Contest Aims To Keep Young People
Contest aims to keep young people
It seeks business designed for them
Friday, September 26, 2008
Concerned that the young professionals who have come to New Orleans in the past three years to help with the city's recovery might begin to move on, a local business group has come up with an idea it hopes will retain them.
The Idea Village, a local nonprofit that nurtures entrepreneurial ventures, is launching a business plan competition for entrepreneurs whose companies would provide a product or service designed to keep 23- to 35-year-olds in New Orleans.
"It's very common for young people, when they change jobs, to change cities," said Leslie Jacobs, a civic activist who orchestrated and is partially financing the competition. "We don't want them, when they change jobs, to leave New Orleans."
Jacobs is hoping the competition will produce a company that will give young people a reason to stay.
A winner will be chosen in March from a group of five finalists. The winning business will receive $100,000 and about $100,000 in professional services, including office space for a year, legal assistance, and marketing and advertising.
The business plan competition is part of the "504ward" initiative launched Thursday night by the Idea Village and Jacobs, in loose partnership with some local businesses and civic groups. At the initiative's center is a Web site that links users to information for young professionals. The program also has a component to connect young talent with older professionals who match their interests.
"I would say that a true silver lining of Katrina is that we are attracting some really terrific people to New Orleans," said Jacobs, who committed $100,000 in cash to the competition. "We're getting a lot of people coming to New Orleans on their own accord."
But attention has turned to how to keep them here as the recovery inches forward and Katrina slowly shifts to an afterthought -- and those people begin to depart.
"The challenge we're putting on the table is come up with an innovative way to retain them," said Tim Williamson, president of the Idea Village.
Williamson has said that the first step in the process of retention is building an infrastructure that spans higher education, government and the private sector, and is aware of and friendly to the needs of young professionals and entrepreneurs. The in-kind services being offered to the winner by nearly a dozen local agencies, including law firms and advertising agencies, are proof that the network is forming, he said.
"I think it says that we have the foundation to build a vibrant entrepreneurial community," Williamson said. "You are starting to see that community grow and step forward."
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Jaquetta White can be reached at jwhite@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3494.