On August 27th, the South Dakota Oil and Gas Association hosted an Oil and Gas Industry Afterwork Industry Social at Minerva's in Rapid City, SD. The social was held from 5pm to 8pm, and featured sponsors Caber Engineering and Black Hills Corporation.
The goal of the social was to simply get the conversation started in South Dakota on what is happening, what our future holds, and how South Dakota companies can make a collaborative effort to work together. This is the culture of doing business in South Dakota. This was clearly evident when it came to helping our ranchers this past winter after winter storm Atlas, and the thousands of people supporting the losses through the Rancher's Relief Fund.
As I approached on how to put an industry social together in South Dakota, I realized the overwhelming need to put forth the efforts to get the industry to work together now. South Dakota is quickly becoming a service-related business hub to the region. With companies like Adams ISC, Caber Engineering, Black Hills Corporation, Broadwind Services, and many more, I've listened first hand how the Bakken has increased business and evolved how these companies do business in the years to come.
I put together a simple gathering in a room that could hold about 40 people. We filled it with over 40 for nearly two in a half hours. This couldn't have been done without the support of the sponsors and our members helping spread the word. As I look back on how the social went, it was a huge success. Everyone was engaged in some sort of fashion, and I think everyone met someone new!
One of the critical pieces to the social was getting immediate feedback from the attendees before they left. I did this by getting a beautiful wine basket donated by my good friends and owners of Belle Joli Winery in Sturgis. In order to be register, attendees were asked to give us feedback on the event. This is proving to be really helpful. All of the feedback received (more than half at 27) was very positive, and only a few things stand out that we will improve upon for the next event. Here are some of the comments from attendees:
"Good opportunity to meet people and promote the new Petroleum Systems Engineering Program at SD School of Mines and Technology... which was created to serve the regional Oil and Gas Industry!" Brad Johnson, VP at SDSM&T
"Very good networking with people in the industry" Tom Wilson, Blue Bull, LLC
"Great gathering, good info, fantastic networking" Tory Stugelmeyer, Camo Ltd
A couple of people felt we should have some sort of a presentation at the social. I'm not sure why, because typically a networking social is meant to do just that, socialize and network with your peers and not have a presentation or agenda pushed on people. I didn't want the atmosphere to be about the SD Oil and Gas Association, but about helping our members meet new people in the industry. But I love the idea, and we will certainly look to bring good topics of discussion from several of our most valuable resources in our member companies. I have no doubt South Dakota School of Mines and Technology would be more than happy to provide a brief presentation on their new Petroleum Systems Engineering Program, and I have a few other companies in mind that could provide some great educational pieces. Another piece would be to provide Bakken updates to attendees on an ongoing basis, and this could include interaction from attendees if they are seeing any new trends or changes in the work environment. If our attendees are saying they want to learn more while still coming to socialize with other industry professionals, I will certainly listen. After all, the events are meant for our members and attendees to grow both professionally and help provide networking opportunities for their businesses to succeed.
I want to say thank you to our sponsors and our members, and I really appreciate everyone that came to the event just to check it out and see what we have going on. I am both humbled and excited to see the turnout for our next event! If you want to stay tuned in, become a member and make sure you are subscribed to our e-newsletter at www.sdoil.org.
Cheers,
Adam
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