There’s Something Happening Here

from Valley Business FRONT, Issue 165, June 2022

Tech Whisperer

Get2Know Noke is Johnson’s mission

The Experience Conference scheduled for June 13 at Hotel Roanoke is another example of the efforts that may been made over the past few decades to attract new businesses and talent to the valley. The Roanoke Regional Partnership, launched in 1983, claims it has helped bring more than 20,000 jobs and $2.4 billion worth business investment – new builds, renovations, equipment, etc. during that almost 40-year stretch.

The Experience Conference, focused on networking, professional development and collaboration, is not new but returns this year in person after being virtual last year due to, well, you know, that pandemic. For the first time the Regional Partnership’s recently hired Director of Talent Acquisition, Taylor Johnson, is overseeing the event. Johnson, a Vinton area native who returned home after ten years in northern Virginia, is her own case study on the type of young professionals – and maybe the more seasoned professionals - the Partnership and local governments have been trying to lure to the Roanoke and New River Valley for years.

“I really wanted to be able to afford a house and I can do that here,” says Johnson, whose sister Morgan Romeo oversees the Virginia Career Works office on Thirlane Avenue in Roanoke. Johnson says its not a hard sell once people are exposed to the region. “We have great livability, wonderful outdoors (amenities), great food and beverage [options] that are actually pretty amazing.” On the employment end of the equation, “we have so many businesses that are represented here in the region that weren’t [here] 10, 15, 20 years ago. In a variety of industries … tech, life sciences, health care - you can find a job here in Roanoke and have the livability you can’t find elsewhere.”

Again, the rise in remote working during the peak of the pandemic works in the Roanoke region’s favor; Johnson also says major metro areas are losing population as many seek a slower pace of life and a lower cost of living – and work for employers willing to let them work virtually. Or its their own business and they can work where the choose of course. “We’re getting remote workers that want to come here because they can make their northern Virginia salary in Roanoke and be able to have grass … and a piece of land. We are in a really great situation.” It’s a message that Taylor Johnson will keep preaching, at the Experience Conference this month – and elsewhere as part of her Talent Acquisition role.

We have great livability. ”“