I've previously written about some community forums being held in our city.  After attending one last week, my thoughts kept returning to methods of connecting the business community and young people.  I dream of schools having as many "free enterprise days" as "green days."So I carried out a plan following the last forum and texted invitations to three of my son John's friends (high school seniors) to join me and a couple of my business friends for dinner and an evening forum (three discussions were held).  Don't laugh.  They were interested in being invited - dinner is always a plus - and they seemed to enjoy the discussion.

Some observations on the value of such an exercise:

What they got

• A free dinner full of discussion.
• Insight into how adult members of their community think about the community.
• A view of how business people interact.
• Some different perspectives on their community.

What I got

• More time with my son and his friends in a thinking, speaking, interacting situation.
• Their views of the forums (generally positive, but surprisingly adept at picking out the BS and self-serving agendas).
• Ideas that I can use as part of the next steps.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable evening.  Thanks for John, Corey, Spence and Tyler.  And thanks to Tim and Patrick as well.