Advancing Generation West Virginia with Social Media Technologies
Written by Jason Keeling on April 30, 2009
Today the Generation West Virginia Young Leadership Conference kicks off in Morgantown, an assembly designed to promote the cultivation of young talent throughout the state. Organizers invite readers to participate by spreading word and offering feedback via social media sites like Facebook, Twitter.com, LinkedIn, and the aBetterWestVirginia blog.
Generation West Virginia serves as the figurehead for various regional groups that have formed over the last several years, such as OV Connect (Wheeling), Young Emerging Leaders of the Mid-Ohio Valley (Parkersburg), Young Professionals Committee (Huntington), Generation Morgantown, and Generation Charleston. Affiliate organizations are also forming in Martinsburg, Beckley and Pendleton County.
Individuals involved with these groups have established local networking opportunities, professional development sessions, and various service projects. In a state traditionally pained by an exodus of young people, this is an encouraging trend.
Generation West Virginia is working to: (1) Identify and advance the interests of young people, age 21 – 45, in West Virginia (2) Promote the growth and success of local young talent organizations in West Virginia (3) Retain, attract, and advance young talent in West Virginia (4) Help make West Virginia a great place to live, work and play (5) Improve West Virginia’s image internally and externally.
The easiest way readers can help promote Generation West Virginia’s mission is by connecting with the organization and inviting others to do so via the following mediums:
- Facebook Page - Generation West Virginia
- www.Twitter.com/GenerationWV
- LinkedIn Group - Generation West Virginia
What do you see as strengths of West Virginia in retaining our next generation of leaders, recruiting new young leaders, and creating opportunities for them to advance?
What to you see as weaknesses/challenges for West Virginia to effectively retain, recruit, and advance our next generation of leaders?
Posted in Business, Culture, Economy, Education, Government, Media, Tourism, West Virginia
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April 30th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
For West Virginia to retain leaders and recruit new ones, jobs have to exist here and new ones have to start here that don’t exist in abundance elsewhere. Our biggest challenge: It’s hard to be a tourism state and a place for big business at the same time. Everything we fight to protect seems to be at odd ends with big business.
More ramblings?
Top notch educational facilities can help. We need cutting edge technology and corporations that are put in place to grow (not talking about Walmart). We need to embrace the new and let go of the old. If we base our whole economy around coal, we may find ourselves in the dark when that technology is replaced. It’s all about embracing the future, educating the youth, and creating an environment that people want to live in. We need to create exciting jobs, promote events and tourism that set us apart from the rest of the world and welcome new cultural ideas and community events to stop migration and promote immigration.
As of now, it’s 1) hard to find a job here, especially for people involved in most new technologies 2) social/cultural events exist, but they are often outdone by other states or fail to appeal to the masses.
Big events draw in massive amounts of people. We tend to focus on down home, good ol’ boy events that are great and fun, but fail to catch major headlines and resonate with people. Think bluegrass on steroids. The way to grow a community or event is to inject so much hoopla into an event or an idea that it attracts national attention. We often try the grassroots approach and I understand the appeal of small town USA, warm and fuzzy, Andy Griffith, be my neighbor, be my friend, but it doesn’t sell. We have nice people and our share of safe towns, close knit communities and small economies…but, if we want to grow, we have to embrace the masses and change the scope of our efforts to a national stage and mass appeal. Part of the problem is geography. What percent of WV is uninhabitable? What part should be reserved for the things we love like fishing, hunting, skiing, biking, hiking, etc.? Do we want to live in a NYC-esque concrete jungle OR enjoy the benefits of nature and privacy at the risk that people will have to come here on vacation, but work in another state? Is it really that important to have a good job if your quality of living is better working as a waitress in a cheap apartment with less stress? I have my own answer for some of these questions, but not everyone thinks like me. How do we get everyone to push for growth when many people are satisfied with their own level of opportunity?
WV is not cut and dry. People in Kanawha county may have different aspirations, wants and needs than people in McDowell, for instance. We are a diverse state. Perhaps the solution is making sure that each community is afforded the opportunity to change in its own way and at its own pace.
April 30th, 2009 at 9:28 pm
I would like to see about writing a story about this conference. How can I contact a conference organizer?
May 1st, 2009 at 12:04 am
PJ, the Parkersburg News & Sentinel’s interest is appreciated, I’ll be in touch.
Readers interested in tracking what attendees are saying about the conference, visit http://search.twitter.com and enter “#GenWV”. There are several folks participating and each has a unique perspective.
May 4th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
Wow, Matt, great expression! Love it.
FYI, I put a couple of things out on Twitter but then learned that you won’t find my tweets on a search because my updates are protected. My thought (from afar) during the conference was what is GenWV doing in terms of making a push to elect people under 45 to the state legislature and as governor.
The answer I think I got back was that the group is planning “to work to make sure the legislature knows our issues.” I hate to say it, but I’m pretty sure that is not good enough. Yes, it is important, but it needs to be coupled with a serious push to elect our demographic to positions of direct policy influence. Folks get excited about developing an agenda and agreeing to push it, but unfortunately it is going to take more than that. Lots more. Let’s get serious about getting our age group in charge. That’s what it’s going to take!
How exciting would it be to caucus on nominating internally some amazing candidates, and agreeing as a group to campaign for them and elect them? I say we start with Jason Keeling.
June 20th, 2009 at 10:54 am
WV is the only state in the Union the does not have a Charter School law of some sort. Why not?