After the tragic events on the Virginia Tech campus on April 16, we cancelled the Roanoke and New River Valley Career and Lifestyle Fair at Blacksburg on April 18. Due to this cancellation, I received dozens of emails from college students wanting assistance with their summer or post-graduation plans. Likewise, I received a number of emails from employers wanting to connect with local college students who wanted to be in the region.

Duplicating the event face-to-face was not an option. However, we have created a creative and innovative way for students and employers to connect via Facebook.com. We created a group called Roanoke and New River Valley eFair for College Students.

I have asked employers to give me their job descriptions and let me post to the discussion board of the group that provides contact info if someone is interested in a position.

Some students have wanted to keep employers out of Facebook, and I will tell you that no employers are going on the site that are not already on it. That is why we are having a third-party, City of Roanoke, post the jobs on the discussion board.

Thus far, we have about 50 positions posted and over 125 people who have joined our group. Both of these numbers will increase this week.

MyHometownJobs.com is sponsoring the online event and Delta Sigma Pi at Virginia Tech has been assisting with promotion and logistics.