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Prosperous Pittsburgh


Pittsburgh is a particularly important city for the Midwest region of Corporate Contacts because there are a lot of longstanding partners in the city. Some of the people that we met with had been donating to and participating in Business Today for over 10 years. Those longstanding partnerships are extremely important to continue, so we were excited for the meetings, but also slightly scared that we might be the ones to break the streak.

Luckily, we had great meetings with all of the Pittsburgh companies that had sponsored Business Today in the past. A lot of times the meetings with these longstanding partners ended up being short updates about Business Today and then long conversations about their careers and jobs.

One of the more entertaining meetings was part of a running joke between two Princeton alumni in charge of separate financial companies. The first one of the two that we met told me to ask the other if their company was going to “break the buck” (essentially when a money market fund has to pay out of pocket to guarantee investors' dollars). When I asked, the second alumnus groaned and told me that the Business Today team had always ended up asking the exact same question every time for the past thirteen years.

We met with two more sports teams in Pittsburgh – the Penguins and the Pirates. We had an amazing meeting with the Penguins, going well over the allotted time. We had a chance to hear about their organizational mission and about the new development they are working on near their stadium. Ariana Grande was giving a concert in the PPG Arena, the Penguins stadium, that night, so at the end of the meeting, we jokingly asked for tickets. The people that we were meeting with actually took it at face value and tried to find us tickets, but had just given away the last ones beforehand.

Our food adventures in Pittsburgh were quite good as well. When we arrived, I texted one of my friends from Carnegie Mellon for recommendations. Heeding his advice, we went to a Pittsburgh classic, Primanti Bros, a place which makes giant sandwiches with fries stuffed between the bread and Noodlehead, a cash-only restaurant which had the best Thai food I have tasted so far on this trip.

A former Corporate Contacts manager also took us out for dinner at a fancy restaurant. We got prime seating, right by the window with a full view of downtown Pittsburgh from Mt. Washington. Over an extremely nice meal, we got a chance to meet two Princeton and one Penn alumni. All of them were particularly emphatic about making use of the connections that we make this summer and maintaining the relationships that we’re starting with all the amazing, high-level people that we are meeting.

I’m still trying to figure out what the best way to do that is, but luckily many of the people who we had good meetings with will be coming to one of our conferences, so I will get another chance to meet them in person.

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