In order to add more specific focus to the YP Commitee gatherings, the 45-person group was broken into 3 15-member subcommittee labeled as “Convince” “Connect” and “City”. What they are in a nutshell:
Convince – The goal is to come with ideas on how to convince YPs to move to Columbus, and to convince the ones here to stay in Columbus.
Connect – The goal is to connect YPs with each other, and to enhance and make networking easier. This group is also heading up the YP Summit in October with support from the other two groups as well.
City – The goal is to focus on city infrastructure, businesses, and residences and how they can all be advanced, adapted and optimized to fit the needs of Young Professionals.
I was assigned to the “Convince” subcommittee, probably because of my online networking ties. That or my name was drawn out of a hat and it’s where I wound up. Even though we’re assigned to these groups, cross pollination has been encouraged. Wherever anyone in the YP Commitee has a connection or an idea, they have been asked to join in and share.
The purpose of the first meeting that took place about a month ago was to brainstorm ideas on what we could do to convince the world that Columbus is cool. It was almost immediately universally agreed that the wheel doesn’t need reinventing, but instead, we just need to focus on getting the right energy and people behind some existing projects and push them forward as much as we can. Initially proposed ideas that came out of the “Attract & Retain” reports and research included setting up a new YP Columbus promotional website, creating a “Why Columbus” video contest. It was almost unanimously agreed that this was a dumb idea.
A “cool” city ultimately should not need to do much direct marketing to showcase it’s coolness. So instead we’re trying to focus on real concrete iniatives that indirectly will market our city as a cooler place to live. So far, we’ve tossed around some ideas on creating better recycling programs (for residents, businesses, and pedestrians), looking at real ways the city can help make housing more affordable downtown, what sorts of improvements the city can make to the local art scene, and a handful of other ideas.
I’ll try to proviede more details on these initiatives as they progress. If anyone would like to contribute any input, feel free to drop me a line here.
First, I like the new site. Second, I will start with a question, is there anything that your sub-committee is taking from the “Attract & Retain” reports? I know it is very general and Ryan seems to have the same answers in each city she visits, but was there any useful information in the report? I think (by using each subcommittee as an example) if “City” and “Connect” happen then “Convince” will fall into place. It is jobs and schools (K-12 and college) that convince people to relocate. Of my friends (that live elsewhere in the state) that have moved, it was their career that convinced them to move even before the “after-work lifestyle” was considered. So, “City” should be top priority. As far as your area Walker, until I found CU and first it was retrometro, I didn’t see a site city based that showed, promoted, and linked to activities to do in town. I still think “WhyColumbus” website is needed or at least a one stop (city funded) site that new residents can find to help them get to know their new city and it could still link to CU and local blogs.
[...] Walker, tell the YP Commission that you’ve got the solution to Columbus’ woes. It’s [...]
To answer your question, CbusIslander, off the top of my head I don’t think anything we’re currently working on is a direct recomendation from the reports published by Rebecca Ryan’s research. Not to say that all of her information provided was useless, but we felt as a group that it would be the wrong direction to take to reinvent the wheel so to speak. Creating a new website to house information geared towards Young Professionals (however you want to define them) would be replicating a lot of what already exists both on other city sites such as downtowncolumbus.com and experiencecolumbus.com, as well as dozens of other sites and blogs that young professionals are already reading on a daily basis. Why not nurture those existing and established elements instead of trying to create something from scratch that ultimately does the same thing?
I think the whole “convince” sub-committee is a tricky one to be in, because as I mentioned up top, a cool city doesn’t need to do much work to convince other people that it’s cool. It speaks with actions and not words. So we’re focusing on action instead.
I’ll try to get some more specifics posted soon. As soon as I find the time.