The value of networking
By Kevin Delaney, STLE President | TLT President's Report March 2026
Whether you attend the STLE Annual Meeting, your STLE Local Section or both, there are excellent opportunities to make new professional contacts.
STLE President Kevin Delaney and STLE Past President Peter Drechsler networking at the 2006 STLE Annual Meeting in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Photo courtesy of STLE Past President Rob Heverly.
Our big event is coming up: The 80th STLE Annual Meeting & Exhibition: Innovating Through Tribology & Lubrication, May 17-21, at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans, La. It’s a great time to see what’s going on in the fields of tribology and lubrication. As usual we have hundreds of paper presentations, dozens of exhibitors and also a few networking events, although the entire meeting venue provides countless networking opportunities. Past annual meeting attendees consistently rank networking as the top reason to attend.
As good as that is, I would like to point out that STLE Local Section meetings also provide networking opportunities. In my 40-plus years in the industry, I have worked for several companies. Some of those jobs came as direct results of contacts I made through local section participation. Local section participants can give you clues as to what company or position might be a good fit for you. Sure, there are presentations and courses that are reasons for the gatherings, but there is also a social component that allows participants to interact in a relatively unstructured environment. To me, this is the best part of the meetings.
Attendance is one thing, but volunteering for leadership positions helps to expand your range of contacts and can start you on a path to volunteering at the national level. Volunteering is one of the best ways to boost your resume, build your network and enhance your leadership, team building and communication skills.
Part of my duties as president is to visit local sections. To date I have visited an in-person section meeting, a lube school meeting and a virtual section meeting. (A few more are in the works.) Although virtual meetings are less conducive to personal interactions, they are a way to keep a section going where geography and company policies would otherwise make it impossible. From the networking perspective, if nothing else, it gives attendees a chance to see who might be a contact for them outside of the meeting.
No matter how you participate, being actively involved in STLE is an ideal way to make the professional connections that will help you throughout your career. So I hope to see you at the annual meeting this May, but if not, perhaps I will see you on a local section visit.
Kevin Delaney is global sales director for the Petroleum Group at Vanderbilt Chemicals, LLC, based in Norwalk, Conn. You can reach him at kdelaney@vanderbiltchemicals.com.