Hamilton Economic Summit 2012 - Hamilton HIVE Update

Each year the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce hosts a regional Economic Summit that seeks to encourage dialogue on regional development, and inspire new initiatives that both boost the profile of the Greater Hamilton Area, as well as the lifestyle of its citizens.

Being that the Hamilton HIVE was a project derived from the 2010 Hamilton Economic Summit, each year an update is presented on its work and progress to date.  This year, the update was presented as a video, filmed, and produced by Mindy Tweedle of Tweedle Productions, and featuring myself, speaking on the behalf of the Hamilton HIVE.

Hamilton Employment Crawl

In early April I had the pleasure of participating in the production of a video introduction for the Hamilton Employment Crawl, coordinated by McMaster University's Student Success Centre.  This was done both in my capacity as Chair of the Hamilton HIVE, and as a young McMaster alumni who has chosen to remain, and to live, work, and play in the Hamilton community.  

This was a fantastic initiative.  A long overdue attempt to bridge the education that students receive at McMaster with the experiences, opportunities, careers, and life that they can then pursue in Hamilton, Ontario, following their studies.  Special thanks go to Gisela Oliveira and Kathy Woo.  

You can find more information about the video and employment crawl below, in the excerpt copied from the McMaster Youtube page.

On April 25th and 26th, a hundred and fifty students participated in the Hamilton Employment Crawl (HEC). Students and team leaders traveled to organizations around the city to uncover why Hamilton is their city to live, work and play. 

As a project of HEC, a video interview was conducted among employers and young professional in Hamilton. The video asks interviewees about their living and working experiences in the city, as well as their relationship with the community slogan, "You Can Do Anything in Hamilton".  

Thank you to the Student Life Enhancement Fund, Sponsors (The City of Hamilton, McMaster Innovation Park, CoBALT Connects and the Hamilton Police Services) and Strategic Focus Group members (Brent Kinnaird, Cyndi Ingle, Dave Mossman, Gina Robinson, Gisela Oliveira, Kathy Woo, Michael Marini, Ruth Liebersbach, Steph Seagram, Jeremy Freiburger, and Paul Berton) for making HEC possible.  

The video was directed, produced and edited by Kathy Woo     

Youth Strategy Report Publication

In summer 2011 I was contracted by Workforce Planning Hamilton (formerly the Hamilton Training Advisory Board) to conduct a landscape assessment of groups, reports, research, and any other stakeholders/items that should be taken into account in the potential compilation of a Youth Strategy for Hamilton, Ontario.  Big thanks go out to Judy Travis and Cyndi Ingle at WPH for providing me with this opportunity, and for the support in its development!  

The project was initiated in May 2011, and the final draft was produced by October.  This work was resultant from a a number of initiatives, including a report on Youth Retention and Attraction in Hamilton, that I had prepared for the 2010 Hamilton Economic Development Strategy.  

This landscape assessment, essentially, looks to highlight and "kick-off" all the work that needs to be done in support of making Hamilton, Ontario a destination for young people, of which there is much.  However, in the meantime, I am simply happy to say that all over 40 pages of the report have now been officially published and can be accessed here.

To peak your interest, below is the executive summary:

Executive Summary

As Canada braces for large-scale shifts in its workforce demographics, its cities must prepare themselves to be places of opportunity and prosperity in order to attract the most skilled talent to fill the best jobs.  In looking at creating such a base of skilled, talented citizens, cities must take into account how the differences in age, culture, ethnicity, and education affect their workforce development strategies.

The goal of this report is to lay the groundwork for a comprehensive Youth Strategy in Hamilton, a strategy that will contribute to the development and expansion of the city's skilled workforce and prepare us for future challenges.  This report identifies four objectives of a made-in-Hamilton youth strategy: attraction, retention, engagement, and development.   Through use of a local environmental scan of written and organizational resources, the report identifies strengths, weaknesses, and gaps in knowledge around these four objectives.  It also names stakeholders and community partners that should be involved in the development and delivery of such a strategy.   An environmental scan of youth strategy resources outside Hamilton is also included.  Following this, the report identifies key issues that Hamilton faces and identifies opportunities in place to move forward.  

Hamilton Hive 2012 Exec Committee

The excerpt below is from the official "Buzz" blog of the Hamilton HIVE.  The HIVE is a young-professional and young-leaders collective based in Hamilton, Ontario.  It works to unite the existing young-professional, leader and entrepreneur groups in Hamilton, making stronger connections and establishing better networks to truly empower them as a community.  In January 2012, I assumed the role as the Chair of the HIVE, this blog entry was the official  announcement of the complete executive committee, this looks to be an exciting year for the Hamilton HIVE and I look forward to working with these great people!

Chair - Ryan Moran

Vice-Chair - Melissa Height

Secretary - Matt Terry

Past-Chair - Michael Marini

"Congratulations and welcome aboard to Matt Terry! Matt has been ratified as the 2012 Secretary for the Hamilton Hive. You can view the full Hamilton HIVE 2012 Executive Committee here. 

Matt Terry currently works for the Office of Public Relations at McMaster University and also a member of theArt Gallery of Hamilton’s CLiC group. Matt joins Vice-Chair Melissa Height, of Serious Monkey and member of the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce’s YEP committee, and Chair Ryan Moran, independent consultant and also a member of CLiC, as the 2012 Executive Committee of the Hamilton HIVE. 

Michael Marini, of the City of Hamilton, will also be returning to the Executive Committee in the role of Past-Chair, and all members of the HIVE committee and community would like to offer the most sincerest of thanks to 2011 HIVE secretary, Brooke Gordon. 

Thank you to everyone for your interest in these roles! The 2012 Hamilton HIVE Executive Committee very much looks forward to working with all Hamilton’s amazing young professionals and leaders in enhancing this great city."

The Youth are Starting to Change (Part 2)

This article, appearing in the January 2012 edition of Urbanicity, is the continuation of the piece that appeared in the December 2011 edition, which is also posted on this blog under the date of December 6, 2011.

In the last issue of Urbanicity, I discussed the challenges Hamilton faces in regards to maintaining young population demographics. To recap, Youth was defined as being between late-Generation X, Generation Y (Millenials), and any group thereafter (roughly 15-40 years of age.) To summarize the challenges, these included a trending net-out migration of youth, a significant decline in the amount of Hamilton post-secondary institution graduates remaining in the Golden-Horseshoe region, and, as a result, a continually increasing average age of Hamilton’s population (which is already above the provincial average).

Discussion surrounding these challenges has occurred largely throughout the past decade, but in recognition of certain trends, has been particularly heightened in the last five years.

Such discussions have revolved around various research, reports, demographic assessments and studies of specific youth cohorts – Students, At-Risk-Youth, etc. – that have been assembled by various agencies and stakeholders in the Hamilton community. Among the most recent, was a landscape assessment, compiled by Workforce-Planning Hamilton (WPH, formerly the Hamilton Training Advisory Board, HTAB) that aimed at identifying the various informational resources, and community partners, present in the Hamilton area. An additional goal of this report was to serve as a foundation to support the potential construction of a comprehensive Hamilton youth strategy.

This WPH report was defined by four principles that functioned as mutually inclusive categories under which the identified reports and partners were grouped.

The first, Attraction, implies positioning Hamilton as a destination of choice for youth through the active refinement of message and effective execution of communications necessary to attract youth to Hamilton.

Retention implies the maintenance of youth demographics in Hamilton, whether home-grown, transplant or boomerang. Though this item is primarily related to job creation and job communication, it also touches upon ensuring that youth have a positive experience in their interaction(s) with the city, and that the city offers comfortable, yet vibrant lifestyle opportunities.

Engagement implies the assurance that youth feel actively involved in the city, whether through democratic processes, civic volunteerism, or other opportunities to be directly involved in the development of the city’s communities.

Lastly, Development concerns defining and creating opportunities along a continuum of youth skill growth. This recognizes the importance and interconnectedness of everything from At-Risk Youth educational attainment to networking and mentor/protégé relationships for Young Professionals.

To clarify, many existing, Google-able, Youth Strategies are pillared solely by Attraction and Retention. In squaring this off, with the addition of Engagement and Development, the intention was to acknowledge that though attracting and retaining skilled youth is important, there are fundamental social issues in Hamilton, and ensuring the healthy development and active engagement of all youth are equally important.

Despite the work done to date, and the knowledge that has been amassed, there has been a disproportionate amount of co-ordinated and large-scale cooperative action. This is, of course, aside from disparate items put forth by various identified partners. Such examples include October 2011’s Hamilton HIVE: Hive X conference, Hamilton’s first conference for Young Professionals, or the continuous work performed by those looking to open opportunities for At-Risk Youth.

It should be said that this is not due to the absence of a desire to take such actionable steps. Rather, this is more correctly a result of equally, the absence of both available resources to carry out projects related to these topics, and the absence of an existing point-person or office, clarifying the vision, and tying all the strings (resources and partners) in Hamilton’s potential youth strategy community together.

A cursory glance at the various implemented Youth Retention and Attraction Strategies across Canada illustrates that, without such a point-person/team, the potential for success is greatly reduced. Creating a Province of Choice: A Youth Retention and Attraction Strategy for Newfoundland and Labrador, arguably one of the world’s most comprehensive and effectively coordinated strategies, was fully funded and overseen by the Government of Newfoundland, with the directive for its development coming directly from then Premier Danny Williams.

Much closer to home, the Niagara Workforce-Planning Board has also established its own Youth Strategy development project and office, Next Niagara, with leadership on the project coming from full-time coordinator Vanessa Bilenduke.

It is precisely this that is required to pull such a strategy together and then follow through on its execution, top-down leadership, operating in a much more horizontal, and grassroots capacity. A person or office fully enabled with the resources and financial capabilities necessary to carry out both the research and actionable steps required to produce the most direly needed results.
Moreover, such an office should have direct ties to the City of Hamilton, if not exist directly under its auspices, with appropriate arms length capacities. Such moves are crucial in ensuring both the department’s capabilities, and in symbolically showing that Hamilton, and its leaders, are forward-thinking and dedicated to ensuring a flourishing future, by making correct decisions for the youth here and now.

Complacency in comprehensive youth strategy development is currently the norm among municipalities in both Canada and most western developed nations. To view it as an item that is subordinate to other, more common economic development focuses, is to myopically view the world and ignore its undeniable interconnectedness. If ensuring economic prosperity is like composing a symphony, then the assurance of a large pool of engaged, and well-developed youth is the tempo upon which the instruments of industry, opportunity, and lifestyle rely.

Cable 14's For the Record, December 19, 2011

Cable 14 Hamilton's For the Record from December 19th, 2011. Hosted by the Hamilton Chamber of Commerce's David Adames, and featuring Melissa May Height (of Serious Monkey), Joe Accardi (of Red Brick Rentals), and myself (Ryan Moran, of Me). We are discussing the opportunities inherent in Hamilton, Ontario for young professionals.

What's your view on the Hamilton Young Professional community?

Additionally, can you also not believe that I sound like that? I am still cringing.

The Youth are Starting to Change

The article below appeared in the December, 2011 issue of Urbanicity, available for free in various locations around Hamilton, Ontario. It is a follow-up on two, back-to-back Youth Strategy Planning sessions hosted by the Hamilton Training Advisory board, and participated in by multiple, Hamilton community stakeholders. It is also related to work I have previously done in regards to Youth Attraction, Retention, Engagement and Development in Hamilton. Ontario, including a fall 2011 landscape assessment report compiled for the Hamilton Training Advisory Board and a young professional workshop at the innaugural Hamilton HIVE: HIVE X Conference, at the Sheraton Hotel, Hamilton, on October 23rd, 2011.

In the song “Youth,” on the 2007 album Oracular Spectacular, the band MGMT declares that “the Youth are starting to change, are you starting to change?”

Indeed, in the context of municipal population planning, the youth are starting to change. This change is occurring both demographically and conceptually. In terms of population, proportionately, there are increasingly less Canadian youth now than in decades past. In terms of definition, despite the official Government of Canada definition of 15-30 years of age, some groups, including Next Generation Consulting and their Next Cities project work, identify youth, young leaders and professionals as stretching up into the early 40s. Conceptually, “youth” is increasingly being recognized as an umbrella term, taking into account myriad life-stages, choices, and identities.

In addition to this, in 2002, the Conference board of Canada announced that by the year 2020, Canada will face a workforce shortage of one million workers. This prediction holds pressing implications for Canadian provinces, regions, cities and organizations in regards to attracting and retaining the top talent of the next generations – including Generation X, Generation Y (Millenials), and thereafter.

This will, and indeed, already does, require these entities to change. So, to follow-up on MGMT’s question, is Hamilton starting to change? Well, sort of.

It is actually two questions. The first: Are youth, grassroots groups, a collective of companies both for and not-for-profit, and various individuals in the city and the City’s administration changing? Yes.

Is the City of Hamilton, in the overall sense of having a vision, strategy, and leadership on the topic of youth, both in and outside of the city limits changing? No.

Recently the Hamilton Training Advisory Board (HTAB) commissioned a report assessing Hamilton’s strengths and weaknesses (resources, community partners, etc.) in relation to youth. This assessment can serve as preliminary work, towards the potential development of a comprehensive Hamilton Youth Strategy, and was defined by the principles of Youth Attraction, Retention, Engagement and Development. To be clear, this would not be a strategy that HTAB would, or necessarily should, compile (though, like many others, they would play a role as a community partner), but rather, it is the strategy that the City of Hamilton should have initiated development on as long as a decade ago.

The average age of Hamilton’s population, like most geographically definable regions in the “developed” world, has been steadily increasing. This trend is alarming, but not startling. However, it should also be noted that Hamilton’s average age is consistently above that of the Province. Moreover, the McMaster Alumni Association has identified that in 1997 the McMaster University alumni population was approximately 90,000, with 70% of active alumni residing in the Golden Horseshoe, in 2011, those numbers are 152,218 and 47% respectively.
Hamilton has been experiencing a net out migration of youth for some time, and the time for action should have been years ago. Yet, it is not necessarily too late to act. If not from immediately committing to the development and implementation of such a strategy, Hamilton can, at least, easily benefit from the similar complacency of other Canadian municipalities.


Now, there is no intention of turning this into a Hamilton-youth downer manifesto, if you are reading this article, you are likely one who is already well aware of Hamilton’s various strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, it is more worthwhile to taking advantage of the fact that those reading this may indeed be those who can effect change in the city, as such, for more info on what can, has, will, and needs to be done, see next month’s Urbanicity. To be continued.