Harrisburg’s ’20 in their 20’ spotlighted in new event

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This November, Harrisburg Young Professionals is hosting its inaugural ‘20 in their 20’s’ event—an opportunity for the organization to spotlight 20 young people doing extraordinary work in Harrisburg.

Honorees were chosen from over 80 applicants and include business owners like Adam Brackbill of Urban Churn, the Harrisburg-based ice creamery, and Bree Whitlock, happiness manager for WebFX.

The Business Journal spoke to Derek Whitesel, executive director of Harrisburg Young Professionals and Adam Porter, the organization’s president and the co-founder of two local businesses: st@rtup, a co-working space and Provisions, a grocery store.

The event is scheduled for November 13 at the Scottish Rite Cathedral on North Third Street.

Q: Why did you decide to highlight 20 individuals in their 20’s?

Whitesel: You look at the demographic of people involved with Harrisburg Young Professionals and I would say most are involved in their 20’s and their 30’s.

Often times when people are first becoming involved in our organization and in their workplace and community, it is right in their 20’s. It’s that time where you are moving back to this area, getting your first job or, in the case of some of these folks, you are opening your first business or getting your first patent.

Porter: Part of our mission statement is to recruit and retain young leaders and to do that, we need people to know they have a place here and a community to plug into and if we don’t shine a light on the people doing good in the city no one will tell each other that is happening.

Q: What was the decision process like?

Porter: We had a committee comb through dozens of applications, deciding who is most likely to make a big impact and who shows their drive and their determination in their work. Based on the information provided by the applications, we were able to slowly whittle down that group of 80 down to that 20.

Q: What makes these individuals stand out?

Porter: Driven, enthusiastic and hustling. They are really dedicated to making where they live a better place, whether that is in their company, within the organization they are a part of or a business they started. Maybe they have seen a gap in the community whether it is a business we need or an event that should happen. They saw the need and took initiative and they went after it.

Whitesel: I would agree, you can tell there is a lot of determination in this group.

Q: Are there misconceptions about this age group and millennials that keep them from being in events that cater to a wider age group?

Whitesel: Millennials are in their 20, 30, maybe early 40’s. I think when you look at, there are a lot of articles that try and diagnose that it is a generation with student debt, a generation that feels entitled, a generation-killing cereal- there are all these things that get thrown around.

I think it is important for us as a young professional’s organization and a voice for young professionals in the Harrisburg area to talk about the stories and show what people in their 20’s are doing to give back to the community and to make it a great place to live, work and play.

Porter: My hope with this event is that it inspires other people who may be contributing to their community to give back more, work a little harder.

Q: When looking at this list of people in their 20’s, what stood out?

Whitesel: I just graduated into my 30’s and was thinking about what these people are doing in their 20’s. We have one girl that works for a tech company and has a patent. There is another guy who started his business at 16 and his company did event production for a Death Cab for Cutie concert. One of our honorees is a medical student at Penn State studying neurology and Parkinson’s disease.

Q: Would you say Harrisburg is a good barometer for the kind of success young people can have in business?

Whitesel: I think it’s an area that if you have an idea and you are driven and you want to build the community, the community will rally around you.

Porter: I would echo what Derek is saying. (Harrisburg) is big enough that your work is worthwhile and impactful and makes a difference in people’s lives. But it is small enough that one person with a good idea doesn’t get lost in the shuffle and can find the resources to accomplish their idea.

Q: Do you think there is something this generation’s business owners are doing that others haven’t?

Porter: I just remember pre-internet but the vast amount of young people don’t. If you were raised in a world where all of humanity’s knowledge is at your fingertips, the way you think about problem solving will be very different from someone who had to go through the library and look it up.

The second thing is the velocity at which an idea can exist. Really how quickly did those folks (the creators of Facebook and Google) sit down, code out their idea and boom there was a business? Compared to starting a bakery in the fifties.

Q: Is there anything else you would like to add?

Whitesel: The proceeds go to fund the Emerging Philanthropist Program. We have a class every year that learns the art and the how to of philanthropy and particularly philanthropy in our community. Working with the staff at The Foundation for Enhancing Communities, they end up honing on a need in Harrisburg, creating a grant for that need and then combing through applicants to award a $5,000 grant to one of those nonprofits. HYP covers 50 percent and the foundation covers the other 50 percent. This event is directly supporting our contribution.