Recruiting Young Engineers To Buffalo Niagara

Praxair invited me up to Tonawanda this morning to talk to several dozen young recruits they are looking to bring to our region.  Most of these folks were undergrads, with a few grad students in the mix, and from all over the country.  They were all chemical and mechanical engineers (read: smarter than yours truly).

The recruits had spent most of the morning learning about their potential employer, and my job was to help them understand what their lives would be like here as young professionals.  Many of my colleagues at the Partnership got quite the kick out of the idea that meeting me might convince someone to move here, and have enjoyed yanking my chain about it. 

I spoke for about 30 minutes, opening with the Million Reasons video which was produced by our friends at Buffalo Niagara Enterprise.  Their mission is to recruit companies to our region, and I used their video as background about what it's like to work here:

I then spoke about four main things:

1. We are not a suburb of New York City; we are a bi-national region.  We're closer to Cleveland, Detroit, Columbus, Pittsburgh, Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto than NYC.  We're connected to the world and value our location right along the Great Lakes and Canadian border.  They were intrigued. 
2. Buffalo doesn't have wings.  I did, however, show them pictures of some.  Also beef on weck, Loganberry, sponge candy, and chicken finger subs.  They were hungry. 
3. I talked about our history- the Erie Canal, invention, innovation, being an industrial hub, and how involved we all are in our communities.  This isn't a place where you'll commute an hour and a half each way every day (like I did in Chicago), struggle to meet people (like I did in Boston), feel bored (like I did in Indiana), or write rent checks that make you want to cry (like I did in New York City).  They were interested.
4. Yes, it snows (just like everywhere else I've been), and we make the best of it.  We have Powder Keg in the winter, the Sabres to get us through the sometimes-dreary Spring, festivals all summer, and beautiful Autumns.  They were seeing the possibilities.

I also told them about Buffalo Niagara 360, our young professionals program we launched at the request of our members to ensure that young people new to town are able to build networks of friends and partners.  

To finish, I used the For Real video which was produced by our friends at Visit Buffalo Niagara to show them about life here:

Their eyes seemed to open as they saw some examples of what life here looks like, and I felt like I'd made an impact.  This is what I signed up for when I decided to join the Partnership.  

What would you present if you were in front of a room full of talented young folks with no roots here?