The toughest half about neighborhood involvement is usually understanding the place to begin. That’s why in 2006, the Chamber created Entry Tallahassee – a program designed for younger professionals. Entry is a pathway to engagement and an necessary half of the Chamber’s broader work in shaping our shared future. Entry Tallahassee has developed to even be a program for these trying to discover a chance to become involved in bettering the place all of us name residence. For a lot of, Entry is a primary step in the direction of being a real neighborhood stakeholder and a chance to put some pores and skin within the sport. In a time, which the world is altering quick, Tallahassee wants this subsequent era greater than ever.
Our neighborhood is at an inflection level. That implies that a speedy quantity of change has occurred throughout a brief span of time. As a we stand on the verge of a brand new decade, Tallahassee will proceed to be confronted with questions on how we develop and what variety of neighborhood we needs to be. It’s additionally critically necessary to perceive the alternatives current as Tallahassee and Leon County strategy our neighborhood bicentennial in 2024. Entry Tallahassee is a program tailor-made for individuals who need to be half of a brand new era of native leaders who may also help steer the place we go subsequent.
This week, a nicely-rounded contingency of Entry members gathered on the Challenger Studying Middle to speak in regards to the function our Downtown can play in enhancing our neighborhood trajectory. The dialogue was half of our YP Roundtable collection that happens all year long. Thanks to the management of Entry Chair Amanda Morrison and employees assist from Katie Orr, applications like this proceed to be nice alternatives for members to advance their neighborhood engagement. At this installment, these in attendance heard from Elizabeth Emmanuel, CEO of the Tallahassee Downtown Enchancment Authority.
Emmanuel has been on the helm of the TDIA for lower than a 12 months and is already making nice strides in the direction of altering how the neighborhood thinks of our Downtown. Clearly, the Capitol comes to thoughts, however Downtown is a lot greater than that! As half of her speak with Entry members, Emmanuel shared her imaginative and prescient for a way the world can function a showcase for what Tallahassee does finest whereas additionally serving to to entice expertise to our neighborhood. She is a component of that subsequent era.
It’s no shock to our Chamber staff that Emmanuel has executed so nicely in her new function. Beforehand, she served alongside us as an integral half of the Management Tallahassee employees. She has introduced the identical power and pleasure that she displayed at LT to the TDIA and has emerged as an actual champion for Downtown and its many prospects. Amongst her many attributes, she has an actual knack for partaking audiences and tapping brilliant minds for good concepts. At this week’s Entry YP Roundtable, Emmanuel was ready to provide a room full of passionate future leaders a chance to share their ideas in regards to the future of Downtown all whereas discovering new issues to give attention to subsequent.
When requested for opinions, our Entry members are actually not shy. Those that selected to carve out time of their schedule to attend occasions just like the YP Roundtables often include a want to study and an intent to have interaction. That was evident as Emmanuel opened the ground for questions.
One of essentially the most frequent questions from each the viewers and plenty of others the Chamber brings collectively is “What can we do to assist?” That query is indicative of the spirit that lives in so many rising leaders in our neighborhood at the moment. There are a lot of individuals who selected to spend their time attempting to defeat issues, cease progress, or simply halt the evolution of Tallahassee, however not this bunch. They need to see Tallahassee flourish and they’re in search of methods to assist.
That implies that these at the moment in management roles want to work diligently to create significant methods for the subsequent era to deliver worth to the neighborhood. Think about what might be executed with our upcoming neighborhood bicentennial if we are able to create an organized, strategic and considerate course of for the longer term leaders of Tallahassee to not solely share their ideas however assist make some huge issues occur. In at the moment’s world, the place expertise retention and attraction are such necessary elements of creating financial success in a neighborhood, one of crucial metrics that professionals are in search of is significant engagement. Right here in Tallahassee, we should create mechanisms that improve these alternatives or danger dropping those that need to assist construct one thing particular to different cities that can allow them to do it.
We’ve acquired some sturdy constructing blocks right here and if we are able to pay shut consideration to how we let the subsequent era work with them, then we would simply have a breakout second. Within the coming decade there shall be main milestones and achievements for Tallahassee and Leon County and one of the simplest ways to maximize their impression on our future could be to flip the concepts of a hungry, constructive and motivated era who need to make a distinction. That’s the spirit of the Chamber’s Entry Tallahassee program and each time we activate the lights for an occasion with these leaders, we see the unbelievable potential for our neighborhood. The subsequent nice problem shall be displaying them the place their pathway to engagement actually leads.
Jay Revell
Vice President, Advocacy & Public Coverage
