On May 11 from 5-7 pm at the University Club on the Virginia Tech campus at 100 Otey St, you are invited to a book release party and signing for Krisha Chachra’s new book Homecoming Journals: Dreaming Big in a Small Town. The book hits to the core of retaining and attracting young adults in the region. Krisha is a freelance writer and has appeared in many media outlets for her work covering the region from a young adult perspective. Please plan to attend this event. It will be a great opportunity to meet other young professionals in the region. For more info, email Krisha.

A fellow blogger told me about the site City-Data.com as an outstanding resource to showcase our region to outsiders looking for relocation information about our region. Over the last couple of months, I have been surprised at the number of people who have submitted profiles to the Roanoke Connect job site from this link.

What is becoming more and more obvious is people from outside the region are forming a different opinion and perspective about our region - ONLINE - than people living here now have OFFLINE (newspapers, walking down the street, driving on I81, etc.). It appears that the ONLINE perspective of Roanoke is quite good.

Another example to back up this claim is that we have nearly 2000 registered in the Roanoke Connect database. Most new entries now come from Google search or viral channels. In fact, in a 90 minutes span over the weekend, four people submitted profiles opting-in to receive job information from Proctorville, OH; Rosepine, LA; Leavenworth, KS; and Bluefield, WV.

People want to be in Roanoke! Roanoke employers have jobs that are going unfilled! They just need to get connected to the right people in the local job market. Sites like City-Data.com and Roanoke Connect help us shape the positive ONLINE perception of the region and make these connections that will ultimately lead to success stories.   

A local firm, Career Connections, has started this blog to help folks locally with their job searches. More resources such as these are needed as we continue to connect job seekers to employers in this complex multi-media environment. We are working on more face-to-face opportunities for organizations like Career Connections to meet with job seekers on a weekly basis. More info to come in the near future. 

The Open Studios Tour is a self guided tour of artists’ homes and their work, which will occur this weekend in downtown Roanoke. One of those homes on tour this year is young professional couple Zephren and Page Turner.

You may recognize some of Zephren’s work on the cover of this month’s City Magazine.

For more information about the tour, contact Page.

The Roanoke Regional Commission has created a blog to communicate with the community. This will hopefully be a good channel for a forum to encourage conversation about regional issues. Good job to Wayne and his staff for taking this proactive step.

This marks the 200th post in about 18 months of the Connecting People blog. It has been wonderful connecting to so many people who have similar interest in attracting and retaining young adults in the Roanoke and New River Valleys. I appreciate all who have contributed and have read the content. I would enjoy hearing your comments on what we can do to make it better. Thanks again for reading.

Technorati Profile

Fast Company magazine printed a letter to the editor written in support of Richard Florida in response to an unfair attack on him and his research entitled "Roanoke on the Edge". Mr. Florida has been at the center of this blog’s topic at the national level. We have taken a lot of his ideas and research and tried to implement them practically in the Roanoke and New River Valleys. Thanks for Fast Company for printing this letter of support.

For those who are interested in workforce issues related to young professionals and the differences between generation relating to ethics, will want to come to this event at Hollins this evening.

Dr. Joanne Sulla, one of the founding faculty members of the University of Richmond’s Pepsin School of Leadership Studies and author of The Working Life: The Promise and Betrayal of Modern Work, will discuss "Ethical Challenges of Leadership" on Thursday, April 19 at 7:30 p.m. in Hollins University’s Wetherill Visual Arts Center Auditorium. Admission is free.

Working with a lot of college students at Virginia Tech on our programs to retain and attract young adults, a lot of acquaintances and relationships have formed through the duration of this blog and with the position at the City of Roanoke.

Unfortunately, we came across a familiar name - originally on Facebook on Monday night and was later confirmed by traditional media - that Maxine Turner had died in Norris Hall on Monday at Virginia Tech.

Maxine was responsible for organizing a group of 20+ female engineers from Virginia Tech’s Alpha Omega Epsilon sorority to participate in our RoanokeWantsU program, which is designed to bus students to Roanoke, visit with employers, tour downtown Roanoke, and sense and feel what it had to offer both professionally and socially to students.

It was ironic that I saw her again at Squires this past Friday when we were meeting with another student group, Delta Sigma Pi, who was helping us with the Roanoke/NRV Career and Lifestyle Fair at Virginia Tech, which was canceled and scheduled for today.

In my limited dealings with Maxine, she was the type of person the region would hope to try and retain, however, she had already accepted a position upon graduation. Her concern for her fellow friends by organizing this event for them was selfless and demonstrated servanthood.

Our hearts and prayers go to the sorority, friends, and family who knew Maxine more than we did. We will think of her fondly.   

Due to the tragic events at Virginia Tech this morning, Wednesday’s Roanoke and NRV Career and Lifestyle Fair has been canceled. More information to follow in the near future.