Young get down to business
A week ago, Spokane advertising director Dennis Magner spent a tough afternoon fighting to keep awake during a dull business meeting with others in his line of work.
After it ended, the 38-year-old Magner walked over to the Catacombs, a downtown Spokane restaurant, to drop in on a meeting he’d been invited to attend.
What he found were more than 100 other Spokane people, ranging in age from their young 20s to their 40s. All of them had received e-mail invitations that week to the first meeting of the Spokane Society of Young Professionals, a networking group looking to build more links between young workers in a community that has generally left them to their own devices.
Magner said he was delighted at what he found and can’t wait for the next meeting of the new group.
“That earlier business meeting I’d been at lacked any energy,” said Magner, president of ad agency Magner Sanborn Renouard. “With this group (at the Catacombs), you could feel people were there because they wanted to be, not because they had to be there. It felt relaxed and spontaneous.”
He contacted the people who had launched the group and said he wanted to help them build the organization. “I had the feeling that this was the beginning of something exciting,” he said.
The group’s genesis was about two weeks ago, when the five founders met and decided to develop some way to make connections across the community between people like themselves.
One of the five, Ryan Moede, graduated from Whitworth College last spring and decided to remain in the area. He now works in the communications office of Inland Northwest Health Services.
“We’ve all seen how we have five area colleges who, once school is done, see most of their graduates pick up and leave the area,” Moede said. “I know a lot of people who want to stay here. Once they establish stronger connections to others here, they’re more inclined to stay.”
The others who helped form the group are Bethany Luck-Hutson, Jenny Harvey, Charlie Archer and Rachel Fabrikant-Botnick. Luck-Hutson’s husband works at ConnoverBond, a Spokane development firm headed by Rob Brewster.
It was Brewster who saw the group as a springboard to help young professionals form closer bonds. He let them hold the first meeting at his restaurant and donated door prizes.
“These are the group of people who will become the next group of leaders in this community,” Brewster said. Himself a 30-something, Brewster said he’s glad to have been invited. “I barely qualify to be part of the group,” he said.
He’s seen similar ideas form in Seattle and Washington, D.C., but never before in Spokane, Brewster said.
Jenny Harvey, who works as a coordinator of internships at Gonzaga University, said the idea jelled when the group of five first got together in late October. By the time they agreed to launch the Spokane Society of Young Professionals with a blowout, they had less than a week to get the word out, she said.
They hoped 20 people would show up at the Catacombs. Drawing more than 100 “was totally gratifying,” she said.
The group also doesn’t want a strict age barrier. “You’re young if you think young,” said Luck-Huston, who works in the marketing department at River Park Square.
The founders said the group is more than a social party planner for busy professionals. Its focus will be helping busy young workers learn what’s happening in the community and help them with business connections as they stay here, she said.
The five decided to incorporate as a nonprofit group, elect a board of directors and launch a Web site.
Once a month the group wants to host a social event just for people to meet. About as often they hope to bring in speakers or special events. They’ll ask those who join to contribute yearly dues to cover costs.
Brewster said area technology companies found success hosting a yearly LaunchPad party, to share ideas and have fun. But the young professionals are different, he said. “This is a group that is focused mostly on those in that age group. I hope it gets bigger and bigger.”