Hartford Business Journal

6 Hartford Business Journal • October 8, 2018 • www.HartfordBusiness.com By Joe Cooper jcooper@hartfordbusiness.com M etroHartford Alli- ance's young profes- sional group HYPE started a movement 12 years ago to get more young professionals engaged with the Capital City. Now it has company. Numerous Millennial groups have sprouted up in recent years to pro- mote downtown Hartford and the region as a place to live, work and play and counter what they say are miscon- ceptions plaguing the city about pub- lic safety, and a lack of entertainment, parking and apartment housing. Varying in size, groups range from those hosting or promoting profession- al and social gatherings downtown and in nearby suburbs, to others working to change negative stereotypes they be- lieve are limiting the city's and region's potential. The groups, some of which are grass- roots and others created by companies or nonprofits, are joining HYPE to woo more Millennials downtown at a time when city employers are desperately trying to recruit young professionals, especially as aging Baby Boomers head toward retirement over the next decade. They have their work cut out for them. Only about 22.5 percent of metro Hartford's population is made up of Millennials, ranking the region 78th among the U.S.' largest 100 metro areas in terms of concentration of young people, according to an analysis by the Brookings Institution. Some group leaders said one of their main goals is to show how Hartford has changed in recent years with the addi- tion of new assets like public transpor- tation (LimeBike and the Hartford rail line), sports (Hartford Yard Goats and Hartford Athletic), additional hous- ing and a growing downtown college scene, in addition to a strong arts and restaurant culture. Ryan Keating, vice president of West Hartford's Michael J. Keating Agency, has a hand in several Greater Hartford networking and advocacy groups. The 30-year-old insurance executive said groups are working to get a larger pool of the 90,000 people commuting to Hartford everyday to stay down- town and enjoy its many offerings after they clock out of work. Keating co-founded Future Leaders of West Hartford (Flow), which encour- ages Millennials to engage profes- sional, educational and philanthropic opportunities in West Hartford. He's also a member of new Greater Hart- ford groups, including Restart The HART and Sparc, and hopes to create a community-building organization called Success Greater Hartford. All three groups host networking and social events and have their own missions. Restart The HART, for exam- ple, is a 30-mem- ber group that launched in May to change the dia- logue in Hartford, underscoring the good instead of bad on its social media pages and at local social gatherings. Sparc, or Sub- urban Profes- sionals Achieving Real Change, is a group of young professionals forging relation- ships at net- working events to connect the regional business community. Others include Junior League of Hart- ford, Bushnell Young Professionals and Playhouse on Park's Young Professionals Advisory Board, which use fundraising and meetings to spur more Millennial theater engagement in Greater Hartford. Added together, these groups are meeting over happy hour and other events weekly. Youth Movement Millennial-driven groups' pro-Hartford sentiments aim to woo young professionals Millennial share of population within U.S.' largest 100 metro areas Millennial % Rank Metropolitan area of population 1 Provo-Orem, UT 30.4 2 Austin-Round Rock, TX 27.2 3 San Diego-Carlsbad, CA 27 4 Virginia Beach-Norfolk, VA 26.9 5 Madison, WI 26.8 17 Springfield, MA 25.2 25 Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA 24.6 42 New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ 23.8 65 Providence-Warwick, RI 23.1 66 New Haven-Milford, CT 23 78 Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT 22.5 83 Worcester, MA 22.2 Note: Millennials defined as those between ages 18 and 34. Source: Brookings Institution analysis of U.S. Census population estimates Local young professionals (from left to right) Ali Lazowski, Nicole Baccaro and Hilary Stoudt have launched a pro- Hartford group/ movement billed as Restart The HART. PHOTOS | CONTRIBUTED

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