What A Year For Denver Young Professionals

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While Denver has long been considered one of the Top 10 cities for Young Professionals, it wasn't until a year ago that we launched Denver Young Professionals.
 
I was actually prompted three years ago by my long-time college friend Ira Johnson to start DYP, based on my experience launching Winona Young Professionals (Winona, MN) in 1999 and Colorado Springs Young Porfessionals in 2004. But it wasn't until I convinced him to be president that we really got the ball rolling. Ira has lived in Denver for the last 10 years and is just one of those guys who is tough not to like. As a result, he knows everyone.
 
Feedback has been amazing and growth fast. We averaged 100 people per event from Summer to Fall. Then we bumped to more than 200 people per event and caught the attention of ColoradoBIZ Magazine. Their editor showed up to our last Fall event was blown away. He mentioned his trip to our event in his January editor's column, which became the second most-read story on their Web site.
 
More than 400 people have been coming to each event since January and we've grown to more than 2,000 members. There are 1,400 people following us on Twitter (DenverYP), 1,300 on LinkedIn, and more than 1,000 on Facebook. We're also on Buzzherd and Brightkite and we have special offers for members of ASmallWorld.
 
With all this exciting growth there have been growing pains. Members have wanted "more." We expected this kind of growth a year from now ... not now. But luckily we've attracted a lot of attention in Colorado. We've developed relationships with many organizations, including  Winter Park/Copper, Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, Glendale Raptors (Rugby), The Rapids (Soccer), Integrated Alliances (Linkedin Training), Denver Diva's (Women's YP), Gesher City (Jewish YP), Institute for International Education's YP group, AD2 of Denver, Glendale Chamber, Cherry Creek Chamber, and the list goes on. 
 
We've received notice outside our city as well. People have driven down from Fort Collins and Boulder, over from Summit County, and up from Colorado Springs, Pueblo, and Castle Rock for our DYP events. We also have strong interest from Boulder, Fort Collins, Summit County, and Grand Junction to get going there too.
 
It's a lot to do in such a short time, and we also have our hands full working to create seminars, sports teams, special events with our partners, Web needs, etc. But it's been rewarding to see people make friends and reconnect with old ones.
 
If you have clients, friends, or family in Denver, tell them to swing by our 1 Year Anniversary on Wed. June 17th at Katie Mullen's on 16th Street Mall in Downtown Denver.