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On Thursday, March 21, 2002, MotivAsians had its
first official kick-off event. It was a much-anticipated gathering at the
upper floor of Sushi Rock, a hip sushi restaurant on W.6th Street in the
Warehouse District in Downtown Cleveland. The event started officially at
6:15 in the evening, and apparently, Asian Standard Time (AST) factor was not
in effect. A constant stream of young professionals found their way to the
upper floor of Sushi Rock to be greeted by a vision of what the Greater
Cleveland community can become: Young professionals of all different
ethnicities and all different industries mingling and making new
acquaintances, in an environment they had always imagined, but never
experienced in Cleveland. Those who had come fashionably late, were welcomed
by a crowd eagerly awaiting the answers to the questions "Who is behind
all this?" and "What is this group all about?" and "Where
did all these young Asian professionals come from?" and sushi. Opening
remarks from MotivAsians president Stephen Ong were followed by a short video
presentation put together by MotivAsians founder Jay Yoo. The remarks and the
video answered those few initial questions, but, by design, generated new
ones. The opening remarks addressed the issue of the Quiet Crisis, a term
coined by the Plain Dealer to draw everyone’s attention to, among other
things, the talent depletion from Cleveland, due to reasons such as lack of
strong community and emerging business sectors. This talent depletion also
applies to Asians, specifically, as there is no sense of a strong Asian
community for younger professionals. MotivAsian's mission is to create the
environment to retain and attract young Asian professional talent to
Cleveland, and this first event evidenced that MotivAsians has the capacity
to do so. Everyone inquired about the next events, the direction of the
group, and very many were interested in taking an active role in MotivAsians,
as they share the same concerns that the group aims to address. By
the end of the night, attendance had been over 120 people, filled with sushi
and an appetite for the next MotivAsians event. Many introductions had been
made, many business cards exchanged, and more importantly, many came away
from the event excited about the future of Cleveland. |