ColumBlogs wroteColumbus Young Professionals Blog Event
Fri April 13, 2007
On Tuesday, April 17th, the Columbus Chamber of Commerce is holding two “Young Professional Café†Events, where attendees will be able to converse with Rebecca Ryan of Next Generation Consulting, who is doing a study on the “Brain Drain†issue in Columbus.
For anyone not able to attend these events in person, a “Blogspot†event is being held simultaneously, so that contributions can be made remotely via the Internet. This web-based forum will be open from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Tuesday.
This is a great opportunity to voice your opinions if you happen to be a young (under 40) professional, and the ability to use web-based technologies for this gathering of ideas is a great way to reach out to this younger, tech-savvy demographic on a local level.
Columbus Underground Messageboard » Events » Miscellaneous Events
Columbus Young Professionals Blog Event
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Posted 5 years ago #
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It's online. Anyone here participating in the discussion today? It's a great way to get your ideas in front of some of the people who may be able to do something with them!
Posted 5 years ago # -
I posted a few things this morning, but they aren't showing up. It looks like you've gotten through, posted eleventy-million messages, and bogged everything down!
Posted 5 years ago # -
haha. Yeah, most of what I've been posting has been a rehashing of ideas I've either said on here myself, or read others post and thought were great ideas.
If anyone wants to read some of what I've said so far on the topic of transportation, GO HERE:
Posted 5 years ago # -
I added a bit to the discussion regarding the one-way street issue. Although it wouldn't make it less confusing for out of towners, I noted that some cities vary the one-way nature of streets depending on the time of day. That would keep intact the ease of traffic flow during the rush hours, but could still address the pedestrian friendly question.
As for other issues, I saw Walker, you'd been busy and pretty much covered just about anything else I was going to say.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Walker for mayor! :lol:
Posted 5 years ago # -
Anybody go to this last night? Anything groundbreaking?
I figured that the Dispatch would have a story, but can't find anything.
Posted 5 years ago # -
I went.
The good:
I think it's great that the city is focusing on these types of initiatives and I'm hoping that a lot of good will come from it. There's a lot of great ideas brewing, but everything still seems to be in the pipeline right now, so there weren't really any announcements about getting anything done.
The bad:
I understand that this meeting wasn't the type of format to go into extensive details of the findings of the Young Professionals surveys and interviews, but I felt like hardly any of that info was actually presented. Almost all of the statistics, buzzwords, catchphrases, and other soundbites were applicable to young professionals all over the country. I didn't feel like any of the info had much of a home-grown feel to it aside from the video interviews displayed where they had 10 YPs talk about what they liked about Columbus and where they saw room for improvement. Sure, you can cherry pick certain people to get whatever sort of verbal response you want to show, but I somehow couldn't help but think that what we were seeing wasn't the best way to summarize the survey that was taken by thousands here in Columbus.
Anyway, I was chosen to serve on the YP commitee that is being formed out of these initiatives, so I'll keep everyone posted with progress on these initatives. I was told after the presentation that more raw stats from the YP surveys could be found on the Chamber's website, but I can't seem to find them. Anyone else? Are they buried somewhere or am I just overlooking them?
Posted 5 years ago # -
I went and the mayor said there were 700 people in the audience (althought it didnt seem like it)
- Rebecca Ryan- full of energy--loves Guy Worley and our mayor ---apparently Guy loves columbus and is in charge of the river front revamp---on may 15th they are announcing that on gay street there will be affordable housing in the low 100's (probably smaller than Yukon)
- "why columbus" video contest...accompanied by a website
- YP Summit in columbus held this year
- Two way street, bikepath, walker friendly city efforts in next 2 years
- She said columbus could afford to be more expensive
- YP directory of clubs, events calendar
- YP counsil has already been created ---30 or so YP all dressed in suits
- Said that mass transit is vital to making our city a hip YP city
- Mentioned that if they get some 900 YP to move downtown it will bring something like 21 Million dollars-- I didnt understand that.
- Oh she also mentioned that they need YP to help fill jobs like at Chase where there are 500 job openings
Thats all i can remember right now :)
Posted 5 years ago # -
gossip wrote apparently Guy loves columbus and is in charge of the river front revamp---on may 15th they are announcing that on gay street there will be affordable housing in the low 100's (probably smaller than Yukon)
Yeah, I thought this was a little weird to pre-announce before the official announcement since it really didn't have much to do with the YP Initiative. It's good news, but unrelated to the results of the YP research.
- "why columbus" video contest...accompanied by a website
I thought this was a pretty cool idea and hope to see a lot of participation. If anything it gives some local video producers a chance to show off what they can do. We need more ideas like this where different parts of the artistic community can easily get involved.
- YP Summit in columbus held this year
This is a great development, and I hope it does well. I remember hearing about this months ago, so I wasn't sure if last night was the formal announcement or not?
Two way street, bikepath, walker friendly city efforts in next 2 years
Again, great news, and some of the YP video footage showed YPs asking for this stuff, but these are intiatives that were already in progress.
She said columbus could afford to be more expensive
While I agree that the cost of certain things will have to increase to make other things more viable options that will change our culture (transportation comes to mind) I thought this wasn't much more than a soundbite without any real explaination of what it means or the impact that this could have on the community.
YP directory of clubs, events calendar
I agree that there are a lot of YP organizations in town, and a centralized source of information would be useful, but it's really not that hard to find out what's going on with individual YP websites and other online resources. Ryan was quick to point to examples of websites for other cities, but ignored the fact that we already have dozens of great online resources that can help people find local information. I'm not trying to sound bitter since I do run a local info website, but even a nod to ExperienceColumbus.com or DowntownColumbus.com would have been nice.
- YP counsil has already been created ---30 or so YP all dressed in suits
I wasn't wearing a suit. Nor was Chuck Hootman. 8)
- Said that mass transit is vital to making our city a hip YP city
Yep.
- Mentioned that if they get some 900 YP to move downtown it will bring something like 21 Million dollars-- I didnt understand that.
I think she was trying to say that the income of those 900 YPs moving to Columbus (not just downtown) would total 21 million. So that just meant those people would be contributing to the local economy. I think the point was that 900 people interviewed as folks who had left Columbus would consider returning, and those are the ones who just needed a litlte bit of a push to get them to come back.
- Oh she also mentioned that they need YP to help fill jobs like at Chase where there are 500 job openings
Doesn't Chase currently have a hiring freeze? :roll:
Thats all i can remember right now :)
Thanks for posting all of this up! You've got a pretty good memory if you remembered all of that without taking any notes! :D
Posted 5 years ago # -
Jeff Lyttle wrote "Young people today think of themselves like free agents in the workplace," he said. "So there is competition to build loyalty, and for a company, that means innovation and creativity to keep them."
Do you think this has to do with all the downsizing and outsourcing?!?!? Any young person today thinking he/she will be working at the same company until retirement must have blinders on.
:roll:
The respondents want affordable Downtown living, improved transportation and job opportunities....Increasing the number of Downtown units priced in the $150,000 to $200,000 range.
Shouldn't the price points be lower to be considered "affordable"? Especially considering,
About 25 percent of the survey?s respondents did not have a college degree, Ryan said.
AND wouldn't someone working at Chase end up living closer to it? I know I detest my 30 minute drive to the area.....
Posted 5 years ago # -
ddavis wrote
The respondents want affordable Downtown living, improved transportation and job opportunities....Increasing the number of Downtown units priced in the $150,000 to $200,000 range.
Shouldn't the price points be lower to be considered "affordable"?
Affordable for a downtown area? YES!
Affordable for a suburban area? Probably still yes.
Affordable for a rural area? Not really.
Affordable is a relative term. Remember the 3 rules of real estate...1) Location, 2) Location, and 3) Location.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Brewmaster wrote Affordable for a downtown area? YES!
Affordable for a suburban area? Probably still yes.
Affordable for a rural area? Not really.
Affordable is a relative term. Remember the 3 rules of real estate...1) Location, 2) Location, and 3) Location.
Of couse, but I was considering it in context of the "young professionals" they are trying to lure there......
Posted 5 years ago # -
ddavis wrote Of couse, but I was considering it in context of the "young professionals" they are trying to lure there......
I think "young professionals" is a term that is open for interpretation as well. It could mean CCAD grads struggling to get art shows while paying the bills with jobs at Starbucks, or it could mean 30-something lawyers already making plenty of money. Technically, according to the YP Initiatives, the age cutoff for Young Professionals is 40.
I don't know what context you personally apply to the term "Young Professionals" but I think it's a much wider spectrum of people than most people take into consideration. What is affordable for one type of Young Professional is not affordable (or even desirable) for another.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Another point made was that YP's want to look for a place to live first and then work second, so as long as there was plenty of other things going around their 'homebase' they might take a job where they had a little commute time but be coming back to downtown for everything else.
I guess I just found the presentation really centering on YP's and ignoring a lot of the groups of people that make a city pulse, like artists, people with families, people with some college, etc. that I'm not sure what is going to happen. I think it is a good place to start... there is a lot of work to make things happen.
But we will need to find how Columbus can think of its OWN ways to do things, not just repackaging what other cities have done.
ddavis wrote
Jeff Lyttle wrote
"Young people today think of themselves like free agents in the workplace," he said. "So there is competition to build loyalty, and for a company, that means innovation and creativity to keep them."
Do you think this has to do with all the downsizing and outsourcing?!?!? Any young person today thinking he/she will be working at the same company until retirement must have blinders on.
I don't think any young person expects to be working for the same company for years anymore. They are trying to figure out ways to work these smart, innovative, creative young people into companies and that means thinking of new jobs that look to the future. Things are changing. Jobs need to change. And the older people leading companies need to realize that if they want to get younger people into their door. I felt that was the main point of the presentation and who it was geared to. It certainly wasn't geared towards me....for me practically the whole presentation was stuff I have already been reading online! But perhaps that wasn't true for the Experienced Professionals (XP's) in the audience.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Anne wrote Experienced Professionals (XP's)
:lol:
Is that a "real" term or did you just make it up?
Posted 5 years ago # -
haha, they had it at the presentation. I didn't know what it meant until she explained it. Guess it sounds better than oldies!
Posted 5 years ago # -
Anne wrote haha, they had it at the presentation. I didn't know what it meant until she explained it. Guess it sounds better than oldies!
So does that mean one cannot be a YXP? I guess once you get too old to be a YP you are then an XP? Consultants get paid loads of money to come up with this stuff?!?!?
Posted 5 years ago # -
A HUGE great post from Paul at RetroMetro:
Paul Bonneville wrote Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Downtown and the "Young Professional"
The next generation knows what they feel about various topics but have had a difficult time in finding a way to plug in to act on their feelings. So we've learned to express our opinions in Columbus almost exclusively through personal conversations and more recently (and growing) online. But where we are sorely lacking is in action department because we don't know where to go.
There is no lack of wanting to engage in Columbus or get involved, but there is a lack of a structure to engage civically to put their, our, beliefs and desires to work in this city. There is a generational gap in how things are currently run, how we would run them and how we get involved. So the formation of a YP council as recommended last week seems to be a perfect fit, right?
Just as trying to stimulate residential and economic growth downtown through governmental subsidies is a dangerous initiative (City Center), so is the creation of a YP council that is formed through initiative of the city as opposed to the generation itself. With the lack of a grassroots, self-identified and elected effort, this Attract and Retain initiative faces not only limited effectiveness but a certain skepticism in the genuineness in it's creation. As Rebecca Ryan pointed out, we are a skeptical group, so why should we look at this initiative any different?
Saying that a YP council will be formed...and here they are...all in the same breath means that the rest of the YP crowd in Columbus had nothing to do with the selection process. This closed-door, hand-picked approach is indicative of nothing that would strike a positive cord with this next generation, that I can say for sure.
Posted 5 years ago #
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