There is a great conference in Ithaca this weekend, the “We Live NY” Summit. Basically, professionals of the younger generation have stopped complaining about local problems and are trying to actively find the solutions. This will probably be the largest gathering of up and coming, movers and shakers of Upstate New York. Our next generation of leaders. And these people get it.
The two main organizers of this event, Pipeline 4 Progress and 40 Below have taken on a large task; keeping young, talented individuals from leaving NY and bring more in. And with this summit, they are using every avenue of the New Social Media that they can to get people there to participate. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and of course blogs. They even have a hash tag for twitter #WLNYSummit to follow during the summit. Having said that, they are not ignoring traditional media either. They have converage from newspaper coverage in Corning & Ithaca, to TV, and I a heard discussion about the summit on the radio this morning.
The summit has three main goals:
- Growing and maintaining a network of young civic leaders, young business professionals, and students that have a direct stake in the future prosperity of New York State.
- Foster the growth of young professional organizations in communities throughout the State that do not currently have access to the services and programs provided by such an organization.
- Developing and setting a strategic direction for a small number of initiatives / programs that existing community young professional organizations can work toward in 2011.
One refreshing thing about this group is that although they focus on young professionals, the under-40 demographic, they do not ignore the wisdom and education of the “older demographic.” This is can be seen in embracing older professionals such as former congressman and Corning native Amory Houghton (Age 85).
Although it is too late to pre register at $25, the $40 fee for onsite registration still makes this a great value and opportunity for education and networking. I plan on being there to see how I can contribute and also to network, both on-line and off-line. So stop by my vendor booth (I am promoting Cornerstone Solutions of Ny and EZ Threadz) and visit. Or tweet me up as I will be following the twitter hash tag, #WLNYSummit.