In a prominent city like Philadelphia, talent acquisition and retention is critical for growth.

With this in mind, Campus Philly—a nonprofit organization that fuels economic growth by encouraging college students to study, explore, live and work in the Greater Philadelphia tri-state region—is holding their first Young, Smart and Local Conference. The two-day conference will take place on April 9 and April 10.

The idea is this: “If Philly can grow in talent, it’s going to grow economically, as well,” Deborah Diamond, President of Campus Philly, told AL DÍA. “More companies will come here; more students will start companies; more people will be employed.”

Campus Philly's mission is to help college students fall in love with the city and find opportunities to launch their careers in Philadelphia after graduating. 

The first of its kind, the Young, Smart and Local Conference is designed to inform and engage leaders from various organizations on the best practices around talent growth and attraction. 

The conference will be in partnership with Action Greensboro, an economic development organization in Greensboro, North Carolina. Action Greensboro had previously worked with Campus Philly to help develop the model for their organization.

“We continued to stay in touch and to talk about how the programs were going, and really thought it was an opportunity to connect with other cities that were starting to do this talent development work,” said Diamond.

The conference will take place with two goals.

The first is to create a network for other cities that are doing similar kinds of work.

“There’s no association of talent development organizations,” Diamond said. “It’s also the case that the people who do this work are in different sectors. Some of them are in higher education, some of them are in city government, some are in Chambers of Commerce. So, we all don’t go to the same place and meet each other.”

The hope is for the conference to create a cross-sector network moving forward.

The second goal is for people to take back concrete, tangible ideas that they can execute on that will change the relationship between college students and the city that will jumpstart their efforts to attract and retain talent, said Diamond.

The event will feature a combination of breakout sessions. There will also be a variety of panel discussions that will feature national expert speakers on topics like growth and equity; internships; organizational structure; population growth; issues for first-generation and underrepresented students; and available resources for those students.

The conference will take place on April 9 and April 10 at Convene Philadelphia, 30 S 17th Street.

You can register for the conference by clicking here.