders, when planning the event, we found that promoting the event in multiple places was key in getting the word out – AIESEC Life, Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook, with Facebook helping the Hub get the majority of the responses. We also found that the students were an invaluable part in planning the logistics and details. A big thank you to them!

To close out the evening, we had a mini AIESEC Jeopardy with questions that every AIESECer should know!  Those lucky enough went home with wine, Starbucks gift cards and a coffee mug. With the Bay Area being so large geographically, the Hub events will alternate between the San Jose/South Bay, San Francisco, Peninsula and East Bay.  The Bay Area Hub is looking to do some exciting events with the SF Giants, touring Silicon Valley companies, wine tasting, vodka distilleries and more!  We hope to see more alumni in the future!

To get involved with AIESEC Life in the Bay Area – contact Edith Gong (South Bay area) at edithaieseclife@gmail.com or Colleen McNulty (San Francisco area) at colleen.mcnulty@gmail.com.