Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Career fair aimed at the 20-40 set
The fair will highlight local opportunities for recreation as well as employment.
For all those parents out there who wish your grown-up kids lived and worked in the Roanoke Valley, you should nudge them toward the Roanoke Civic Center this Thursday.
Roanoke's city government is holding its first Holiday Career and Lifestyle Fair, care of its ambassador of all that's cool in the region, Stuart Mease. The event, to be attended by representatives of more than 40 companies and local organizations, is scheduled from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the civic center's Exhibit Hall. Its purpose: to connect Roanoke natives to employers offering jobs, entrepreneurial organizations offering assistance to potential business owners, and lifestyle organizations offering a diverse mix of social and cultural amenities.
"Many people are sold on returning to Roanoke and just need to find the right employment connection," said Mease, the city's special projects coordinator. "Others returning may be unaware of existing professional and social opportunities from the time they left the region. This fair will attempt to educate the naysayers and convert the prospects."
Mease, a Virginia Tech marketing graduate and former Tech employee, is finishing up his first year in a municipal government job with a different twist. Essentially, Mease, 30, is charged with increasing the city's population of young professionals in the age bracket of 20 to 40. For the past several decades, Roanoke's population has dropped and has skewed older.
"We're trying to shift the paradigm of thinking so that this area becomes a destination for young adults," Mease said.
In a number of ways the Roanoke and New River regions have plenty to sell -- from scenic beauty and recreation to Roanoke's eclectic downtown -- and they have a huge pool of potential permanent residents to tap, given that some 60,000 college students go to school within a 50-mile radius.
Jobs, of course, are an integral part of the equation.
Mease said the Roanoke region obviously doesn't offer the employment opportunities of a city like Charlotte or Raleigh, but the opportunities may be better than some might think. Mease has spent a significant amount of time in recent months planning events to draw college students to Roanoke, as well as establishing a direct network between them and local employers.
City Manager Darlene Burcham, who hired Mease after the two discussed a philosophy for the job, said she's been pleased with what's happened so far.
"It was critical that we do more than give lip service to this issue," she said. "For so long, for instance, we just sat around and waited for the students to come to us."
City Councilman Alfred Dowe has worked with Mease on several initiatives, including a Roanoke-based job fair that attracts graduates from historically black colleges and universities. Dowe has pushed the city's need to attract younger people since he took office in 2002.
Dowe said Mease has taken the ball and run with it.
"I feel better about where we are because there are more people going to bat with me now," Dowe said. "If we really realize what we have, we can be a powerful region."
David Diaz, director of the business-based Downtown Roanoke Inc., said he's been impressed, too, with Mease's ability to grasp the situation at hand.
"I think what Stuart is doing is very significant, very important, and in some ways is long overdue," Diaz said, adding that the pursuit of young professionals is vital to ensuring Roanoke's and the region's long-term future.
The effort to market the fair includes a YouTube video and a blog. You also can find out more by calling 853-2384.
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