Until he got involved in starting up the GenNEXT Council, a networking and mentoring group for young professionals 23 to 40, Christopher Brantigan had been thinking about leaving the Capital Region.
Brantigan didn't have hard and fast plans, but was attracted to the big-city vibrancy of Chicago or New York City. After all, except for a semester aboard while attending Union College, he has spent his whole life in the region. Once the year-old GenNEXT group started coming together, Brantigan realized the opportunities and the support the region offers. “You're not going to be a big fish in New York City. I know I can make a difference here.”
Deciding to stay makes Brantigan the exception. According to a recent report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Buffalo, people moving out of upstate New York from 1980 to 2000 outnumbered those moving in by more than 400,000. The demographic aged 20 to 34 decreased 21.3 percent over that 20-year period.
A continuing “brain drain” and the loss of young, educated professionals makes it difficult for companies to replace an aging work force, reduces the number of home-grown entrepreneurs and means fewer consumers to spark downtown revitalization.
By creating a group that helps young professionals find a place for themselves in the business community and extends networking capabilities to local college students, GenNEXT is working to slow the drain to a trickle.
“Really, what we're trying to do is make Generation X a factor as opposed to a variable,” said Brantigan, 28, who is operations and sales manager for mortgage company Nationwide Equities Corp. in Albany and a member of the GenNEXT steering committee.
Stopping the drain
The GenNEXT group numbers about 225 members, making it one of the largest special-interest councils within the Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber of Commerce.
The council's activities consist of a program in which members mentor college students, a program in which council members are mentored by local executives, and various networking events. The events include tours of local technology businesses, a series called “Executives Unplugged,” that invites business leaders to share a bit about their professional and personal lives, and Q & A sessions with local politicians.
The group's primary goal is to get young professionals, senior business leaders and college students–the next generation of professionals–talking to each other, said Kate Hedgeman, GenNEXT chair and founder. Hedgeman, 30, is an attorney with the law firm Hiscock & Barclay LLP in Albany.
Chris Macomber, 22, is enrolled in the Union College/Albany Medical Center eight-year leadership in medicine program. He will finish his bachelor's degree in May, his MBA in August and is preparing to start medical school in the fall.
Macomber said the student mentoring program has been very useful as he learns to negotiate the world of business. Macomber is matched with Brantigan, who in turn is mentored by Pamela Sawchuk, president of public relations firm Sawchuk Brown Associates in Albany.
Though Brantigan and Macomber are in different fields, the two have a lot in common and have become good friends. “He taught me, not the ins and outs of medical technology, but the basics of the business world, how to interact in the business world, how to show yourself off well,” Macomber said.
He said Brantigan also often provides outside advice on Macomber's business, Exousia Health Inc., a health care technology design firm. “You need a well-rounded perspective for anything you are doing in business,” Macomber said.
The idea that there should be any kind of brain drain in the Capital Region doesn't make sense to John Vero, an attorney with Whiteman Osterman & Hanna LLP in Albany and a member of the GenNEXT steering committee.
With 17 colleges and universities, the region has all the talent it could possibly need. It's a matter of getting young professionals better tied into existing business networks and making it comfortable for them to walk into a room of business leaders, said Vero, 30.
“The Capital Region is never going to be tired or old or dead because we have these [educational] institutions,” Vero said.
Good for business
GenNEXT events often do double duty, allowing participants to network with each other and encouraging them to patronize local businesses. Executives Unplugged, for example, is held at the Capital Repertory Theatre in downtown Albany. Group members often say it's the first time they've been in the theater, Hedgeman said.
The group has also met for dinner and a show at the Comedy Works club in Albany, which is paying off in repeat business, said owner Tom Nicchi. Nicchi, 26, is a GenNEXT member. Bringing the group in for the networking event introduced them to a different venue for business meetings as well as a fun place to spend an evening.
Members of the GenNEXT demographic, who often have considerable disposable income, are a key constituency for downtown revitalization. They eat out, take advantage of entertainment options and, in many cases, are interested in living downtown.
GenNEXT is quickly becoming established as an effective voice in the local business community. City leaders last year invited GenNEXT members to preview Norstar Development's plans to convert 733 Broadway in Albany into an 80-unit luxury apartment complex. Young state workers seeking to participate in GenNEXT events helped spur the chamber to add a new membership category. State and federal employees can now join the Albany-Colonie chamber as individual members.
“I get calls every week, even from businesses who want to sponsor things. Everyone wants to get in front of this group,” Hedgeman said.
Spreading the word
GenNEXT's success is encouraging other chambers, including the Fulton County Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Gloversville, the Chamber of Southern Saratoga County in Clifton Park and the Chamber of Schenectady County, to form networking and mentoring groups for young professionals.
The Fulton County group is called NOW, standing for Networking Outreach Works, said David D'Amore, the group's chair and owner of And: Architecture & Design in Johnstown. The group is open to all chamber members and aims to connect young professionals with local business and civic leaders.
Along with the kind of networking that might encourage an existing business to use a young company to develop its Web site or help it add e-commerce capabilities, young professional groups also introduce their members to local nonprofit executives. Nonprofit groups are always looking for new volunteers and often looking for new board members.
At GenX SDY, the Schenectady County chamber's group, which focuses on professionals in their 30s and early 40s, part of the mission is to have fun. For young professionals moving into the area who don't have an established social network, helping them meet people is crucial to retention, said chamber spokesman Marc DeNofio.
“There are thousands of outcomes that can come out of these [networking events]–new jobs, new business ventures, maybe your husband or wife,” DeNofio said.
The Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce plans to start a young professionals group, but since the average age at the chamber's networking events is already quite young, the new group will focus on business education, said chamber president Joe Dalton.
“We don't have a problem keeping people in the community once they are employed. The social life is outstanding,” Dalton said.
The bottleneck as he sees it, is that the region is not producing enough new professional jobs.
Next in GenNEXT's day planner are efforts to collaborate with the new groups springing up and plans for a GenNEXT conference in the fall, Hedgeman said. The conference would become GenNEXT's signature event, discussing ways to attract and retain intellectual capital. She thinks the meeting might attract 500 to 700 attendees and produce a white paper that could be a resource.