Getting Trumped up

First ever regional event for young professional groups aims to inspire passion in careers

Story by Gina Mangan

Stacy Shedivy is like a lot of today’s young professionals.

She’s mobile. She’s juggling a busy schedule. She strives to learn and grow, to branch out and connect with her community.

It’s not surprising that when her and her husband’s careers brought them to an unfamiliar city one of the first things she looked for was a local young professional organization, a community-based group that typically provides social networking and professional development opportunities - a sort of welcome wagon with glossy finish and a high performance engine.

“We moved here not knowing anyone, and it was pretty hard to meet people when you’re traveling for work Monday through Friday and flying back only for weekends,” said Shedivy, now 35. “I really needed that young professional group as a resource.”

It turns out they needed her, because what she found in Fond du Lac three years ago was just the barest whisper of intent. So she ran with it. With the support of the Fond du Lac Area Association of Commerce, Shedivy and 11 other young people formed the board of Young Professionals of Fond du Lac.

Fast forward three years, Shedivy – now the past president of the Young Professionals of Fond du Lac – and her board started looking around the New North, where other communities were doing the same, including Oshkosh and the Fox Cities. It wasn’t long before Shedivy and other young New North leaders started meeting to share organizational blueprints and ideas.

There was a meeting here, a teleconference call there - but nothing as high profile as what’s to come on May 3.

The main event
With Oshkosh’s young professional group Propel leading the organizing effort, the seven young professional organizations throughout northeast Wisconsin are presenting their first major collaborative event on May 3 at the EAA AirVenture Museum in Oshkosh.

Dubbed “Nothing Trumps Passion,” the event will feature speaker Andy Litinsky of The Apprentice television fame, who was 23 when he appeared as a contestant in 2003 and is best known as the only contestant who Donald Trump fired and then later rehired behind the scenes. Litinsky now heads up the day-to-day business operations of Trump Productions in Los Angeles. He worked directly with Trump for more than a year and will share his experiences, knowledge and philosophies as he speaks on “Nothing Trumps Passion” during the event, said Propel board member and event coordinator Karlene Grabner.

Particularly impressive to a young professional audience, Grabner said, is the fact that Litinsky started his own business at age 13 with just $500, and within two years had grown his company to 30 part-time employees and six figure revenues. He then funneled some of that profit into an education at Harvard University, where he launched the nonprofit organization, “The Harvard AIDS Coalition.” Litinsky graduated with honors from Harvard after taking his final exams in Trump Tower while taping The Apprentice.

“To have all of these experiences at such a young age is just amazing,” Grabner said. “His message – that there’s no substitute for passion and doing something you love and loving what you do – is one that should be very inspiring and motivating for all of us.”

The event was partly initiated by a substantial corporate donation from Affinity Health System, which operates three hospitals, 17 clinics, and an integrative health plan that all serve much of the region represented by the young professional groups.

Vince Gallucci, senior vice president of operational services at Affinity, said the company committed to the event because of its regional focus, but it also recognizes the importance of the young professional age group – ages 21 through 40 – from both a customer and an employee standpoint, he said.

“We want to be talking to people during this stage of their careers and their lives so they know they have a good community with excellent health care,” Gallucci said. “These are people who are planning for families or have parents in the senior age group that might need care.”

Affinity leaders also recognize the need to attract young talent and support them within their own organization. Of Affinity’s 4,100 employees, 13 percent are at an age where they may be looking to retire during the next five to seven years, Gallucci said. Twenty percent are now ages 25 to 35.

“We know how important it is to attract young talent to the Fox Cities area and the rest of the region,” he said.

A regional focus makes sense, considering young workers are as interested in neighboring communities as much as their own, Shedivy said.

“Young professionals are used to commuting, and we often don’t think in terms of borders” she said. “We get in our cars. We get on airplanes. We just go, go, go.”

Future leaders
Affinity is not alone in recognizing the need to attract young people. Business leaders and economic development officials throughout the nation are playing a major role in supporting the formal organization of young professional groups.

They simply can’t ignore demographic and generational trends, said Molly Foley, lead consultant for the Madison-based Next Generation Consulting, a market research company that helps communities, companies and nonprofit organizations attract and retain young workers under the age of 40.

“It’s the workforce shortage that’s driving the issue,” Foley said. “The fact that by 2012 there will be two workers retiring for every one worker entering has many communities and companies focusing on ways to attract young workers.”

Economic development leaders and business associations recognize young professional organizations play a key role in helping young people feel welcome and engaged in the community, she said. As a result, there has been a boom in the formation of organizations during the past seven years, Foley said. All of the young professional groups in northeast Wisconsin have organized during the past four years.

Young professional organizations generally focus on providing peer networking, community education and professional development opportunities. Like the upcoming event in Oshkosh, many of them blend social mixing with education and civic awareness. Litinsky’s presentation on May 3 will be followed by an open networking reception with hors d’oeuvres and entertainment.

“These types of activities are so important because we know from our research that young professionals are more than two to three times more likely to stay in a community if they are active in that community outside their work environment,” Foley said.

For some, that means involvement in arts and culture. Others look for family-oriented offerings. Still others are focused on social opportunities and entertainment.

Young generations of workers, in particular, are choosing places to live based upon these quality of life issues rather than any specific job, Foley said. As many as three out of every four Americans under age 28 say a “cool community” is more important than a good job, she said.

And they’re not afraid to move around until they find the right community.

“Because these generations are so mobile, it becomes even more important for young professional organizations to engage young talent,” Foley said. “YP groups are springing up every week as more communities and economic development organizations recognize the importance.”

Next Generation Consulting provides a Web space for young professional groups to network. More than 200 groups throughout the nation now connect through that space, Foley said. Group memberships have also grown.

For example, the Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce’s young professional group, Current, added 80 members during the past six months, bringing its total to 275 people.

The organization provides several activities, including a monthly themed after business hours social event, a Read-to-Lead book discussion series, roundtable discussions, industry tours and education seminars.

The overall goal is connecting young professionals to the community and to each other, said Current program manager Brian Johnson, a former business owner who also helped launch Manitowoc’s young professional group prior to coming to Green Bay.

Johnson said he’s encouraged by the cooperation he’s seen among the New North’s young professional groups.
“To see seven organizations come together and shed their protective coating has been really exciting,” he said.

“Because when people look at us as a region, they’ll see we can offer everything and anything that other communities can offer. The drive time to get from one community to the next is no different than driving from the south side to north side Chicago.”

Gina Mangan is a freelance writer based in Oshkosh and is raising three children. Readers can email her at gmangan@tds.net.