FloridaACE 2026

What if your most powerful career center resource is not more staff but stronger partnerships? Career centers are often expected to deliver high-impact programming with small teams. This session explores how collaboration with campus and community partners helps small teams expand capacity and create engaging student experiences. Using examples from collaborative events, presenters will share how campus and community partners help bring programming to life through interactive tables and activities that support career exploration, transfer planning, job readiness, and career-ready competencies. By sharing expertise and working together, small teams can create dynamic experiences that would be difficult to deliver alone. Interactive formats such as games and themed tables create a welcoming environment where students naturally connect with partners and conversations happen organically. This approach encourages participation, reduces the pressure often associated with networking, and helps students engage more comfortably with career development topics. Participants will engage in collaborative brainstorming activities to generate ideas for partnership-driven programming and interactive engagement and leave with practical strategies for building partnerships and designing engaging career programming that can be adapted at their own institutions.