Get2KnowNoke

Roanoke Star

For years, the Roanoke Region faced a familiar challenge: young professionals saw it as a place to leave, not a destination to build a career. Nestled in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountains but often overshadowed by Northern Virginia's proximity to D.C. and Richmond's capital city advantages, the region needed a new approach to attracting and retaining talent.

The transformation began about 18 years ago with Roanoke Outside, a foundational branding campaign that focused on outdoor recreation and helped establish a positive narrative for the region.

This spurred the creation of Roanoke Regional Partnership’s talent attraction brand, Get2KnowNoke – an innovative talent initiative that's helping rewrite Roanoke's story and achieve remarkable results. For the first time in decades, the Roanoke Region is leading Virginia in employment growth at 2.2% — higher than Northern Virginia, the state average, and the national rate.

"Roanoke Outside was our first real attempt at changing the narrative about our region," explains Julia Boas, who is the director of business investment at the Roanoke Regional Partnership. "For the first time, we had a foundational positive story that didn't exist before. It changed how people felt about their hometown and gave us credibility in the outdoor space. But when we wanted to actively attract talent, we realized the outdoors-only focus was too narrow."

Building on the success of Roanoke Outside, Get2KnowNoke adopted a "mountain meets metro" philosophy that showcases the region's outdoor assets alongside urban amenities, including food, music, culture, community, and nightlife. The initiative operates through multiple digital platforms: Roanoke.org for business investment, Get2KnowNoke.com for talent attraction, and RoanokeOutside.com, continuing the lifestyle and placemaking mission. Together, the digital platforms are creating a quality of life brand that is central to the community’s success.

By the Numbers
2.2% Employment growth rate - leading Virginia
267% Projected increase in net in-migration vs. 2020
22% Below national average for median home prices

"We were almost too successful with the outdoorsy marketing from Roanoke Outside," Boas notes. "Young professionals today aren't single-issue voters—they want the whole package. Get2KnowNoke lets us showcase that we have 1,000 miles of trails and 30+ breweries, but we also have 14 live music venues downtown and a thriving arts scene. It's not either-or, it's both-and."

Central to Get2KnowNoke's success is its Talent Ambassador program, featuring young and mid-career professionals who represent the diversity of people thriving in the region. The program creates authentic community-building opportunities that go beyond traditional networking.

Bonnie Chavez, CEO and founder of Building Beloved Communities and Roanoke's first Talent Ambassador, experienced this welcoming spirit firsthand when she was considering relocating from New Mexico. "I visited a couple of times, once in the winter, once in the summer – those are the two extremes," she recalls. "I got invited to a Christmas cookie swap – I'm a stranger, and these new friends invited me. I had the most wonderful time, got sent back to my Airbnb with cookies, and received many invitations to coffee and to join them for New Year's. Every single person I invited for coffee accepted the invitation."

For Chavez, who wanted to leave the hustle of Albuquerque for something more relaxed without slowing down too much, Roanoke offered the perfect balance. "The people and their true desire to connect with you – that's what you can't predict until you experience it," she says. "My quality of life has definitely improved living here. Whatever you're into, you can do it with a group of people. Introverts are also welcome and can find their people here."

The Talent Ambassador program has become particularly effective at addressing a common challenge for newcomers: finding their community. The program's tagline, "Find Your Noke," reflects its mission to help people discover not just jobs, but their people and their place in the region.

"The ambassador program works because it's real people sharing real experiences," Chavez explains. "When someone reaches out to me, I'm not giving them a sales pitch — I'm sharing what it's actually like to live and work here. That authenticity makes all the difference in helping people see this as a place where they can thrive."

The comprehensive approach extends beyond marketing to practical support systems. Get2KnowNoke provides comprehensive resources for remote workers, job seekers, recent movers, and those considering relocation, recognizing that different life stages require different types of support and connection.

For other Virginia regions facing similar challenges, Roanoke's evolution of Roanoke Outside and Get2KnowNoke offers valuable lessons: authentic storytelling builds a foundation, but attracting diverse talent requires purposeful messaging, comprehensive programming, and genuine community building.

Said Boas, "What we've learned is that talent attraction isn't about convincing people to move somewhere.” She continued, "It's about showing them a place where they can authentically be themselves and build the life they want. When you get that right, economic development follows naturally."