Shervin Mohabbati, Senior ICAO Ambassador, shares with us his experience at APAA's CA Networking Night

Finally the time has arrived, September 13, 2011 was here and the Atkinson Professional Accounting Association (APAA) was going to experience another successful “CA Night”.

CA Night was a great event for both firms and students to get to know each other better and make some connections before application deadlines.

We knew it was going to be a busy night so we divided responsibilities amongst executives by assigning a couple of executives to each firm. This way, we were able to greet firm’s representatives once they got to campus, help them out to find the Underground and give them a hand with set up and wrapping up at the end. I was really excited as I knew it was going to be one of the biggest events we have ever held. Before going to the underground I met with other executives at the APAA office and that was when I realized we were going to expect more than 170 students. That was already beginning to sound like a huge success. I arrived at Underground to begin set up, and students started to show up around 5:30.

We had five firms attending the event. Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, PwC and Grant Thornton. Each of these firms had between 5-12 representatives in attendance.  All of the representatives  were done setting up their booths and banners by 5:45 and they were waiting for students to arrive.

The event started right at 6pm and students got the chance to meet and network with different members of each firm.

Great food and non-alcoholic beverages were provided so students and representatives could enjoy themselves while networking. Time flew by and by the time I realized, it was 7:40 and only few minutes to the end of the event. It was great seeing how members and representatives were talking about different subjects through out the night.

At 7:55, Paul Da Costa (President of APAA) made a speech. He welcomed all the members and representatives and thanked them for making this event a great one. He invited everybody to watch the 2011-2012 APAA Promotional Video. The end of the video marked the end of an outstanding evening. Members said their goodbyes and representatives started to wrap things up. I had a lot of fun and really enjoyed the whole night and I am sure firm representatives as well as all the members had a great time too. Overall, it was an amazing event and I would like to thank the representatives from each firm as well as our invaluable members for attending. I also want to thank the APAA Executive Council for organizing such a great event. It was a huge success!