Young Professionals are Future Leaders
Posted on April 18, 2011 by Randy Maiers
Would you like to see the key to our region’s economic future? Do a web search on the phrase “mobile young talent” and see what pops up. The first website you’ll probably find is Michiganfuture.org and it’s pretty easy to find out what this site claims is the key to not only the future of the Blue Water Region, but to the entire state of Michigan.
Here is what you will find as copied verbatim from that site:
• What most distinguishes successful areas from Michigan is their concentrations of talent, where talent is defined as a combination of knowledge, creativity and entrepreneurship. Quite simply, in a flattening world, the places with the greatest concentrations of talent wins! States and regions without concentrations of talent will have great difficulty retaining or attracting knowledge-based enterprises, nor are they likely to be the place where new knowledge-based enterprises are created.
• So retaining and attracting talent is at the heart of growing a high prosperity Michigan. We focus on college educated Millennials because they are the most mobile. Young people are the most likely demographic group to move. And among the young, moving from one state to another is highest for those with a four-year degree or more.
If there was a photo of one person who typifies “mobile young talent” or the Millennials in the Blue Water Region, it might be the face of Jackie Hanton. By day she works in the Trust Department for First of Michigan Bank along the shores of Desmond Landing. By night she studies for her law degree from Wayne State. She’s married, has a dog, and in her spare time is heavily involved with a new local group called the Blue Water Young Professionals.
Would you like to see the key to our region’s economic future? Ask Jackie, or Dan Damman, another one of their members, for an invitation to attend one of their upcoming meetings. The 20+ young people, Millennials, who belong to the Blue Water Young Professionals will dictate the future of our region. They will exercise their power either by leaving the region and probably the state because they aren’t satisfied with the local quality of place. Or, like Jackie and her counterparts, they will use their power and talent to get involved and change our future.
The Blue Water Young Professionals group was formed in late 2009 and since then have been organizing themselves and focusing their considerable energy into making a difference. On April 21st they are hosting their first public event “I Will Stay If….” on the new rooftop deck at the Vintage Tavern in Port Huron.
The title of this event says it all. And we’d better listen. We all better listen. This group will stay if they are heard. This group will stay if they have influence in the future of our region through efforts like the BlueMeetsGreen.org plan. If we don’t listen, and if they aren’t included, then…....well, you can fill in the rest.
Jackie recently told me that “place trumps everything.” By that she means that the quality of place will determine where people like her live. And not just your workplace, and not just your home, but the “third place” which is your social and community home. It’s where nightlife, arts and culture, recreation and a common community bond are formed.
In the view of the Blue Water Young Professionals and other Millennials, economic development doesn’t start with a new manufacturing plant, or more incentives and tax breaks. Economic development begins and ends with quality of place. Jackie and her peers will dictate our future. We’d all better listen
