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Something better than “Young Professionals”

Young Professionals Stock Photo UGHDoes the term “Young Professionals” get under your skin? Are you tired of hearing it? Is there a better term out there?

The Young Professionals Commission is trying to start off by re-branding themselves and their target demographic. Every since the conception of the committee, the demographic has included people of various ages, backgrounds, professions, and expertise, and the term “Young Professionals” doesn’t accurately describe who we’re trying to attract, retain and represent.

The most common complaint is that artists, musicians, entrepreneurs, and other non-traditional professions are being excluded in the current branding.

So my question to you is… what term works better than “Young Professionals”?


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8 Comments

  1. shroud says:

    Well, the big question is what IS the group the commission is trying to attract, retain and represent? If the complaint with the current definitions is everything that it excludes, then ARE there boundaries on the group?

    It sounds like that’s the first challenge, then once you identify that, naming the group (even if it’s a catchy little buzzword) will be a lot easier.

    Perhaps young & motivated? Or young & ambitious? Or even “young hipsters”? “Neourbanists”?

    *shrug*

    Again, I’m not sure how to suggest a name for a group of people that isn’t clearly defined in the first place…

    “the in-crowd” ?

  2. [...] weeks ago I mentioned that the Young Professionals Commission is trying to come up with a better name for themselves as [...]

  3. CbusIslander says:

    What is the problem with accepting term “young professional”, isn’t that what we are? “Artists, musicians, entrepreneurs, and other non-traditional professions” are STILL professions. I don’t see why these non-traditional professions don’t fit YP. I agree with the above statement what is the group the commission is trying to attact?

    As far as a new term for the Columbus YP Commission, I will have to think of that one.

  4. Walker says:

    The term “Young Professionals” still carries too much stigma associated with it from it’s predecessor “yuppie”. I think it would be much harder to try to get everyone to overcome that and accept the term instead of just coming up with a new term unique to Columbus.

    Besides, if you look around, every other city out there has a dozen “Young Professional” groups. Do we really want to go with the flow and be lost in the white noise or do we want to lead the pack and do something creative and unique in Columbus?

  5. CbusIslander says:

    From my CU post:

    I will take another stab at the group name. One word again and very different.

    “protocol” could be broken down from Professional to Columbus, or
    Progress(ive) to Columbus

    Definition of the word from Wikipedia:
    It is difficult to generalize about protocols because they vary so greatly in purpose and sophistication. Most protocols specify one or more of the following properties:

    Detection of the underlying physical connection (wired or wireless), or the existence of the other endpoint or node
    Handshaking
    Negotiation of various connection characteristics
    How to start and end a message
    How to format a message
    What to do with corrupted or improperly formatted messages (error correction)
    How to detect unexpected loss of the connection, and what to do next
    Termination of the session or connection.

    Seems to fit what the commission is trying to do in lots of ways.
    That is my best guess and my vote. Good luck with the name game.

  6. Alvin says:

    How about Cuppie.

    Of course I’m just kidding.

  7. Travis says:

    “Rebels with a Cause”? Damn that sucks, never mind.

    Young Professionals ________ might still have the right tone… to me it says young, but also accomplished. And that’s good. It’s that last word which has got to be a cool, buzz word.

    What other Young Professional groups are here in the Cbus?

  8. Walker says:

    There are around 40 Young Professional groups in Columbus.

    The thing is… this is not a social networking group. This is a mayorial-appointed city commission. Just like the “Civil Service Commission” or the “Community Relations Commission”.

    But those commission names are boring. This commission needs more ZAZZ if it’s going to grab the attention of young folks and make them want to be engaged in the future of this city.

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