"The Summit: Connect to Success" conference gave successful BYU alumni the opportunity to share advice from their journey to excellence.
The speakers used their personal areas of expertise to communicate important lessons to students and other alumni. The sessions on Feb. 7 and 8 featured three speakers each session. Speakers discussed topics such as negotiation, overcoming failure and discipleship.
Liz Wiseman, leadership researcher and New York Times bestselling author, started off the event. Wiseman, who is the author of multiple books, described her experience with failure, criticism and having the courage to make hard decisions.
Wiseman articulated several challenges she faced during her journey of becoming an author.
BYU student Caidence Alton said she appreciated Wiseman’s comments about recovering from failure. She hopes one day to become an author herself, and Wiseman’s story was encouraging for her.
“It was really cool to see somebody who was once in my shoes,” Alton said.
Sam Payne, the head of BYU Radio, used a different method to share stories. Payne walked onto the stage with his guitar and began with a song.
“It was so good,” Gloria Morley, a volunteer for the BYU Alumni Association said. “He got the audience involved, singing along. Everyone was laughing and getting chills.”
Payne spoke and sang again during the Saturday session of the conference.
He shared two important lessons, told through the story of a children’s Shakespeare company. He spoke about teaching these children to project with their voices — he paused and invited the audience to practice projecting to their neighbor.
He talked about some of the discomfort of projecting our voices and related it to stepping outside our comfort zones.
“You must learn to consistently step outside the things you already know how to do,” Payne said. “Every time, it will feel like a leap from a cliff into the dark.”
Though Payne believes that many of the students in the Shakespeare program will go on to study things unrelated to theatre and Shakespeare, the skills they learn will go with them into the next chapter of their lives.
He shared a second lesson: “In more cases than you can imagine, the things that go with you into the world will be the key to unlocking it for you,” Payne said.
Geremy Mustard, the co-creator of the popular video game Fortnite, and executive director of Epic Games, talked about creating Fortnite. Mustard’s interest in programming and creating started at a young age.
“I truly believe that each of us has the spark of a creator inside of us given by God, who is the ultimate creator,” Mustard said.
He talked about how creating is part of our nature — whether it is being a parent, an author or a cook. These are all forms of creation.
“I took so much delight in seeing my creations come to life,” Mustard said, “and then watching the delight as other people experience it too.”
Mustard meets fans of Fortnite anywhere he goes in the world. He emphasized the immensity of the impact each of us are capable of making on the world.
Morley said she enjoyed watching the whole event come together. She said she enjoyed helping out with the game show portion of the event.
Stephen Jones, who conducted the Saturday evening session of the event, led a game show in which audience members competed in games to win prizes. Prizes included a Nintendo Switch, a personal blender, a drone and a hammock.
Kristen DeTienne, the final speaker of the conference, encouraged students to think about negotiation differently. She encouraged students to approach negotiation “with love.”
DeTienne, BYU Marriott Alice B. Jones Management professor, discussed three points: power, planning and the polite ask.
She used a variety of stories from history to convey these principles. DeTienne assured the audience that when they are feeling powerless, they have more power than they think.