The #YoungHartford Forum brought both young professionals and city residents to the Old State House in downtown Hartford to discuss ways to improve Connecticut’s capital city.

Running the forum was HYPE – Hartford Young Professionals and Entrepreneurs. Executive Director Julie Daly Meehan says “We were really fortunate to have the Hartford Courant reach out to us and ask us to partner with them on one of their key issues forums. And the topic for this one was really young Hartford, so, what does it take to have young people want to stay in an area, and does Hartford have it?” With a smile, she adds “In my opinion, it does.”

HYPE is a networking group for young professionals in the greater Hartford area.

Meehan says “We’re part of the Metro Hartford Alliance, we’re not a separate organization, so we have the support of the business community, and we have all kinds of members – actually, about 4,000.” While most members of HYPE are in their 20s or 30s, anyone can join.

Over the course of the evening, participants discussed everything from rent to public transportation to the identity of the city as a whole.

Moderating the panel was Courant columnist Colin McEnroe. During a question about uniting Hartford’s many cultural identities, he said “It would be great to get everybody together and have a district where there were restaurants – locally owned and indigenously grown from a lot of different cultures were all together.”

For more information, visit www.hypehartford.com