Summary: Sitting in the audience, using a free WiFi connection at the Sheraton. Click here for the "Birmingham Handprint Summary" in PDF format. Rebecca Ryan speaks to the Chamber's Annual Meeting Catalyst Leadership with Rebecca Ryan Click here for more pictures from the eventHere are some running items from today's presentation "Live First, Work Second" at the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce's Annual Meeting: When asked how the audience broke out by a show of hands...10% -- Life-long Birminghamians20% -- Boomerangs70% -- TransplantsOnly 50% of the study set was in the transplant categoryYoung professionals in Rebecca Ryan's study in Birmingham asked for things like...Politicians who work togetherAn invitation to the "big kids table" (boards of directors, politics, etc.)Catalyst -- Rebecca told the crowd about the funding for Catalyst from the Community Foundation of Birmingham and noted that only the YP organizations that have full-time funding grow to the largest of numbers in active members Permission to build on Birmingham's painful past.. she described the concept of "two Birminghams": the city that suffered the scars of the 1950's and 1960's; and, the city for the generation whose past is written in history books only... the idea she proferred was "Birmingham's past should be the floor on which the city is built, not the ceiling through which no one can pass."In exchange the region's young professionals will offer...Exciting ideas... well, maybe not "exciting" to others, but innovative nonetheless Boundless enthusiasm (like that found in the Catalyst effort)Viral marketing... they'll tell their friends about how great Birmingham really is Don't waste another year!"The wasted years that come from lack of sensitivity ot industry trends, and the propensity to deny uncomfortable truths, so often imperil a community's infrastructure that by the time the need to change is inescapable, the cash, people and intellectual energy needed to regenerate to community's core strategies have been largely dissipitated."My only complaint about her presentation was that she (perhaps unwittingly) lumped several progressive "older" folks in the audience into an anti-YP mindset. It is absolutely required that Birmingham's young professionals find allies in the older workforce who will help open the doors for this shift. It can't be done solely by one generation. Two prior blog entries about this subject can be found at Attracting Young, Creative Professionals to Birmingham and Rebecca Ryan visit to Birmingham.
