Young Professionals Look to Carve Out a Space All Their Own

If you are in your 20s or 30s, attending a local networking event often means rubbing elbows with people at least two decades your senior. Nothing wrong with that, but it's easy to feel disconnected.

Now several young Petaluma residents want to change that by starting their very own networking group, in the hopes of making contacts that will reap rewards both professionally and socially.

“We’re not carding at the door, anybody can come and we do have a target audience,” said Cassie McDowell, president of Petaluma Young Professionals which formed this spring. 

Although it seems ironic, McDowell and others say groups like this are needed precisely because Facebook, Twitter and online dating have virtually eliminated opportunities to meet anyone not immediately in your social circle. And if you work from home? Forget it.

“First of all, there are a lot of transplants who live here,” said Kelly Bass, 29, and is the Director of Workforce Development for the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce. “We stay so connected to the people we’ve grown up with because of Facebook and things like that, but you don’t necessarily go out and meet somebody new who you need to meet.”

The group, currently made up of about a dozen people, will hold mixers at local wine bars along with more "business-oriented" seminars on topics such as how to buy your first house, investing and approaching and starting conversations with people you may not know.

McDowell, a 26-year-old Petaluma resident who works for Productive Learning and Leisure, a personal development company, and volunteers at the Petaluma Chamber of Commerce, said the idea for the Young Professionals Group was tossed around at chamber meetings and quickly gained traction among community leaders.

Similar groups exist in Healdsburg, Sonoma and Santa Rosa, where McDowell participated before creating Petaluma’s group.

“The idea is to bridge networking events between established professionals with what’s called ‘fresh professionals’ who are just getting into the workforce,” McDowell said. “I go to chamber mixers all the time and there’s rarely anybody under 30, and most of the crowd is over 40." 

The group will hold its first social mixer on May 18 at , and a breakfast mixer at Cordoza’s Deli  on May 24. On May 17, Young Professionals Development Day will be held at the Finley Community Center in Santa Rosa, which will feature Privacy Technical Program Manager for Google Andrew Swerdlow,  as the keynote speaker.

Petaluma Councilperson Mike Harris said he hoped the existence of Petaluma Young Professionals will help boost the prominence of local up-and-comers in civic activities.

“You don’t always see a lot of young people in chamber communities, business activities and city activities – sitting on committees and commissions -- and this is a great way to get them involved,” he said.  “This group is getting the message out quickly, it’s catching fire and it has a lot of momentum behind it.”

To learn more about the Petaluma Young Professionals Network, go to www.facebook.com/PetalumaYPN.