The 6th meeting of the Lake Norman Young Professionals group was held on April 14th at the Wine Cellar in Cornelius and featured an amazing speaker, Martin Rooney from Training for Warriors.

Chaz Churchwell, Shayna Inman, and Bill Russell were interviewed on "Around the Lake", which is broadcast on: WSIC 100.7 FM, 1400 AM & TV 21.2. This interview took place on Thursday, April 9th, 2015 and can be downloaded here or by clicking on the button below.

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The fifth meeting of the LKN Young Professionals group was held at the AssClown Brewery, located in Cornelius, NC. This event featured a speaker from Toast Masters.

This event was held at the Kabuto Steakhouse in Huntersville. We would like to extend a special thank you to Kabuto for hosting us and for providing fantastic appetizers. If you’re looking for a venue to host a private event or have a great meal, please keep them in mind, as they are conveniently located off exit 25.

Our dedicated leadership and committee chairs arrived early to discuss this evening and firm up next month’s plans.

After the general mingling and catching up was complete, we got started with brief, 10-second introductions from everyone in the room. What an impressive group! We have business owners, lawyers, former athletes, sky divers, classically trained opera singers and someone that can get you a trip to Iceland for $250 (Laurel Shea). After the brief introductions Chaz highlighted the importance of having a 30 second elevator pitch prepared at all times. As an example and thank you to his dedicated committee chairs we got the opportunity to hear Laurel Shea, John Sheehan and Shayna Inman all talk about their businesses in 30 seconds or less. Be sure to bring your business cards to each event. We will be randomly selecting individuals (from their business cards) to win the opportunity to present their elevator pitches in front of the group. If you don’t have a card that’s ok too, just write your name down and place it in the collection bowl. You can talk about your background and the line of work you would like to find employment in.

Owning my own business and knowing how busy we all are I’m grateful that Chaz squeezed the time in to present to us again, that’s two months in a row. Thankfully for him our professional development committee has lined up a fantastic speaker for next month that is going to talk to the group about public speaking methods and best practices. Arguably just as important we will be meeting at the AssClown brewery (<- feels weird typing that) located on Bailey road in Cornelius. Once Chaz was finished he challenged us all to write one quality about ourselves on a piece of paper and cut the paper into the shape of a heart in the spirit of Valentines day. The mission was to network around the room, guess the quality of someone else and collect the most hearts possible. I performed poorly as I spent most of my time getting to know two individuals and was deep in conversation as the challenge ended.

There was also talk of the Young Professionals group having the opportunity to participate in a Relay for Life walk AND a Tough Mudder event this summer. I think we may have some friendly competition brewing with Bill Russell (Chamber President and CEO) and Mike Russell (Chairman of the Chamber Board). No relation between the two… If you're interested in participating in either event be sure to let Shayna or Laurel know.

I also want to give a big shout out to Shayna Inman and Kim Snyder for making sure we all received the email blast ahead of time. If for some reason you did not receive a message about this event please reach out to them (by clicking on their linked names above) and share your email address with them. 

In closing and for Chaz, I’m participating in this group SO THAT I can hang out with other business owners, lawyers, former athletes, sky divers, classically trained opera singers and someone that can get me a trip to Iceland for $250 :-)

See you all on March 10th at 7pm when the AssClown Brewery hosts our next event. Don’t forget to like and RSVP on the groups Facebook page. For those of you that still don’t have a Facebook account, I commend you and you can let us know through the website. 

- Mike

Wow! What an impressive turnout for the fourth official meeting of the Lake Norman Young Professionals group! We had over 34 people in attendance and many stayed well beyond the standard time enjoying the appetizers that were so graciously provided by Armin's Catering. We would also like to thank The Pearl Event center for hosting us. I have traveled up and down Catawba Avenue hundreds of times and had no idea this place existed. Thanks to this group I'm already getting exposure to new businesses and learning more about the area.

After a round of quick introductions from committee members and our board representative, Chaz played a motivational video that really inspired the crowd and prepped the room for some motivated networking! Chaz challenged all of us to go out and talk to people we didn't know and start building relationships amongst each other.

The Young Professionals group is also still soliciting volunteers to help the individual committees. By all means if you have a good idea please share it! We're really depending on the engagement and energy from the group to help drive this forward. 

Just to recap here is the existing leadership structure for the group and the respective committees listed below:

Program Chair: Chaz Churchwell
Board Representative: Mike Murphy
Staff Advisor: Bill Russell
Community Involvement Chair: Laurel Shea
Professional Development Chair: John Sheehan
Member Engagement Chair: Shayna Inman

If you have any experience in community outreach or involvement, professional development or member services please let us know.

Back to the event. I met all sorts of new people and had some very interesting conversations. Here are some of the highlights to give you an example of the diversity in our group:

• I met someone who came all the way from Statesville and works in professional development. He also does Linkedin coaching. Having a solid presence on professional websites is arguably just as important as your resume itself.
  
• I met a Huntersville native (believe it or not I don't meet many natives here) who works in finance and was able to tell me what Birkdale Village looked like back when it was a farm. Sometimes I feel a little guilty that I'm part of the wave of people that had an impact or justified growth in this area. That's one of the reasons I feel it's important we take an active role in helping this community.
  
• I met a Davidson grad from Bucharest who now works as a local journalist and is teaching himself how to code.
  
• I found the person who is going to help me plan my next vacation! <- I think that's the most important connection of the evening :-)

I hope to see you at our next event which will be held at Kabuto Lake Norman on February 10th at 7pm. We would appreciate it if you RSVP'd ahead of time to help us get a better idea of headcount. I have included a gallery of photos from last night and I hope you enjoy them. 


Until next time,

-Mike Murphy

We would like to extend a special thank you to Carrie Causey from The Herald Weekly for a fantastic interview she conducted and a very informative story she posted on the Young Professional group. 

You can read the entire article here and follow Carrie on twitter here.

The Lake Norman Young Professionals group was recently featured by several local news outlets. 

These articles covered the formation, goals and activities of the Young Professionals group.

You can read more by clicking on the pictures or links below.

This session will be less formal and consist of introductions from the group Chair and different committee members. Networking to follow.

This past Tuesday (Nov 11), the Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce held a reception at Harvey’s in Cornelius for Young Professionals 21-39.  The response was overwhelming with somewhere between 35-40 people attending and several who could not attend but want to participate in future events.  On behalf of the Chamber, thank you to all of you for your interest!
 
While there was no official program Tuesday, we did reach a consensus (for the time being) we will meet on a monthly basis on the second Tuesday of each month at 7-8:30 pm. It seemed an establishment that had a meeting room, but in a social setting, seemed best.  With that in mind, our next meeting will be Tuesday, December 9th 7-8:30 pm at EL Toro Restaurant (Shops on the Green) in Cornelius.  The restaurant is located at 20930 Torrence Chapel Road. El Toro has a meeting room we can utilize.
 
In addition to the social networking, we will have a 45 minute program on “How to have your best year ever in 2015!” This program will be facilitated by Pat Heidrich of Sandler Sales.
 
As we discussed, our Chamber YP program is targeted for any young person 21-39 inclusively and is a member of the Lake Norman Chamber or an employee of that member. There are no dues or fees for the Young Professionals as we consider this program to be a benefit to our Chamber members.  If the young professional is not a member, or their business will not join and participate in the chamber of commerce, we can perhaps work out some type of arrangement for that young professional.  Again, our goal as a chamber is to get our young professionals engaged in the business fabric of our community and region.
 
While the chamber of commerce will likely arrange for appetizers at EL Toro, meals and or beverages are the responsibility of the attendees.
 
We will also discuss leadership roles at the next meeting.  While I will serve as a Chapter Advisor for the group, we will select a chair of the program and committee chairs as well as committee members.
 
Our program will have three committees-
 
Community Involvement: This committee will plan any community outreach programs.  It could include participating in Big Day at the Lake with Big Brothers-Big Sisters; working on a Habitat Build; or any other community program that helps those who need a helping hand.
 
Professional Development: Assist in coordinating personal development programs that enrich and nurture business acumen and leadership skills including public speaking, leadership programs, entrepreneurship, management, sales and marketing, and more.
 
Member Engagement: Planning networking events and socials including recreational activities that encourage fun and fellowship.
 
Whether you choose to take a leadership role, serve on a committee, or just hang out and meet other young people your age, we welcome your involvement in the Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce Young Professionals.