It’s hard to imagine a better event than what occurred yesterday at Broome County Community College. The Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY), working with the College and Broome-Tioga Workforce New York, put on a Career Expo in Binghamton focusing on opportunities available in the natural gas industry.  JLCNY President Dan Fitzsimmons and Steve Herz, the event organizers, along with a number of other helpers, provided a very large crowd of job seekers with opportunities to meet natural gas companies, industry suppliers, union representatives, employment agencies and others who could assist them in finding jobs in the industry.

It was fascinating to see so many young people, several of whom were part of Lackawanna College’s Marcellus Shale Training program, meeting with potential employers, while at the same time seeing other young folks who have already secured jobs in the industry manning the tables.  What a great contrast it was.  There’s no doubt keeping the kids here is what Marcellus Shale is all about for those  promoting natural gas development.

Large Crowd Tells How Much NY Needs Natural Gas

I’m not good at counting people, but I can tell you there were hundreds at the event at any given time.  It’s clear the total attendance had to be in the thousands.  In fact, some estimates show that 2,300 people were in attendance.  You can take a look at the crowd for yourself below:

Career Expo Crowd - Binghamton

This tells you just how much demand there is for the jobs the natural gas  industry has the potential to offer New York.  Interestingly, it is already offering those opportunities to individuals and businesses who are willing to cross the border into Pennsylvania.  I stopped by the Crosshair Consultants booth, for example, and met Neil Guiles of Vestal Asphalt and Crosshairs, his son and three other young college-educated men he has hired to help him with his enterprises serving the natural gas industry in Pennsylvania.

Crosshairs Consultants Booth at Career Expo

Shortly after visiting this both and talking to these young men, I had the pleasure of meeting and interviewing two others who were seeking the same opportunities, both had attended the Lackawanna College program. Here the interview of Matthew Mosier and Tyler Rowe, which speaks for itself:

Who wouldn’t want to hire these individuals?  They are bright, enthusiastic, well-spoken and well-trained.  This, more than anything, demonstrates why Marcellus Shale development is so critical to the economic future of our area.  We cannot afford to waste such talent or see it go elsewhere.  I saw them earlier visiting the Williams booth and inquiring of the opportunities with this exciting mid-stream company.

Williams Booth at Career Expo

And, here’s our Bill desRosiers assisting another young man in exploring Marcellus Shale job opportunities:

Bill desRosiers at EID Booth Assisting Job Seeker

Long Lines, Incredible Success and Only Two Sour Notes

The Career Expo involved 44 different vendors (not including the Energy In Depth and Energy Citizens booths) and everyone, including ourselves, was focused entirely on Marcellus Shale jobs.  There were multiple gas companies, suppliers and labor organizations and every vendor was busy.  There were long lines to see Chesapeake Energy and some others, with as many as 2o job seekers lined up waiting to speak with company representatives.

Chesapeake Energy Booth and Waiting Line at Career Expo

There were also seminar presentations by seven different industry representatives, including Cabot Oil & Gas and various suppliers.  Overall, the event was a huge success as we discussed with JLCNY President Dan Fitzsimmons.

Remarkably, some of our friends from the other side (a total of two individuals while I was there) chose this completely non-political venue, where the single focus was finding jobs for local people needing employment, to make a statement.  They apparently wanted to protest employment.  Here they are:

Career Expo Welcome Sign Courtesy of Payne's Cranes

I wasn’t going to include this video because the protestor in the yellow hazmat suit was so obviously eager to be on EID (he asked me if I would use the video) that I didn’t want to reward his behavior.  However, in the end I decided that he had made an effective statement – for natural gas development.

The JLCNY and its partners turned out thousands of New Yorkers who wanted jobs.  The anti-employment faction turned out two.  That’s quite a statement.  New York’s kids want to stay here, close to home, and engage in productive lives with the natural gas industry.

Governor Cuomo, I expect, will take notice.  There were long lines of people saying they want those Marcellus Shale jobs and only two people saying they didn’t want them.  That’s about as clear as it gets demonstrating the silent majority of New Yorkers who are ready to let the natural gas industry know “New York is open for business.” We wish the best of luck to everyone who came out yesterday seeking employment and congratulations to the sponsors for having such a successful event.

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