Create Columbus Commission

Tim Fulton 0:08Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Confluence Cast presented by Columbus Underground. We are a weekly Columbus-centric podcast focusing on the civics, lifestyle, entertainment, and people of our city. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. This week, we're talking about young professionals in Columbus, specifically the Create Columbus Commission. The group was originally chartered by Mayor Coleman 10 years ago to provide guidance on how to attract and retain young professionals to Columbus. Their grant program is in full swing for the year right now, with opportunities for social enterprise organizations, ideas, and artists to get monies to see their concepts come to fruition. I spoke with the commission chair, Jordan Davis, about the grant program and the importance of the commission. We also touched on why young professionals need and deserve a seat at the table and why Columbus doesn't need another new YP group. At the end of the episode, I have a special treat for you. Good friend of mine, Travis Irvine, will be in town this week to record a comedy album with local comedy stalwart Dustin Meadows. On the occasion of those shows, we're wrapping up this week with a piece by Travis about Columbus performed in Chicago. Check out Travis and Dustin's show this Thursday and Friday at MadLab. A link for tickets is in the show notes. You can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Also, the Confluence Cast is now on Patreon. Find out how to support this podcast on our website, theconfluencecast.com or at patreon.com/confluence. The Confluence Cast is sponsored by Kepri, a full-service web and mobile development company specializing in design and programming services. Defined through skill and innovation, Kepri works with their clients to create user-centric technology-based products that innovate. Kepri provides complete technology solutions with a solid strategy to meet your goals and grow your brand. See examples of their work and explore what Kepri can do for you at kepri.com. Enjoy the interview. Sitting down here with Jordan Davis, the chair of the Create Columbus Commission, the mayor and president of City Council's Young Professionals Commission. Jordan also happens to be the director of Smart City Strategy and Collaboration for the Columbus Partnership. And I'll go ahead and get my full disclosure out of the way at the beginning of the episode. I also sit on the Create Columbus Commission as the vice chair.

Jordan Davis 2:45Whoo.

Tim Fulton 2:45Immediately adjacent to Jordan.

Jordan Davis 2:48Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 2:48Jordan, how are you?

Jordan Davis 2:49I'm great, Fulton. How are you?

Tim Fulton 2:51I'm doing well.

Jordan Davis 2:52Good.

Tim Fulton 2:52I'm doing well. We're sitting down here on the occasion of the Create Columbus grants application process being open, trying to get the word out about those grants becoming available to people.

Jordan Davis 3:03Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 3:03For those that aren't aware, first of all, let's just sort of go over what is the Create Columbus Commission?

Jordan Davis 3:08Sure. So the Create Columbus Commission, as you said, is appointed by the mayor and council president, and it is a board of 33 young professionals that are charged with helping to answer the question: how do we attract and retain young professionals in Columbus? And we accomplish our work in two primary ways. One is to serve as a, a think tank to identify priority issues, develop an agenda, policy recommendations, to convene conversations between decision-makers and our peer group to change people's mind and inform better decision-making at the leadership level of the community.

Tim Fulton 3:45Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 3:45And then the second is, and what we're here to talk about today, is the grant-making function of our organization in which we award up to about $80,000 a, a year in micro-grants, uh, up to $10,000 for entrepreneurial nonprofits or young entrepreneurs that are doing things that improve the quality of life for young professionals in Columbus.

Tim Fulton 4:08Talk about some of the organizations that have received grants in the past.

Jordan Davis 4:12Mm-hmm. We've awarded more than a quarter of a million dollars to date, um, over the past four or five years, and we've funded projects that range in type and scope and all types of different organizational profiles. Some of my favorite include BESA, who we funded in, I believe four years ago. They were looking for seed funding for an idea that they had to engage young professionals in corporate companies into volunteering. And that grant, while small at the time, was the seed fund that allowed them to try out a new value proposition to offer what has now become their leading customer base and has essentially grown their organization to what it is today, which is a driving force for organizing community service for companies in the town and, and host fundraisers and, and drives for different community needs. Another one that I think is a really big success story is, uh, Columbus Soup. So Columbus Soup is now a quarterly, um, event in which young professionals and others around the community of, of any age, frankly, are convened around, um, a social enterprise of focus, and the cost for those dinners help fund those nonprofits every quarter. And we were able to give the funding for them to host their first one to be able to introduce themselves to early adopters and to people that now go quarterly, and they've raised, you know, $50,000-plus for area organizations, uh, around the city, which is a huge, I think, value proposition of what the money can do in both of those instances-

Tim Fulton 5:53Mm-hmm

Jordan Davis 5:53... in which we can help people who have good ideas about a type of, um, social enterprise that they wanna create, and we can help be that You know, springboard for you to try something out and, and to get it started. Another type of program that we fund are, um, in research reports or types of thinking about big issues. So we've funded a transit study that was done by Forge Columbus and authored by J.M. Rayburn and, uh, has gone, gotten great circulation among the leadership communities in town to think differently about what transportation could look like now and in the future in Columbus, and it's been, um, referenced in many of the work of NextGen and some of the other Connect Columbus efforts. And so we're really, we're proud to partner on that as a, a grant funder. We also did work with Transit Columbus specifically, and we funded, uh, them twice in our grant history in which they've looked at different projects in thinking about how could routes be different for buses, or how could the transportation experience be improved?

Tim Fulton 6:59Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 7:00Um, how can neighborhood crosswalks be more pedestrian-friendly with Cross the C? So we've done several different activities in the transportation space which were more thought leadership oriented rather than event oriented or, you know, organizational oriented. We also have funded some artists in the past, um, to do interesting installations or different types of, uh, programs that bring art to life in Columbus, making it more of a vibrant and pulsating community urban core, um, which we enjoy, uh, partnering with the local creatives in town. And then we've had a history of, of funding things that spur entrepreneurship, whether it's for, um, financial literacy and incubator or accelerator programs, things that get people prepared to take on, uh, a new business or take on a new path in life, um, that requires them to think differently about, um, their financial prosperity.

Tim Fulton 7:55And we should say again, the grants are anything from, you know, $500 up to $10,000.

Jordan Davis 8:02Mm-hmm. Yep.

Tim Fulton 8:02They should affect the young professional community in Columbus.

Jordan Davis 8:07Yes.

Tim Fulton 8:07That's sort of the biggest requirement. I think we've tried to align ourselves a little bit more as of late to sort of come under our initiative areas-

Jordan Davis 8:16Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 8:17... which we'll talk a little bit about here in a minute. And also, the big thing is the person or organization applying for it doesn't necessarily have to be a nonprofit, but they certainly do need to have a fiscal sponsor.

Jordan Davis 8:28Yes.

Tim Fulton 8:28This can't be a for-profit endeavor for them.

Jordan Davis 8:32Right.

Tim Fulton 8:32They can't, they don't get to take a cut.

Jordan Davis 8:34Right.

Tim Fulton 8:35The common term that I see is that it can't inure to the benefit of any private individual.

Jordan Davis 8:39Right.

Tim Fulton 8:40Which is why we require that.

Jordan Davis 8:42Right.

Tim Fulton 8:42Letters of intent are due on April 7th, which is coming up super fast.

Jordan Davis 8:46Yes.

Tim Fulton 8:46It's this upcoming Friday.

Jordan Davis 8:48Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 8:48Um, but that's just the letter of intent.

Jordan Davis 8:50Right.

Tim Fulton 8:50Just sort of outlining, "Hey, here's my idea. What do you think?"

Jordan Davis 8:55Yep.

Tim Fulton 8:55Our intention then is to engage all of those people that submit letters of intent, especially those that frankly have good ideas

Jordan Davis 9:03Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 9:03... and sort of talk it through, flesh it out, see whether-

Jordan Davis 9:07Yep

Tim Fulton 9:07... it's a viable thing.

Jordan Davis 9:08Yep.

Tim Fulton 9:09Because we wanna be partners along that path, both up to making the grant-

Jordan Davis 9:13Yep

Tim Fulton 9:13... and then also implementing it-

Jordan Davis 9:16Yeah

Tim Fulton 9:16... and, and doing it.

Jordan Davis 9:17And so when someone submits a letter of intent, what happens is it goes to, uh, our grants committee, which is a committee of six people that will look at the, uh, letters of intents that are submitted, and this evaluation process is done on the intention of the idea more than anything.

Tim Fulton 9:33Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 9:33So it's not about-

Tim Fulton 9:34It's not even about viability at that point.

Jordan Davis 9:36Not at that point. It's who's got the best idea to make the biggest difference and provide the greatest ROI-

Tim Fulton 9:42Mm-hmm

Jordan Davis 9:42... uh, for our investment. And if you can prove that to us in your letter of intent, then we take it to the next phase, which is where we'll work with you and match you up with one of the committee members to go deep on what your application looks like for you to be in the best and most competitive situation for those dollars. And that's where we'll be ensuring that you know how to answer the questions about your budget and you've got the right... If you need to be matched up with a fiscal sponsor, we can make some introductions for you-

Tim Fulton 10:10Mm-hmm

Jordan Davis 10:10... to find someone that endorses your idea, things like that. So at this stage it's, it's a low risk situation. It's something where we want people to really put their best ideas out there so that we can be a part of your success.

Tim Fulton 10:23Absolutely. And we should say in terms of the timeline, you know, the month of April is sort of vetting those letters, and then the final grant applications aren't actually due until mid-May. And then we notify in July, and then those funds are distributed in September, just in order to think about timeline.

Jordan Davis 10:40Yep.

Tim Fulton 10:41It's important to note these aren't operational funds. These aren't meant to simply continue an organization.

Jordan Davis 10:46Right.

Tim Fulton 10:47We do give some preference to projects even sort of just stand on their own-

Jordan Davis 10:52Yep

Tim Fulton 10:52... a little bit. I think that Columbus Soup and BESA are great examples of things that we sort of st- helped start-

Jordan Davis 10:58Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 10:58... and then they were able to flourish on their own.

Jordan Davis 11:00Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 11:00And so we frankly put our cap on that a little bit.

Jordan Davis 11:04Yeah, we look for sustainability-

Tim Fulton 11:06Right

Jordan Davis 11:06... in when we look at the final selection. So the track record that fiduciary sponsor has-

Tim Fulton 11:14Mm-hmm

Jordan Davis 11:14... or the actual, you know, entrepreneur, um, if that is in fact the relationship that ends up being applied for. But if you're a nonprofit, the track record that you've struck there as well.

Tim Fulton 11:25Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 11:25And then we are looking at matching funds. So are we the only funder? Are there other funds? Are there, is there other activity that's complementary to this that's funded separately?

Tim Fulton 11:35Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 11:35And we wanna know that we're not the only ones on the line for this, but that there are others who are putting their skin in the game to help the program be successful as well. And we think that's been a recipe for success of the programs who have actually continued on, um, beyond our initial funding.

Tim Fulton 11:50Great.

Jordan Davis 11:50But I should say to that, if it is a one-time program, that's also okay.

Tim Fulton 11:54Okay.

Jordan Davis 11:55So it doesn't have to be something that you are gonna plan to do, you know, in perpetuity, but it's something that you wanna do this year 'cause it's an anniversary of something, or it's the one type of celebration of a cause that-

Tim Fulton 12:08Mm-hmm

Jordan Davis 12:10One-time offer are not bad opportunities. One-time art installations are not, you know, bad investments for us either if the ROI is, in fact, makes a difference in the lives and experiences of young professionals.

Tim Fulton 12:21Absolutely. Let's talk through some of the priorities that the commission has identified. I'm just gonna rattle them off here real quick-

Jordan Davis 12:27Sure

Tim Fulton 12:27... and then we'll go through one by one.

Jordan Davis 12:28Okay.

Tim Fulton 12:29Improve financial health and wellness of young professionals, decrease dependency on personal vehicles, amplify the urban pulse, and serve as co-creators.

Jordan Davis 12:37Yep.

Tim Fulton 12:38Um, I think we've said, actually, and this is simply a reiteration of what I've said before, we've said that it would be nice if the grants that we are funding fall under the purview of, of those initiatives. They don't necessarily have to, but they certainly will get some, some preference.

Jordan Davis 12:54Right.

Tim Fulton 12:55I remember in the past we've certainly had discussions about, like, "Hey, none of these grants address transit."

Jordan Davis 13:00Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 13:00We need to make sure that we're spreading the love around-

Jordan Davis 13:03Yeah, sure

Tim Fulton 13:03... among our initiatives.

Jordan Davis 13:04Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 13:05Um, let's talk through them. Talk about, uh, improving financial health and wellness and sort of how you view the commission's role in that.

Jordan Davis 13:12Yeah. So the improvement of financial health and wellness really goes to two things. One is we recognize that there is a very common situation that many young prof- professionals face, which is, uh, crippling student loan debt.

Tim Fulton 13:26Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 13:26And often the longer you carry student loan debt, the less savings that you're accruing. Uh, additionally, uh, student loan debt is symptomatic of additional credit that people take on. And so we recognize that if we can lower the burden of student loan debt and relieve that burden faster, that equates to greater financial prosperity, financial wellness for people in the long run. And so we are looking for localized solutions to get at that problem. So we recognize that this is a big, complex issue at a national level, and extremely institutional as you think about higher ed funding and tuition, but... And scholarships, obviously, of creating opportunity to get to college in the first place.

Tim Fulton 14:07Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 14:07But we do believe that the debt that has been inherited by the systems of the... And that's, this generation is carrying can be helped. So whether that's through innovative financing for homes, whether that's personal financ- financial education, whether it's studies about what the current situation is or, um, looking at different benchmarks, potentially even thinking about mentorship for the next generation of how to a- al- alleviate that.

Tim Fulton 14:35Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 14:35Or a PR campaign or communications efforts. Anything that goes to bringing awareness, solving the problem, or educating to avoid the problem are interesting to us. Uh, the second component of that one is around professional development that enables people to make a living. Um, so we recognize that starting a business is attractive to younger generations because the risk aversion is a little, um, more willing-

Tim Fulton 15:05Mm-hmm

Jordan Davis 15:05... and able 'cause you're not, you don't have a family, and you're likely, um, don't have a lot of dependents attached to you. So we wanna encourage that. If you wanna start a business, how, what, what can we do, um, to help you? And what can we do to help feed the ecosystem that encourages that to be possible-

Tim Fulton 15:20Mm-hmm

Jordan Davis 15:20... for young professionals? Furthermore, we want to see that people can, um, achieve their highest ambition in Columbus. Because if you can, likely that means you're, um, getting into new positions and you're increasing the, your wealth accumulation and making a life for yourself and putting roots here. And so, um, things that help people make smarter decisions about their career path and enables them to take risks, um, in their professional future we think will equate to more prosperous financial health in the long term. So those types of programs, activities, that type of stuff's very interesting as well.

Tim Fulton 15:56While it does address the, uh, entrepreneurial issue in helping to relieve student debt, because I think people-

Jordan Davis 16:03That's also connected, yeah

Tim Fulton 16:04... people that come out-

Jordan Davis 16:05Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 16:05... with a whole lot of debt are-

Jordan Davis 16:07Less likely to, yep

Tim Fulton 16:08... more inclined to get a job because-

Jordan Davis 16:10Yep

Tim Fulton 16:10... it's this chain that's, that's carrying behind them.

Jordan Davis 16:12Yep.

Tim Fulton 16:13Why though... And I've challenged you on this in the past.

Jordan Davis 16:16Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 16:17Why is student debt a city issue?

Jordan Davis 16:20Sure. So it's a city issue because if young professionals are... Their monthly budget. So say your monthly budget, um, you make $3,000 a month, and your payment of student loan debt is $500 a month.

Tim Fulton 16:38Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 16:38That takes away your ability to save for a down payment of a home-

Tim Fulton 16:43Mm-hmm

Jordan Davis 16:43... which being able to own a home is significant, makes a significant... Sorry. A young professional's ability to own a home makes a significant impact on the economic development of a neighborhood-

Tim Fulton 16:54Right

Jordan Davis 16:54... or of the city, because they're more likely to stay, so therefore we're creating stickiness for a talent and for a worker, um, for a resident that grows our population.

Tim Fulton 17:04Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 17:04Two, if you own the home, you're more likely to take more care of it, um, to be more, um, concerned and engaged in your neighborhood, um, which usually equates to better safety, better schools, et cetera. So getting young professionals committing to living here has, has great benefits. And so if we can free up that capital, hopefully that goes into savings, um, for that. It could also go into savings for retirement, which we know that the greatest wealth accumulation is achieved within your 20s and 30s-

Tim Fulton 17:33Mm-hmm

Jordan Davis 17:33... just based off of you put it in there, it stays longer, the interest rates, all that kind of stuff.

Tim Fulton 17:37Right.

Jordan Davis 17:38If you're not... If you are scraping to get by to pay for rent and to pay for your car payment and all of these things and don't have the money to invest in your retirement, we're setting ourselves up to have greater dependency on public dollars later in life when people haven't saved appropriately-

Tim Fulton 17:55Right

Jordan Davis 17:55... for retirement, and potentially you don't have other types of federal aid at that point in time. And so the other aspect of it, which I think is really interesting to think about, which could be an interesting, if you've got ideas about it for a letter of intent, is around, um, housing and cost of living. So-

Tim Fulton 18:12Mm-hmm

Jordan Davis 18:13... we are thinking a lot about our neighborhoods because of our mayor's leadership and prioritization of neighborhoods, and we're recognizing that there is this urbanization trend occurring both by baby boomers and millennials and- The next generation to come, which I believe is Generation Z.

Tim Fulton 18:32Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 18:32And so as we're creating density in the h- more desirable neighborhoods like the Short North or downtown and German Village, et cetera, the price for rent is, is going up.

Tim Fulton 18:43Right.

Jordan Davis 18:44And as the price for rent goes up in the desirable places where young professionals want to live, and frankly, the talent pool that makes these places most interesting-

Tim Fulton 18:52Mm-hmm

Jordan Davis 18:53... um, w- we're putting people in even greater burdensome positions, um, to be able to have a quality of life that they desire that makes it worth living in Columbus for.

Tim Fulton 19:03Right.

Jordan Davis 19:04Um, and so how can we better balance that scale? How can we better control the affordability that is here? And so we can control affordability in multiple ways. We can manage the burden of debt in multiple ways. You can manage it by tackling the debt itself-

Tim Fulton 19:17Mm-hmm

Jordan Davis 19:18... or tackling the other costs that might strap the monthly budget because accommodating for the fact that a portion of it has to go to, to debt.

Tim Fulton 19:26Right. I think that actually dovetails well into amplifying the urban pulse.

Jordan Davis 19:31Sure.

Tim Fulton 19:32Talk about why that's a priority and what, what can happen there.

Jordan Davis 19:35Um, so I mentioned earlier that our primary question to answer is how do we attract and retain young professionals in Columbus? And across the country, cities are racing to compete for talent-

Tim Fulton 19:48Mm-hmm

Jordan Davis 19:48... especially young talent, because young talent has more on-demand skills. Um, whether it's in IT or in design or in, um, a variety of other, um, new skills and new software that people know how to manage and navigate, there's not enough skilled workers for these trades.

Tim Fulton 20:07Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 20:07And, um, as a result, the factor of place is playing into decisions about what jobs young people take. So if you have a choice to go to San Francisco to work for a company or Austin to work for a company or Columbus to go to a company, w- how do you make your decision? Do you make it based off of weather? Maybe you go to Austin. Do you make it based off of the lifestyle and the culture? Maybe you go to San Francisco.

Tim Fulton 20:34Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 20:34Do you make it based off of cost of living? Probably go to Columbus. But at the end of the day, we have to be able to provide a full package of options.

Tim Fulton 20:43Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 20:43And we have to be able to provide an urban experience that people want and people crave. And by doing that, we think we can create greater ROI in the retention of young professionals, as well as the attraction of young professionals. And when we've unpacked that to better understand what does it mean to want to live in a city and what's the experience, the desired city experience that you want, we actually partnered with Lexint, which is a global, uh, consumer research company, and NBBJ, which is a worldwide architecture firm-

Tim Fulton 21:15Mm-hmm

Jordan Davis 21:15... to help us facilitate a series of conversations around the community to understand what young professionals want. So that it's so easy to say, "Well, yeah, we want a cool city." Well, a cool city means something different to everybody.

Tim Fulton 21:27Right.

Jordan Davis 21:27Specifically aesthetically, let alone, like, experientially, right?

Tim Fulton 21:32Right.

Jordan Davis 21:33People have all types of preferences. And what we found through that is that what people are really looking for is a sense of local, a sense of uniqueness, a sense of, um, community collaboration, community engagement, openness, and accessibility, and accessibility from movement to cost to, um, experiential. And I think what was helpful in doing that is that we were able to unpack a little bit about, further about what the tactical type solutions we might wanna fund or-

Tim Fulton 22:06The specific things.

Jordan Davis 22:07Yeah.

Tim Fulton 22:07Right.

Jordan Davis 22:07Exactly. So we know that public art helps create place. We don't have a lot of public art in Columbus, and we found through the Lexint study that people really want local. They want uniqueness. Well, nothing creates uniqueness more than a one-of-a-kind mural in a neighborhood, right? And so how do we f- facilitate more public art in our neighborhoods? And I think that is an interesting, um, priority for us from a policy standpoint as well as from a funding standpoint, which is really cool. Um, the second is how do we create an environment that has more local businesses that are collaborating together but also thriving in our neighborhoods?

Tim Fulton 22:50Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 22:51So if I think about the neighborhoods that we might know, like Short North or downtown, those are established neighborhoods which are growing, and the populations are changing. And it's, they're becoming neighborhoods as well as commercial centers.

Tim Fulton 23:05Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 23:06But you've got emerging neighborhoods like Franklinton and Old Town East or the Near East Side that have a lot of culture and history in them, but they really haven't come alive through local businesses or local establishments.

Tim Fulton 23:18Or aren't currently alive with them, right?

Jordan Davis 23:20Right. Exactly. And so how do we f- help encourage that type of behavior, whether that's through training or specific attraction activities that neighborhood organizations could do? We funded one last year where the Franklinton, um, Business Association actually hired a, a communications firm in the neighborhood to help create messaging to young entrepreneurs and advertise the open spaces and the affordable rates for office space or storefronts so that they could attract l- businesses to the neighborhood.

Tim Fulton 23:53Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 23:53Those types of things are really interesting, as well as anything that is done that encourages local business collaborations for the good of the city. We recognize that, um, people are attracted to social enterprise and things that are giving back to the community. We heard that time and time again in our focus groups that we did, that young professionals are attracted to when Mikey's and, and Hot Chicken Takeover do a collaboration and give the donations to a local nonprofit. You know, that's really attractive. So are there other social enterprise type activities that can be done in these neighborhoods? We funded Brioso that did, um, an interesting workforce training program for foster kids-

Tim Fulton 24:32Mm-hmm

Jordan Davis 24:32... and, um, taught them how to become baristas and create a living for themselves. Those are the things that really give people a sense of place, a sense of purpose, a sense of community, and so the more we can encourage that behavior as well, we think it- Makes a difference.

Tim Fulton 24:47Absolutely. And let's rattle quickly through dependency on personal vehicles.

Jordan Davis 24:52Yeah, so this is a huge one, um, but it is so big and so, uh, relevant to the community conversation right now. It's hard for any single demographic to have a, a unique voice in it.

Tim Fulton 25:03Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 25:03But we're very supportive of what's going on in the community, from Smart Columbus winning the Smart Columbus grant-

Tim Fulton 25:09Mm-hmm

Jordan Davis 25:09... and all the effort and the vision that the mayor has, um, to create opportunity neighborhoods and, um, form ladders of opportunity to help neighborhoods like Linden, um, to bring self-driving cars. We think that, um, in a community like Columbus, you can't depend on one mode, um, to solve all problems.

Tim Fulton 25:29Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 25:29And so the idea that we could have multiple different modes of transportation, um, in this ecosystem to get around and to eliminate the need to have to own a car, and we can use our time differently getting around place to place, is extremely attractive. Um, it puts us in a very competitive position, we think, against other cities. It demonstrates that we're ahead of the curve, we're innovative, we're open, we're smart, all things that we believe we are, and it actually puts it to practice. So we're very supportive of that, very encouraged of that, and would welcome ideas, um, where people are aligning with that and, um, thinking of other new solutions to, um, provide people alternatives to, uh, paying for a car every day.

Tim Fulton 26:10Absolutely. And last but not least, serve as co-creators.

Jordan Davis 26:15Yeah, so that really is... So s- so the priority to serve as co-creators is probably our mantra of the Create Columbus Commission-

Tim Fulton 26:22Mm-hmm

Jordan Davis 26:22... of everything we do. The notion of a co-creator is not to be necessarily thought leaders, but to be thought partners.

Tim Fulton 26:30Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 26:31And how do-

Tim Fulton 26:32Right, just basically have a seat at the table.

Jordan Davis 26:33Exactly. Absolutely. And it's not about training young people to be qualified to sit with more seasoned and experienced people.

Tim Fulton 26:43Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 26:43It's really a-

Tim Fulton 26:43This isn't mentorship-

Jordan Davis 26:45No

Tim Fulton 26:45... this part, right?

Jordan Davis 26:46No, not at all. It's about recognizing the talent that does exist in these younger generations, which the millennial generation is the most educated in history.

Tim Fulton 26:54Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 26:54And there's a lot that they have to offer to the decision-making and to the planning and to the economic contribution of the growth that's occurring in this city. And so how do we open those doors a little bit more? How do we widen that circle? How do we expand that table and add a new leaf to it, you know, and add more young people to the table? So we're looking for, um, efforts that nonprofits are doing that they're inviting young people as equals to be a part of their work.

Tim Fulton 27:24Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 27:24And it's not about creating young professional groups and nonprofits. We're not looking to-

Tim Fulton 27:29We have-

Jordan Davis 27:29... silo ourselves even further.

Tim Fulton 27:32Has that fallen... That's fallen off a little bit, right?

Jordan Davis 27:34What do you mean?

Tim Fulton 27:34I mean, they certainly still exist, but I remember a time, I think roundabout the time both of us joined the commission-

Jordan Davis 27:39Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 27:39... where it was like everybody had a YP group. United Way-

Jordan Davis 27:44Yes

Tim Fulton 27:44... the Wexner Center, who I worked for at the time-

Jordan Davis 27:47Yes

Tim Fulton 27:47... the museum had a-

Jordan Davis 27:48Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 27:48... young professionals group.

Jordan Davis 27:49Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 27:49And I think those groups certainly still exist, but it's not like, "Oh, we have to do this."

Jordan Davis 27:54Right.

Tim Fulton 27:54Like, "We have to have a Twitter feed."

Jordan Davis 27:56Right.

Tim Fulton 27:57You know?

Jordan Davis 27:57Right.

Tim Fulton 27:57It's not... I totally respect the intention of it.

Jordan Davis 28:00Yes.

Tim Fulton 28:01I don't know if the purpose of it was thought out enough.

Jordan Davis 28:04Yeah. I think it's a, it's a misguided belief that people think that this generation is engaged by the fact that they're young.

Tim Fulton 28:15Right.

Jordan Davis 28:16And people think-

Tim Fulton 28:16Or engaged by the fact that they're engaged.

Jordan Davis 28:19Right.

Tim Fulton 28:19Like, that, "Hey, I asked you."

Jordan Davis 28:21Yes.

Tim Fulton 28:22"So I did, I did my part."

Jordan Davis 28:23Right. Exactly. And if you think about it, a lot of those strategies were, are done as an attempt to communicate to a demographic that communicates differently.

Tim Fulton 28:35Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 28:35And I think what you're starting to recognize, especially as the demographic ages, is it's not about, like, siloing us, it's about changing the experience.

Tim Fulton 28:44Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 28:44And how can things become more experiential? And so new engagement tactics that actually bring people together rather than silo them off is really, um, key. So approachable things that... You know, we're not trying to create a whole bunch of new networking stuff.

Tim Fulton 29:02Right.

Jordan Davis 29:02That's not where substance is achieved. Um, we want substance to be achieved in anything that we fund, and so we're looking for really out-of-the-box ways in which we're thinking differently about how we bring people together of different ages.

Tim Fulton 29:17Right. And not to criticize it too much more, but I... It's almost as though an organization would say, and this could be any organization, would say, "We need to be n- more diverse. Let's have this racial group come into the room."

Jordan Davis 29:30Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 29:31"Um, but we're not gonna integrate them into the rest of what we do." "We're just going to bring them in so that we, we can say that we've engaged them."

Jordan Davis 29:38Right.

Tim Fulton 29:39Yeah.

Jordan Davis 29:40Which is interesting, and you think about... And this is probably going on a tangent, but it's interesting when you think about it from a communications angle because communications has focused so much on microtargeting-

Tim Fulton 29:49Mm-hmm

Jordan Davis 29:50... and microcommunicating. It's kinda done it in, like, a civic infrastructure way. These young professional groups, it's like microtargeting.

Tim Fulton 29:56Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 29:56But I think I've been a part of the Pezzuti Collection as a young donor, right?

Tim Fulton 30:01Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 30:01So my donor-

Tim Fulton 30:02Which is a similar group.

Jordan Davis 30:03It's similar. And I am a, a younger donor, therefore my giving capacity is much lower.

Tim Fulton 30:10Right.

Jordan Davis 30:11Um, but they formed what's called the Pace Setters, and intentionally, and we've had multiple meetings about this because the collection was trying to force us to position ourselves as a young professionals group.

Tim Fulton 30:23Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 30:23And this group was extremely against that-

Tim Fulton 30:27Mm-hmm

Jordan Davis 30:27... because they, uh, while we were younger, we didn't wanna be tagged as young and therefore unqualified to sit at the big kids' k- table.

Tim Fulton 30:34Right.

Jordan Davis 30:34It was more of saying, "We are emerging art collectors that are very interested in this, but we're not quite at your level, but we're, we're new to this," and-

Tim Fulton 30:43There's nothing wrong with us.

Jordan Davis 30:44Right.

Tim Fulton 30:44Right.

Jordan Davis 30:45Exactly. And this newness to it, this rookie dynamic to us is true for all ages.

Tim Fulton 30:52Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 30:52Art collecting is not something that, well, if you didn't collect at 20, then you can't collect at 50.

Tim Fulton 30:57Right.

Jordan Davis 30:58Right? And so we found a unique angle that saying, "This is how the- With something new, you can attach to younger, but you can also attach to older. And why can't this be a force that brings people together?

Tim Fulton 31:10Right.

Jordan Davis 31:10Why can't it be looked at as an equalizer in a commonality? And I think that that's, we're embarking on this new way of, um, organizing. But I think that those are the types of things we're interested in. Like, what new affinities are we creating that bring people together across demographics?

Tim Fulton 31:27Mm-hmm. To phrase it another way, it's an entryway rather than a, a status.

Jordan Davis 31:32Right. Exactly.

Tim Fulton 31:33Before we wrap up, I wanna talk about the Visionary Award-

Jordan Davis 31:38Mm. Mm-hmm

Tim Fulton 31:38... that we do each quarter.

Jordan Davis 31:40Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 31:40Give us, give us the rundown on that.

Jordan Davis 31:42Yeah, so we started, um, at the beginning of 2016, a partnership with Columbus City Council to recognize one pioneering, visionary, um, young professional in the community so that we could uplift their profile-

Tim Fulton 31:58Mm-hmm

Jordan Davis 31:59... and get them exposed to the political policymakers, um, of our community.

Tim Fulton 32:04And the profiles of young professionals in general.

Jordan Davis 32:06In general.

Tim Fulton 32:07Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 32:07Yeah. And, you know, one of the kind of self-determinations we've taken on is who can we find that's been kinda hiding in the shadows, doing remarkable things, outstanding things, that just doesn't get the recognition they deserve?

Tim Fulton 32:18Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 32:19And we do this quarterly, and a different council member recognizes them. I think one of the great examples of why this matters is in quarter three, so in the fall of last year, we recognized Dr. Chanelle Jones, who is one of the youngest faculty members at Ohio Dominican and is taking on criminal justice reform, and was doing a lot behind the scenes in organizing the community for conversations around Black Lives Matter and some of the community relations strife that was occurring between police and the African American community. And she is so sophisticated in her thinking. She's so mature in her ability to convene and to guide conversations productively-

Tim Fulton 33:01Mm-hmm

Jordan Davis 33:02... rather than, you know, just protesting and, and making noise. She was kinda doing it silently to really make a change.

Tim Fulton 33:09Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 33:09And we knew her, a few commissioners knew her, and we recognized her, and we were able to introduce her to the mayor, and the mayor had never heard of her, never met her, and was blown away with her resume and credentials, and ended up asking her to a one-on-one meeting and empowering her to take on, um, different things and to look at and to report back to him on, on things going on in the community, and they formed a relationship. And I think that is what we want.

Tim Fulton 33:36Right.

Jordan Davis 33:36If we can put great young people in front of our decision-makers, and they can say, "Wow, I didn't know we had this talent here. Let me help you, and let you help me-

Tim Fulton 33:45Mm

Jordan Davis 33:46... make better decisions, and simultaneously, I'm giving you new opportunities, I'm giving you new exposure, I'm connecting you with people, I'm expanding your, your knowledge, your mind of what's going on in the community," that is a win. And that's where young people can really create value, and we wanna be able to do that. And so I think we would love to know about every young professional that someone sees, knows, works with, interacts with, that they think is doing something remarkable and something that's really creating ROI for our community that we need to recognize, put it on our radar. We've got a way on the website that people can quickly send us their name and a little bit of information about them. We can reach out to them or learn more, meet them. But we definitely, uh, and within just our organization, do not know every young professional-

Tim Fulton 34:36Right

Jordan Davis 34:36... doing cool stuff-

Tim Fulton 34:37Right

Jordan Davis 34:38... um, and, and outstanding things. So please share that with us. And it doesn't need to be just in Columbus. It could be somebody, you know, that lives here but is spending most of their time, you know, in another city. But if they're doing something remarkable that's really changing communities and the future, we wanna hear about it, and we wanna bring the attention on them.

Tim Fulton 34:57Absolutely. And there are links to all the organizations that we discussed, the initiatives, the grant program especially, and the co-creator initiative in the show notes for this episode.

Jordan Davis 35:07Mm-hmm.

Tim Fulton 35:08One last thing, just give a brief, you know, what's your background, how did you get here, both with the commission and in your role with The Partnership and the Smart Cities Initiative?

Jordan Davis 35:17Yeah, so I'm born and raised in Columbus, lived here all my life. Um, my grandfather was the mayor of Westerville, and my mom has run the chamber for, you know, over two decades. And so I grew up in a family where it was required of me, and probably in my DNA more than anything, um, to always be putting yourself second and your community first. And I went to Ohio State, never thought I would go to, uh, a place with the same area code, um, but fell in love with the university and got deeply engaged there, um, independently from my family ties, and had really flourished on campus, met some great, um, mentors there within the administration, and they helped, um, make connections for me outside in Columbus. I ironically had an idea one day that I wanted to choreograph a flash mob in the Ohio Union, and, uh, with no intent of videotaping it or anything. But had a friend who, um, collaborated with me and recorded it, and we had about 90-some people do it in the Ohio Union, and it went viral overnight and was a crazy sensation.

Tim Fulton 36:30Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 36:30And that allowed me to start a little mini business, um, where I was, uh, Do a Flash Mob was what it was called. Um, and I helped choreograph, uh, flash mobs for everything from, like, school teachers to cruises to Komen Races, um, to horticulture conferences. Um, kinda ra- like, rode the wave there for about a year and a half.

Tim Fulton 36:53Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 36:54Um, and one of my jobs was actually to do a rendition of the Ohio State flash mob for The Columbus Partnership, and through that, I, uh, we took a, what was a- Quick flash mob performance to a 30-minute song and dance production with a whole bunch of videos and skits and all types of cool stuff. And from there I formed a relationship with Alex Fisher-

Tim Fulton 37:15Mm-hmm

Jordan Davis 37:16... um, my current boss. And when he decided he wanted to grow his team, he, I was the first one he called. And from... that's kinda history. And so I've been with the partnership for a little over five and a half years.

Tim Fulton 37:27Mm-hmm.

Jordan Davis 37:28I've been the lead curator on all of our member education programs. So essentially what I do is, uh, or what I have done, was learn about trends in cities and in, um, economies and industry and develop content with speakers and different writing and, uh, different type of program formats to get our members to be inspired to leave their selfish interests at the door, bring in their community interest to the table, and to see things and offer their thought leadership towards the betterment of the city. And I've been... I was focused on that role for about four years, and was doing community affairs as well, and then h- have recently transitioned to Smart Columbus, and I'm now full-time dedicated to Smart Columbus while I remain employee of the partnership-

Tim Fulton 38:17Mm-hmm

Jordan Davis 38:17... focused on how we engage the corporate community in kind of this mobility transformation, um, of the city. So.

Tim Fulton 38:24That's great.

Jordan Davis 38:25That's what I do full time.

Tim Fulton 38:26Cool.

Jordan Davis 38:27Cool.

Tim Fulton 38:27The last question I tend to ask, I don't know that I really need to ask it. W- why do you stay in Columbus?

Jordan Davis 38:32It's my canvas.

Tim Fulton 38:35That's-

Jordan Davis 38:35It is my canvas.

Tim Fulton 38:36No, and that's a fantastic answer. All right. Jordan, thank you so much for your time.

Jordan Davis 38:41Thanks, Fulton, as always.

Travis Irvine 38:46All the nasty sex stuff. Bossa nova crowd, hello. Good to see you guys. It's great to be back. Chicago, I missed you. We missed you too. You guys are great. How you guys doing? Good. It's been a long time. Uh, I haven't been here in three years. Been doing a lot of traveling, uh, doing comedy, so it's nice to be back. Uh, I was doing, uh, comedy in England recently. Has anyone here ever been to England? Hell yeah. Couple people. Have the rest of you heard of England? Yeah. All right, sweet. Here we go. Um, great country. Great country. Uh, lots of cultural differences though. Uh, some of you guys might know. Uh, for example, uh, when I went there, uh, after one of my shows, I went up to this British dude. I was like, "Hey man, can I, uh, bum a cigarette?" And, uh, he said, uh, "Here in England, we call them fags." And I was like, "Whoa. Okay. Be careful, all right? Because, uh, you know, back in America, that's what we call British people." Come on. USA. USA. USA. That's why they hate us. That's why they hate us. That's why they hate us. I made it worse. I made it worse. So be careful when you go to England. Um... Just doing what I can. Uh, I live, uh, I live in New York now. Uh, everything Martin said about it is correct. Um... Terrible place. Originally from Ohio, though. Woo! Uh, what? Oh, I got a woo. Hold on, guys. Check it out. This is how you can find Ohio people in any crowd you're in front of at any time. This is what we do. Special thing Ohio people do. Here we go. O-H. O. Boom. We spell our state. That's about it. That's about it. But I'll tell you, that's pretty cool though, right? It's like not every state can do that. It's like, uh, good luck with that, Mississippi, all right? Need more I's and S's in our state name. I know. I'm from, uh, from Columbus, Ohio. Uh, it's the capital. Yeah, hold your applause. That's about right. Uh, it's fine. No, look, we're, we're a city named... I always gotta explain to people. It's like, yeah, we're a city named for Christopher Columbus. Uh, we have a statue of Christopher Columbus. Uh, we have a replica of the Santa Maria, the boat sailed across the Atlantic Ocean by Christopher Columbus. You wanna know who's never been to Ohio? Yeah. Christopher Columbus. That guy did not give a shit. He, uh, he's never been there, but we love him. We love him so much. We really love him for no reason. It's very nice. Um, it's kinda... I would like to be... It's just 'cause he's like, he's super famous. That's the only reason they named it after him, right? It's like, uh, I don't know, I'd like to have that. Would you like to have a city named for you? Would you like to be Christopher Columbus level famous? It sounds pretty cool, right? Like, my friends come up to me like, uh, "Hey, Travis, uh, you know they got a city named for you in Zambia." It's like, "Oh wow, Zambia. I've never been there and I've never heard of it." Uh... They're like, "Yeah, well they got a statue of, uh, you and a replica of you and an Uber." They say, "Hi." They say they're really big fans. Uh, you look like a real piece of shit though in the statue. That's fine. No, uh, here's the other cool thing about Columbus is that, uh, I, I recently found out, this is like a newfound reason to be proud to be from Columbus, but, uh, are the two other major cities in Ohio, Cleveland and Cincinnati, both have disgusting sex acts named for them. Did you guys know about this? Yeah, I know. I didn't know about this till like a week ago or whatever. But, uh, this is all true, right? So like Cleveland, for example, everybody, you might wanna put down the meatloaf for this, all right? What? Uh, yeah. Check it out. Cleveland has got a disgusting sex act named after it called the Cleveland Steamer. Ew. Yeah. Where, which involves two people getting nekked, one of them wrapping their chest in Saran wrap, and the other one squatting over them and taking a dump on their chest. Ew. Yeah, I know. And that is a lot like being in Cleveland. Oh, my God. I know, right? It's gonna... Well, all right, calm down. It's gonna be all right. Are you serious? But no one's gonna do it to you right now. It's fine. Unless, of course, we have a volunteer. Uh. All right. You might wanna cover your ears then for this next one if that's, 'cause I got one more to talk about. Um. This is, this is a Cincinnati Bowtie. This is a Cincinnati Bowtie. I did not know a Cincinnati Bowtie was a thing, but it is also a disgusting sex act, folks. Cover your ears, all right? Um, check it out. Cincinnati Bowtie is when, uh, you need a man and a woman for this one, so you both get naked. And the man, uh, he's gotta have a boner, right? And he, uh, proceeds to, uh, titty fuck the girl. He puts his boner in between her boobs, but he does it in reverse, so his butt hole is over her face- ... and his balls are hanging on the nape of her neck kinda like a bow tie. Yeah. And of course, that is a lot like being in Cleveland. Let's hate on Cleveland twice. All right, here we go. That's fine. All right. All right, speaking of sex stuff, uh, I am recently single, thank you very much. So I will be fucking anything after the show. Here we go. Here it goes. It's usually a pizza, don't worry. Um. Usually just out back fucking a pizza. Everyone's like, "Travis, that's a pizza." I'm like, "You know what? She doesn't treat me like shit, so uh-" "... just let me finish." You got a good look at my sex move, by the way. Remember that. Remember that when you listen to Bossa Nova later. All right. It's just that. Um. No, it's fine. I, uh, it, it, you know, it was a terrible relationship. It's, it's okay. Uh, maybe some of you guys can relate. Uh, uh, if you wanna join in by a round of applause, uh, how many people here have ever dated someone who likes to drink? A couple. Woo. Couple people. Yeah, absolutely. I think we all have. We all have. Oh, there, there's my ex. That might be my ex. Um. Let's kick it up a notch, guys. Kick it up a notch. Who here has ever dated someone who likes to drink a lot? Woo. Yeah. Oh, yeah, I believe it. I believe it. Here we go. Kick it up another notch. Who here has ever dated someone who likes to drink so much that it's always time to go home right now? Woo. Okay. There she is. All right. Woo. I think she's the one in the relationship, but that's okay. That's fine. That's okay. No, look, it was, it's, you know, sometimes you just find yourself in a relationship like that. Uh, and it's a bit of a nightmare. So you go, "Okay, uh, we're here at the party. It's a really great party. Uh, thanks so much for having us. Oh, honey, you go have fun, uh, yeah. What's that? She fell down? All right, we gotta go. Thanks so much." "Thanks so much for having us. I know we just got here, but she's really had a great time. What's that? She threw up on her coat? Oh, she threw up on all the coats." "The big pile of coats in the bedroom. Well, thanks for having us. We had a great time. It was, uh, really fun. No, we'll get an Uber. We'll get an Uber. She'll be fine. We'll stick her head out the window. Five stars for that guy." "It's gonna be just fine." It's okay. Here's the thing, I can't believe I finally had a serious girlfriend, uh, because, uh, here's the vibe that I give off, is that, uh, I'm an attractive man, but I'm ruining it. Does that make sense? Yeah. Does anybody? It's like somebody told me this once. They were like, "Hey, man, you kinda look like Johnny Depp on crack." It's like, all right, thank you. That was a compliment and then not a compliment. I appreciate that. That's what I get. I get, uh, Johnny Depp on crack, uh, James Franco on crack, uh, Colin Farrell on crack. Matt LeBlanc on crack. And Robert Downey Jr. normal. He's a lot of crack, that guy, all right. Wrote that joke in 1998. What do you think? Holds up pretty good. Okay. Uh, so anyway, yeah, now it's, uh, goddamnit, now I have to do, uh, all these, uh, all the dating websites or something. It's single. It's weird. I gotta, I gotta be single again. And all my friends, like, all the dating websites are really just, like, way too niche now for me, right? Like, I, I was back home in Ohio, saw a commercial for farmersonly.com. What the fuck? What are you talking about? Farmers do not need to fuck other people, okay? That's what the sheep are for. I know. I know, farmers. Feel free to use that one in the office. Um. And then, of course, and then there's, uh, then there's the religious ones, right? Christian Mingle, right? I'm sure maybe you guys know it. I mean, that's, that's adorable, right? Christian Mingle? Like, come on, we all know you guys wanna fuck. Come on. That's cute. We're gonna mingle. No, you're gonna fuck. You know it. You gotta be fruitful and multiply. I've read the book. Um, and then, uh, and then, oh, then there's JDate. There's a JDate. Anybody here on a JDate? Any JDates in here tonight? We got a JDate? We got a JDate. Yeah. We got a couple JDates? Any JDates? Any JD- That one? That's a JDate. Does anyone else know what JDate is? Anybody? Woo. Yeah. A couple people. Yeah. All right, if you don't know, JDate is, uh, is a dating website for Jewish singles. Yeah. Or, as they like to be called now, Jays. Gotta respect that. Um. And then, of course, all my... Yeah, then all my divorced friends are on Tinder. Any Tinder people? Woo. Hey. Uh, yeah, that table. I know where I'm gonna be hanging out after the show. Here we go. Yeah, Tinder's great. Tinder's just everybody's swiping and fucking all the time on Tinder. Woo. Oh my God. Swipe, fuck. Swipe, fuck. It's fantastic. Swipe to the right. Oh, swipe to the right and all night. Here we go. But check this out. I'm very excited. I am working on, uh, my own dating app, uh, right now. Uh, it is actually a mix of JDate and Tinder. It's called Schindler. And you just go through and save, don't save. Save, don't save, don't save. Hey, happy Hanukkah, everybody. That's it.

Tim Fulton 49:24Thank you for listening to the Confluence Cast presented by Columbus Underground. Again, you can get more information on what we discussed today in the show notes for this episode at theconfluencecast.com. Please rate, subscribe, share this episode of the Confluence Cast with your friends, family, contacts, enemies, your favorite flash mobber. If you're interested in sponsoring the Confluence Cast, get in touch with us. We can be reached by email at info@theconfluencecast.com. Our theme music was composed by Benji Robinson. I'm your host, Tim Fulton. Have a great week.