News
Letter from Craig Moody
Published: 12/17/2009
As the year comes to a close and everyone begins the inevitable process of reflecting on the past twelve months, I can't help but reminisce about what the Greater Omaha Young Professionals were able to achieve. It's been a transformative year for young professionals in Greater Omaha, and the strides made have set a high bar for the years that will follow.
I can't go much further without calling attention to the fourth annual Young Professionals Summit held in March. The event keynote speaker, Malcolm Gladwell, challenged us all to establish a sense of urgency, identify the 'connectors' and agree on our frame for what is important to us. I felt that we had collectively achieved the first two prior to Gladwell taking the stage, but the third is a challenge...one I think we're making strides toward achieving, which I will touch on later. Records for attendance were once again set at the 2009 Summit with nearly 1,400 people attending the luncheon. The event continues to grow and be more successful, and Blake Mycoskie should present another thought-provoking keynote address at the 2010 Young Professionals Summit on March 4, 2010.
While the Summit always demands a significant amount of time and attention from Omaha's young professionals, there were three other noteworthy accomplishments achieved in 2009; all of which had never occurred previously.
First, we partnered with several other young professional organizations (YPOs) to hold the election cycle's first mayoral debate. While it was clear each of the candidates were still refining the points on their proverbial arrows, we were able to fill the 300 seats at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. We drew plenty of media attention and received nothing but compliments from the candidates and their staff on the quality of the debate. Kudos to everyone involved.
The Young Professionals Bus Challenge was another shining example of superior planning and creative thought. The Challenge was created as a tool to help get young professionals on the bus and to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the current system. We developed a great partnership with Metro Area Transit and prompted several young professionals to use the city's public transportation system. While there are certainly opportunities for improvement, we learned that this topic is one that young professionals are consistently concerned about, which reinforced the need for us to continue working on it. More to come!
Finally, Your Omaha 2020 was created to answer Gladwell's challenge to agree on our collective frame. We once again partnered with some of Omaha's great YPOs to host the event and were pleased to reach more than 300 individuals through onsite participation and online voting via RallyOmaha.com. The results of that initiative will be available through the site. All we've done, however, is establish our vision for 2020. Whether or not we achieve that vision is up to each of you. Get involved and make it happen. I dare you.
Omaha's young professional community is making great things happen; there's no two ways about it. The question is, how can we build upon the exceptional work that has already been done? The foundation is in place, as are the first few stories. How high are we going to go?
By Craig Moody, 2009 Young Professionals Council Chair