>> ... Next Generation ...

le-Invigorating Detr

Business professionals and networkers fill dPOP
for second NEXTWork event.

MICHAEL HIGER JN INTERN

The bank vau t has been trans-

formed into a meeting space

111 n the past couple of years, new

developments have been made to keep
young professionals working in the city
of Detroit. Networkers and "all-stars"
were given the opportunity to see one of
these developments firsthand at dPOP, the
venue for NEXTWork's second networking
event.
NEXTWork, a collaboration between JVS
and the Jewish Federation of Metro Detroit's
NEXTGen Business Hub, aims to keep young
Jewish professionals living and working in
Detroit and the metropolitan area.
"The goal of NEXTWork is to attract and
retain young Jewish professionals to Detroit,"
Matt Cohn, co-chair of the event, along with
Jason Raznick, said to a crowd of about
100 people. "To keep them here, to bring
them here and provide resources, leadership
experiences, opportunities, networking
events such as this one, which we want to
hold a few times throughout the year, and
help them build their careers and keep their
careers in Detroit."
The July 28 event was held at dPOP,
located in the basement of the Chrysler

Building. A Quicken Loans property, it is an
innovative workspace set in a former bank.
What was once a bank vault has been
transformed into a meeting space.
"Our differentiator here is that we do more
purposeful design," said Jennifer Gilbert,
CEO of Doodle Home, a company that works
out of dPOP. "We come in and we really
take a look at new culture, and if we don't
have new culture, what culture do we want
to create? And that's what made Quicken
Loans what Quicken Loans is — their culture
that they created — and one of the ways in
which they did that is with their spaces, and
dPOP is continuing to do that."
Gilbert added, "The biggest takeaway is
everything that's going on in Detroit and
how exciting it is on a daily basis. Summer
is definitely better than the winter, but
summer to summer, year to year you see how
exponentially it has grown — with all the
people out on the streets and interacting and
collaborating, and it really is amazing to see."
Young professionals had the opportunity
to network with some of Detroit's "all-stars,"
those who know firsthand the business

Steve Migliore and Rabbi Leiby Burnham

36 August 7 • 2014

opportunities that Detroit has to offer.
"I am on the board of JVS, and when
I found out about this and was asked if I
was available I said 'absolutely, - said Josh
Eichenhorn, commercial credit officer for
Huntington Bank. "I think the opportunity
to mingle with the young community,
which is where a lot of creative ideas are
coming from, is exciting and it can be really
worthwhile for both parts.
"In many regards, it's my parent's
generation that left the city and I love the
fact that the generation that's coming up
behind me realizes that 'hey, maybe we left
something behind of tremendous value,
and it's time to go back and see if there's
something that can be created if we come
back, - Eichenhorn added.
Along with the opportunity to network and
mingle with other guests, attendees were
also treated to hors d'oeuvres and drinks. The
common theme for the night among guests
was getting the message across that Detroit
is on the up-and-up and ready to thrive —
but none of it would be possible without the
help of the younger generation.

Dave Caplan, Josh Weinberg and Allen Weiss

"I have two young-adult daughters —
they live in Detroit and work in Detroit,"
said Stacey Deweese, director of the Jewish
Community Endowment Fund for Federation.
"I want our community to thrive, Jewish and
non-Jewish alike. Historically we're such a
tight Jewish community that if we can get
our kids back here and working and thriving,
it will re-invigorate that sense generation to
generation, everybody knows somebody —
it's really beautiful; it's like family."
This was the second NEXTWork event, the
first of which was held at the Shinola store
in Detroit in May. Attendance at NEXTWork
is continuing to grow and organizers plan for
more events.
"Looking to the future, we want to have
quarterly networking events, if not more
frequently," Cohn said. "The turnouts we've
been getting so far, this being our second
event, are just phenomenal." ❑

For more information on NEXTWork,
contact Amy Brody at (248) 203-1486
or at brody@JEMD.org.

Justin Bristol and Todd Brockdorf