U.P. young professionals conference is all about ‘You’

It was a beneficial day today for young professionals across Marquette County.

Young entrepreneurs gathered to network, share ideas and grow during the third Annual 40 Below U.P. Young Professionals Conference at Marquette Mountain. This year’s keynote speaker, Maryellen Charbonneau, is a young professional herself and has learned much while cultivating her own business.

“If we all take a moment to look around the room and realize, ‘It’s not just us,'” Charbonneau said. “‘These are critical opportunities for us to learn from each other, to connect, and to, I think gain some relationships so that when we hit that roadblock in the future we now have this fierce tribe of allies that we can go to and troubleshoot, and celebrate.”

Charbonneau’s message featured three main themes: embrace yourself and what you love, willingness and honoring why you started your journey. She also emphasized that “we are the only ones who can give ourselves permission to start a new chapter.”

In addition to sharing, learning, and growing, the conference presented the opportunity to network with fellow professionals.

“I’ve been very fortunate to be helped by a lot of people in our community,” conference co-chair Alex Kofsky said. “I would personally like to help more people, but I’d also hope that, as a group, we can help each other and just kind of lift the U.P. up as a whole.”

The theme at this year’s conference was Come Cultivate You, Your Ideas, and Your Business.