I met with a middle-age woman yesterday who wants to move to the region from another Southern state. I was impressed with her education, career background and commitment to other people. This is the type of person we need to drive the region forward.

After reading Richard Florida’s book, Who’s Your City and thinking about what he says through his research findings and trying to implement in Roanoke, I would offer some initial responses.

1. It’s obvious Roanoke’s competitive advantage across the 5 life-stages is cost of living as evidenced by our better rankings in Appendix C.

2. The older you get, the better Roanoke is for people. Our lowest ranking was 143 out of 167 for singles ages 20-29, yet it is 50 out of 72 for metros whose population is between 250-500k. Professionals (ages 29-44) it’s 37 out of 72. Therefore, this data confirms our focus should be on attracting and retaining the YP population.

3. Some cities Roanoke aspires to become actually overall rank worse than Roanoke. When you do a head-to-head comparison of Appendix C to cities such as Asheville and Chattanooga (which were cities visited by local economic development officials) Roanoke has better marks 6-4 and 8-2, respectively. Therefore, I think the data shows Roanoke is better than many think when compared to its peers.

4. One Roanoke and New River Valley MSA. Using this same overall head-to-head comparison, Roanoke is 18 of 72 cities in the 250-500k population category. The 17 ahead of Roanoke many have 4-year institutions (Ann Arbor, Boulder, Durham, Fayetteville, Green Bay, Lexington, Lincoln, Provo, Etc.) . Therefore, this proves an old assertion. Roanoke is disadvantaged without a 4-year research entity and the importance of relationships with our local colleges  - supported by the new medical school. Further, the Blacksburg MSA was not in the list. There has been talk previously of working to combine the Roanoke-Blacksburg MSA into one MSA. Not sure what needs to be done to make it happen, but it is worth investigating. One combined MSA would not put the region into a higher population category, but instead would make it a total population of about 450,000 and perhaps in the top 5 of regions 250-500k. Doesn’t that sound a little better.

More to come in the future on Who’s Your City.   

We have blogged about FindYourSpot.com before and this blogger recently went through the process and Roanoke popped up as #6 in her Top 10. I wrote her a comment and welcomed her into the community. No response yet.

The process this blogger is going through is brought to life in Richard Florida’s new book Who’s Your City. It is Richard’s best book so far and really is packed with a ton of great insight and information. I plant to do a multi-part blog series on the book and how that effects our efforts in the RNR. Stay tuned…

We examined the Roanoke Facebook community in a previous post on July 6, and recently looked yesterday about 8 months later and the growth is phenomenal. In July, Roanoke had just under 10,000 registered users and in 8 months the number has soared to 28,344. That is 2,300 a month or 75 new users a day!

This is compared to growth in the Virginia Tech community from 44,000 to 48,504 during the same time.

Many of the top interest categories remained the same during this time. For interest, the top interest of the community is music and the favorite type of music is country with rap a close second. The favorite book is the BIBLE and the favorite TV show is Family Guy.

In July, 2007, 67 people were on Facebook in their 40s now that number is 2,180. (In looking at the comparison to the 50s this number seems low in July, but nonetheless, the growth is substantial.)

For the 50s age group 247 in July and now 1,164.

The 60s was 57 now 118. 

There are 92 people over the age of 70 on the Roanoke Facebook community and kudos to Sgt. Bennington at the age of 80 for having a photo on his profile and having some friends. (There were others older, but the profiles were sketchy.) Also, Kudos to Frank L. Moose Jewelers in downtown Roanoke for having a profile!

The 40 and over age group comprised just under 10% of the Roanoke Facebook community in July now that number is 12.5%. It’s a nice increase and encouraging to see more older Xers and Boomers join social media outlets, even if their motivation is to keep tabs on their children. Also noteworthy, is that the older a person is the less likely they have a photo or image on their profile.

The big aha is - just focusing on Facebook and not MySpace - the Roanoke Facebook community is about 10% of the Roanoke MSAs entire population. This is significant and it shows the emergence of online Roanoke compared to offline Roanoke. Offline Roanoke must connect to the growing online Roanoke so that both groups can better understand and communicate with each other.

Small business owners, marketers, salespeople, civic groups, non-profits, charities, etc. must have a presence to better connect to this growing population. 

Why would the City of Roanoke want to have a MySpace presence instead of just a website? Because the MySpace community produces inquiries like this…  

I had a chance to meet with the director and advocate of the YRichmond program that was started a few years ago to better connect summer interns to the Richmond community. Their program is sharply focused on the summer intern with the goal of kepeing them when they graduate.

A similar program was started several years ago in Roanoke, but has not reached the same level of success. One of the strongest supporters of the YRichmond program actually inquired about the Roanoke program, which started one year prior to the YRichmond program. There are a couple of reasons the Roanoke program has not reached the same level of success of the Richmond program.

First, the college student base is not in Roanoke. It is in the NRV and in Roanoke County.

Second, it is extremely difficult to identify all interns with local companies and get the intern’s contact info to invite them to such an event.

Third, some students and employers are vague on what actually constitutes a summer intern (Really, it should be any student working in the region for the summer), and therefore does not think it applies to them.

Four, you must give the college student the authority to determine what the content of these social outings will be. More mature adults cannot guess, plan an event, and then promote it. It is not as effective.

Five, we need more champions to embrace why it is important to establish intern programs (The chamber had a wonderful event some time ago helping local companies, but am not sure of the ultimate result of companies establishing programs.) and then we must rally the summer interns at each of the companies and show them others like them and guide them in discovering the things to do when not working.

Six, academic and business time do not mesh. Often times you see employers wanting an intern when the students are out of school for the summer. Now is the time to acquire the intern and to establish a program.

However, the NCTC is continuing its intern program for its members. If you are an intern or an employer wanting to use interns, then contact Cory at cory@thetechnologycouncil.com.  If you have ideas of would like to help with this effort, then it is welcomed.

 In the 7-part series we outlined our views on the progress of attracting and retaining young adults. Below are the 7:

1. The movement is bigger than Roanoke
2. Qualitative stories of people returning
3. Media influence
4. Champions have been established
5. It’s now a political issue
6. Employers are taking notice
7. Students are taking notice

So, what is next? What else do we need to do? Here are some suggestions.

1. Convert lip service to action. There are many people who have warmly embraced the YP movement. The real test will come when leadership positions, power/control are relinquished and true succession planning begins. We still have considerable work to do on this front.

2. A grass-roots communication system to college students alerting jobs and events.We have tried this two different times, but have not found the system that sticks yet. It’s obvious embracing and using Facebook will be at the center of any strategy.

3. Better communication to and with all people engaged in the movement.There are so many who are invovled, but we do not quite have a comprehensive list. Many lists are fragmented and incomplete due to specific interests.

4. More regional and national media pitches. Our story needs to be told to a broader audience through traditional media sources, and back that up, with a stronger online presence.

5. Sustainable assistance for the Un-Serviced Workforce. Again these are the talented people who are leaving the area primarily because neither the private nor public sector is investing in them staying. jobzcafe could be that solution, especially with a unique program called talking tuezdays.

6. Expand efforts into K12. There is a grassroots effort that is beginning to materialize to have local high school students get more involved in the process. Additionally, there are a number of other planned efforts being put in place to address graduation rates and better prepare graduates for the local workforce.

7. Keep the pressure on. The momentum must continue. All of these efforts must grow exponentially. We cannot rest on our laurels and therefore, must continue with the same energy level we have seen over the past couple years.

Again, this is just one perspective, and is certainly open for additional thoughts, ideas and plans. If you have an insight or idea, then please share.

Yesterday, we showed how local employers are beginning to take notice of the YP movement. Today, we examine our final point, how local college students are taking notice of the region and its efforts to retain them.

Many years ago, when I worked as a career advisor at Virginia Tech, there were many companies trying to find ways to tap into the college - base for short-term, internship and full-time employment. We created a semester internship class matching students with local companies. In six semesters, we made about 200 of these connections. From that program, we knew this was just the tip of the iceberg. Since we started that program in 2001, we have seen more and more students wanting to stick around in the area.

Perhaps one rationale is Northern Virginia students come to the RNR for college and are removed for 4+ years from the congestion and realize they do not want to return to it. Also, since that time, you have seen more professional opportunities locate in places such as the Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center. 

Back in 2006 when I first started speaking to student groups, I asked one graduating senior from Hampton Roads if she were gonna stick around and work in the region. Her response was surprising. She said she would not stay because of a lack of arts and theatre. Knowing Roanoke has a lot of those amenities for its size, I asked her if she had been to downtown Roanoke. Her response was, “yeah, I have been to downtown Roanoke, I have been to Valley View Mall.”

Of course, Valley View Mall is not downtown Roanoke and she did not know the difference. From that exchange, we knew we had to get more college students to experience downtown Roanoke. Therefore, we created Roanoke Want U!

We partnered with student groups, primarily at Virginia Tech, and gave them free tickets on the Smart Way Bus from Blacksburg to the Higher Ed Center. At the Higher Ed Center, we held an info session with relevant local companies matching the majors of the student groups. After the session, we gave them a guided walking tour of downtown Roanoke, a free meal at a popular late night attraction, and sometimes a gift to get them to return at a later time. We have repeated this about 15 times with at least 5 more on the books for this spring. And we have heard stories of the college students returning on their own time. 

A couple weeks ago, we partnered with a number of groups to create the Reverse Job Fair at Virginia Tech (which the students loved) and are planning some other exposures on all college campuses too.

But perhaps the most successful way we are connecting to college students was found in this unsolicited editorial by the Collegiate Times editorial board staff suggesting to the student body they should look to Roanoke upon graduation. We are not completely there yet, but there does seem to be a growing interest in our local college students to seek local employment opportunities upon graduation.

So where does this leave us? What is next? What work still needs to be done? Tomorrow, I will discuss some things we need to make happen to reach the tipping point - a point in time in which all our efforts are occurring naturally and the message of the RNR being a place for YPs is ingrained in the culture.      

Okay, the first five parts to this series looked at he examples at how progress is being made in Roanoke and RNR to attract and retain young professionals.

1. The movement is bigger than Roanoke
2. Qualitative stories of people returning
3. Media influence
4. Champions have been established
5. It’s now a political issue

Employers are now beginning to take notice of the real threat of not attracting and retaining young professionals as it relates to maintaining and growing local companies. More and more are asking for strategy assistance. They are asking to come in and talk to their young professionals to get them connected, so they do not loose them to other areas. In fact, NewVa Connects, a YPO, is planning to establish a greeter’s program for local companies for their new young adult hires.

At a recent Roanoke Valley Society of Human Resource Managersmeeting, I spoke to them about some of the facts, communication challenges, and programs that we are offering to address the issues. Over 80 employers attended and I received about 10 follow up emails from the event. Further, the NewVa Corridor Technology Council executive director shared the common issue facing its technology-company membership was attracting candidates with the relevant skill sets with 5-15 years of experience (i.e. 26-40 years of age).

Succession planning is also getting more attention. I have sat in on meetings with very large institutions who employ thousands of workers and they are growing more and more concerned with the mass exodus of Boomers from their organization and a very thin set of middle managers to keep the ships moving.

All of these examples illustrate that employers have finally taken notice of the importance of the issue. Our final installment tomorrow will look at how local college students are embracing Roanoke and the RNR after graduation.   

Previously in our 7-part series, we discussed the fourth part, the impact champions of the YP movement had made over time by organizing specific niche groups. Their efforts have enabled YPs to have a growing voice in politics.  

Disclaimer: This blog does not support or reject any of the proposals, groups or individuals mentioned.  

Certain projects presented by YP groups have become political issues in the upcoming election. Attracting and retaining young adults has been on nearly every candidates platform. Political candidates have become regular attendees at YP events, thus recognizing, the impact and support the YPs may have in the upcoming elections. It appears there is undisputed, consensus support in Roanoke for the need to attract and retain young adults. 

Further, one 29-year-old candidate was the top vote getter in the Democratic firehouse primary, and was endorsed by the local Business Leadership Fund PAC.   

Potentially contributing to the effect has been an increased participation at the national level of YPs supporting Barack Obama. Popular social networking sites such as Facebook are enabling more YPs who have never been active in politics to join in the discussion. The nation’s presidential election and the role YPs are having in that election is having a similar effect in local elections.   

How does this growing political influence expand to other constituent groups, specifically employers and college campuses? These groups will be the next blog post topics tomorrow.