Collegiate Connect – 2025 NBAA-BACE
Students and faculty are invited to the 2025 Collegiate Connect, NBAA’s premier event focused on workforce development and community engagement. This year’s career day will be held on Thursday, Oct. 16 in Las Vegas, NV during the third day of the 2025 NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE), the world’s largest and most important business aviation event of the year.
NBAA recognizes the value in introducing students to the global business aviation industry and inspiring young people to explore the diversity of aviation careers. College students, as well as their school’s faculty and chaperones, are invited to attend for student-focused programming and opportunities, including access to hundreds of exhibitors.
Admission to the one-day Collegiate Connect on Oct. 16 is free for all registered students, faculty and chaperones. You must present your school/university ID at a registration counter to obtain your student badge for NBAA-BACE.
All Collegiate Connect events will take place in the Flight Deck at Booth 205 in the Las Vegas Convention Center, West Hall.
Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025
Collegiate Connect: Welcome From NBAA
Don’t miss this welcome from NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen and other NBAA leaders. This introduction to Collegiate Connect will review the program and present Young Professionals in Business Aviation (YoPros) starting new career roles in 2025. All YoPros who started a new job in 2025 should attend for a “Class of 2025 New Hire” group photo.
Navigating Your Career in Business Aviation: Insights from Industry Professionals
Join us for an engaging panel discussion designed for college students looking to launch and grow their careers in business aviation. Moderated by students, this session features a diverse panel of industry professionals at different career stages – an early-career rising star, a mid-career expert and a seasoned veteran. Gain valuable insights on how to break into the industry, build a successful career, network effectively and explore opportunities in management, maintenance, dispatch, piloting, flight operations and more. Don’t miss this chance to get your questions answered by those who have navigated the path before you!
Student/YoPro Networking Tour
Students are encouraged to self-select from among nine career categories that will bring them together with other like-minded students and YoPros currently working in those fields. There will be an opportunity to network, participate in Q&A and take a walking tour of the exhibit floor to engage with an exhibitor directly connected to that career field. The categories are the following: airport business; business management; broker/sales; flight/cabin attendant; innovation and technology; maintenance; marketing; pilot; and scheduler/dispatcher. Tours will conclude at the NBAA Career Zone.
Career Fair
Students are encouraged to attend the NBAA Career Fair at the conclusion of Collegiate Connect to connect with NBAA, speak with recruiters, get their headshot taken and enter a giveaway for a $200 Amazon gift card.
Any person who attends an NBAA convention, conference, seminar or other program grants permission to NBAA, its employees and agents (collectively "NBAA") to record his or her visual/audio images, including, but not limited to, photographs, digital images, voices, sound or video recordings, audio clips, or accompanying written descriptions, and, without notifying such person, to use his or her name and such images for any purpose of NBAA, including advertisements for NBAA and its programs.
International Business Aviation Council Ltd.