The young professional is in demand nationwide. Tampa is trying to plump up its shrinking stock.
By JANET ZINK
Published October 15, 2004
TAMPA - On a recent Thursday evening, about 100 fresh-faced, well-heeled young professionals gathered at the Don Vicente de Ybor Historic Inn for cocktails, hors d'oeuvres and networking.
It was the first membership drive for Eighteen89, a YMCA group targeting Tampa's 20- and 30-somethings. Named for the year the YMCA came to Tampa, Eighteen89 is the latest in a string of groups formed in the past year for young professionals.
Verve, formed in January, has about 50 active participants. Emerge, a Tampa Chamber of Commerce program created in May for 21- to 35-year-olds, already boasts 500 members.
And the Balcony Club, established by the Tampa Theatre in April, has more than 50 members.
The Balcony Club joined forces with two other young professional groups - the Tampa Museum of Arts' Avant Garde and the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center's the Producers - to create the Carnival of the Arts, a party planned for Saturday at the Performing Arts Center.
Those who join Eighteen89, the Balcony Club and other similar groups say they do it to network and meet like-minded people.
"It's a good place for single people to get to know each other in a nonbar atmosphere," said Keith Brown, 37, who works for Bank of America, belongs to Avant Garde and is a founding member of the Balcony Club.
But the groups also serve a more important purpose.
They encourage young people to become engaged in the community, said Deanne Roberts, former chairwoman of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce and a co-founder of CreativeTampaBay, an organization that aims to turn the bay area into a place where the best and brightest want to live.
Doing that, she said, makes good economic sense.
The Young and Restless Study, commissioned by CreativeTampaBay and released in May, revealed that Tampa has fewer 25- to 34-year-olds than most metropolitan areas, ranking 47th out of the top 50 areas. And while that demographic is growing in cities such Atlanta, Nashville, Tenn., and Charlotte, N.C., it's shrinking in Tampa.
That's a problem because people in that age group "play a key role in creating the new ideas that drive business success and regional economic progress," the study says.
Nationwide, though, young professionals represent a small slice of the population.
"They're in great demand," said Roberts, who at 51 falls into the middle of the Baby Boomer generation.
Two decades ago, employers, arts groups, volunteer organizations, could pick and choose among the huge group of young people. Now they've got to compete to keep young people in their cities.
"The more established leaders have got to realize that it's a new day," Roberts said. "We worked our way up in organizations over years. We can't ask that of this generation. We need them too badly and we need them now."
One way to do that is to give them opportunities to get involved in their communities, make friends, start a family and put down roots, she said.
"We have to catch them. Once rooted, the likelihood of their moving to another state declines," Roberts said.
Teresa Gelston, 28, said she spearheaded Verve, a professional group for 20- to 40-year-olds, after attending a CreativeTampaBay meeting.
She came away thinking someone needed to do something for young people.
"I thought, well, I'm somebody," said Gelston, a graphic designer. "I started talking to other young people about their hopes and dreams for the community and I found this enormous consensus. Young people felt they were not part of the decisionmaking process."
Verve members dived right in. They presented a proposal for rehabilitating the old Federal Courthouse in Tampa, an idea that ultimately was rejected. Another member plans to organize a series of discussions about downtown housing for young professionals.
A major concern, Gelston said, is that the condos planned for downtown, while marketed for young professionals, are too expensive for them.
Verve is not a leadership development organization, she said, but members often end up in leadership roles.
"We give young people the freedom and support to found their own initiatives in the community," Gelston said.
Young professional groups have come and gone before in Tampa, Roberts said. But she hopes this trend will have some staying power.
"We have to make sure this is a sustainable movement," Roberts said. "The Young and Restless study crystalized some things we knew. We weren't engaging young people, we weren't addressing their needs. We hadn't invited them to the table. Now we're doing that and they are taking up the challenge."
Carnival of the Arts runs from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. Admission is $35, or $20 for members of Avant Garde, the Balcony Club or the Producers. This celebration of performance and visual arts will feature art displays, midway games, tarot card readers and other entertainers. Ticket price includes beer, wine, specialty drinks and food. For information, call 229-7827 or www.tampa-avantgarde.org
