Bridge’s Happy Hour
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009I went to the Providence Chamber’s Congressional Breakfast on Monday morning. It was a great “only in Rhode Island” event: what other state could get the entire congressional delegation and a host of the State’s business leaders in one room for a relatively inexpensive breakfast? It’s events like this that highlight the adage that our size is our strength. Rhode Islanders enjoy accessibility and a flow of ideas and contacts on a scale unimaginable in most other states. Simply put, unlike in other states, in Rhode Island you don’t have to shout too loud to be heard.
One thing that was missing at the Congressional Breakfast was many people under the age of twenty-five. No surprise there. B-o-r-i-n-g. Not many recent college grads are interested in a Congressional Breakfast. But with this and so many other events, Rhode Island’s young professionals are missing an opportunity to have their voices heard. And it’s hard to blame them: at that age you’re often focused on different priorities, if you’re focused at all. When I was twenty-four my time horizon stretched out about as far as the next vacation and “long-range” planning was buying a plane ticket home to see my parents over the holidays.
But these talented young people are a key to the success of our state. The clichés ring true: young professionals are the brainpower and creative engine that will drive RI’s economy in the future, the entrepreneurs and idea sparkplugs who will help us jump the curve. These young people have the time, energy and risk tolerance to power RI’s next phase of growth.
So how do you build a vibrant network from people who often resists networking? How do you get them involved when they’d prefer swilling Red Bulls and playing Wii? How do you connect with a notoriously hard-to-reach demographic?
We don’t claim to know the answer, but Bridge Technical Solutions is going to try. We’re starting with a Happy Hour for young IT/DM professionals.
Bridge Technical Solutions RI Young IT Professionals Happy Hour
McFadden’s
April 16th, 5:30 – 8:30
RSVP: http://www.bridgetechnicalsolutions.com/pages/RIYIT.cfm
OK, so “young” is a relative term. We don’t want to be overly selective or get hung up on age…if you feel young come on by. Bring a friend. Bring a friend who’s not in IT/DM; it’s a happy hour after all. We have our own resident 23 year old recruiter, Amy McDermott, planning the party and bringing along a bunch of her friends, and we’re hoping to get a strong turnout from other young RI professionals. We’ve set up an online RSVP site, where people can enter to be in our raffle (we’re giving away an ASUS-Eee mini-laptop) and get a free drink ticket at the door. There’s a short survey on the RSVP site, where people will have a chance to give us some opinions about their experience living and working in Rhode Island and let us know what’s important to them.
Bridge Technical Solutions is proud to be a sponsor of RI Nexus. We want to help develop a strong IT/DM community in Rhode Island and hope that reaching out to young IT professionals will be a way to do our part. Come join us.
Oh yeah, and I almost forgot! To spice things up we’ve invited Beyonce, Megan Fox, LeBron, Michael Phelps, Panic! at the Disco and a bunch of others. No confirmation yet on whether or not they’ll be there…
James Wright, Partner, Bridge Technical Solutions