BVN Stories, Events, News — March 5, 2024
Psst… Hey, students and recent grads… have you heard about The Vine?
What would you like to find out about entering the industry? How do you meet (the right) people? How do you juggle deadlines?
Starting out can be daunting. We know it can be tricky to navigate the new world of work.
That's why we started The Vine.
The Vine is a BVN X Parlour speed mentoring initiative designed to build resilience and engagement, especially amongst recent graduates and students of architecture and other built environment disciplines.
As the future of the industry, it is crucial for students and recent graduates to have a trusted environment where it is possible to explore challenges, air ongoing struggles, and share success stories.
Through The Vine, mentors can open up about how they got started and offer reassurance around early career development. Such insights build confidence and can help to remove barriers between university, qualification, registration and making headway in the industry.
In each session of The Vine, senior practitioners from leading practices meet face-to-face with the next generation of architects for an evening of fast-paced exchange. To date, mentors from Cox, Bates Smart, Hassell, HDR, Aileen Sage and Atoma Design have been involved alongside those from BVN.
By connecting emerging practitioners with mentors for quick conversations and engaging storytelling, The Vine sessions provide a forum for learning tactics and strategies to navigate personal situations at work, look at work/life balance, consider avenues for career progression and explore possibilities for advocating for systemic change.
Parlour's co-founder and editor Justine Clark and BVN architecture graduate Claire Oh have been instrumental in getting The Vine to flourish.
“Some topics can be difficult to discuss, so it is important to make times and places where these stories can be heard and told,” says Claire.
Justine agrees. “The Vine creates an intimate and safe space that encourages and facilitates these sensitive conversations. Together we’re building a vital support system that fosters ongoing relationships and forges community. Ultimately, we want early career practitioners to be thriving, not just surviving.”
The Vine sessions are already incredibly popular. Both the Nov 2023 and March 2024 sessions sold out.
If you’re a student or recent graduate of architecture or built environment studies, you can get involved by registering for updates. Remember to book as soon as events are announced.
To keep things intimate, numbers are strictly limited to 40 participants per session.
Reserve your place here: parlour.org.au/events/coming-up/the-vine/
The Vine welcomes mentors from practices of all sizes. If you’re a senior practitioner who would like to get involved as a mentor, please contact hello@parlour.org.au.
The Vine is a joint BVN X Parlour initiative.
