Young professionals share Q-C impressions

Summer 2009

The Network: Young Professionals of the Quad-Cities will wrap up its new i-network program for summer interns with a finale reception on Monday at the Figge Art Museum in downtown Davenport.

The free event will be from 4-5:30 p.m. and offer community and business leaders a chance to meet with about 60 interns who have spent their summer working for companies across the Quad-Cities.

As part of the event, a panel of five interns will discuss their thoughts on the Quad-Cities and their ideas for attracting young professionals.

Kristin Glass, The Network's director, said the event will be a great opportunity for community leaders to hear from the young professionals. "They're going to talk about what we can do better so they might consider the Quad-Cities their home after graduation."

The panel will include interns from the Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois Quad-City Chamber of Commerce, dphilms Imaging Services and Valley Bank.

The Network launched i-network this summer to bring interns together, involve them in the community and showcase what the Quad-City region has to offer them beyond their workplace. Glass said the i-network involved interns from 16 states and 12 colleges as well as some native Quad-Citians.

As part of i-network, the interns had corporate tours, met with a panel of human resource professionals and Rock Island Arsenal leaders and attended a variety of events, including a River Bandits game. A video presentation of their events will be shown during the reception.

"Now that they have been exposed to the Quad-Cities' quality of life, it is important for the community to listen to the insights of these young professionals as to what can be done to better attract and retain young professionals," Glass added.

Without the i-network, Glass said the interns may not have gotten to know the Quad-Cities outside of their employer and "wouldn't have considered the Quad-Cities as a place to stay." Now, some are considering the Quad-Cities in their future employment plans.

The hope is that i-network can become a year-round program.

For more information on the event, call Glass at the Illinois Quad-Cities chamber at (309) 757-5416.