Weird, Wonderful and Magnetic: How We Win the Talent War Together

The New Playbook: What Talent Actually Wants

Patience Fairbrother, Senior Vice President, Talent Attraction with Development Counsellors International shared what the modern worker is looking for. Spoiler alert: The "cool factor" is out; practicality is in.

According to workforce data from the US and Canada, here is what’s driving relocation today:

Financial Security is the New Luxury: The top reasons people move are a better quality of life, proximity to family, and — new to this year's report — lowering their cost of living.

Practical Factors > Hype: When people look at marketing materials, they are hunting for data on housing costs/availability, cost of living, healthcare and safety. Wichita wins on these factors every single time.

Jobs are Still the Deal... But Work/Life Culture Matters: While 67% of workers won't move without a job lined up, they are actively looking for a culture of good work/life balance and short commutes.

"Career Insurance": 44% of workers’ core skills will change in the next five years. Talent wants to "upskill," and they want to know a community has the infrastructure to help them grow.

Talent Moves Fast: Two-thirds of individuals move within six months of considering relocation, often picking a similar-sized community or region.

The Megaphone Effect: Owning Our Uniqueness

Visit Wichita’s Vice President of Marketing, Jaimie Garnett, and James Kellerman, Social Media & Digital Content Manager shared a case study about hosting the Travel Blog Exchange (TBEX) conference. Traditionally, Visit Wichita usually hosts six content creators a year and for TBEX they hosted 130 creators in four days. The biggest takeaway? Attendees described Wichita as "a city that has been hiding in plain sight." They loved our "weird and wonderful" uniqueness. The perception problem is real, but it is entirely fixable if we tell better stories, more often, and together.

3 Things You Can Do Today to Change the Story:

All of us can be a Wichita champion. Do these three micro-actions to help shift the story:

Update your Google Business Profile: Add just one sentence about Wichita to your company’s description.

Share a TBEX post: Drop a real Wichita fact on your personal or company social feed.

Be a digital neighbor: Answer just one Wichita-related question on Reddit or Quora.

Belonging is the Ultimate Retention Strategy

Our panel reminded us that winning talent to Wichita means absolutely nothing if we can't get people to stay. What keeps people here long-term? It boils down to opportunity, connectivity, affordability, and a deep, structural sense of belonging.

The "Retention is the New Recruitment" panel was moderated by Michelle Moe Witt, Attorney with Martin Pringle Law Firm. She was joined by local experts:

• Dr. LaShonda Porter, Director of Inclusive Engagement Strategies, Fidelity Bank
• John Buckley, Senior Manager of Military Programs, Textron Aviation
• Evan Barton, Marketing Manager for Early Career Programs, Campus Tulsa

To really understand how we move the needle on regional retention, our panelists shared three crucial insights:

Intentional Engagement: For Evan, a community needs to feel viable from a practical standpoint, but it’s the workplace culture that secures long-term commitment. As he noted, "Culture made me stay where I'm at." When organizations push for active engagement from day one and create space for genuine connection, young talent leans in.

Supporting Our Veterans: John highlighted the massive opportunity Wichita has with our military community. To help veterans choose to stay in Kansas after their service, businesses must provide clear pathways for growth and a workplace culture that mirrors the trust and values they lived by in the military. He emphasized the importance of building "a culture — the values that align with their values in military service" and utilizing Employee Resource Groups to keep them connected.

Human-Centric Cultures: LaShonda challenged employers to look at workplace culture as an evolving, human-centric ecosystem where workers are truly seen, heard and culturally valued. To build a community where families can thrive in a meaningful way, we must extend care and decency to one another — or as she beautifully put it, "To be human and to human well." When it comes to our ongoing growth, she left us with a powerful reminder: "Inclusion is an action, equity is a choice, and diversity is a fact."

Celebrating Our Choose Wichita Champions

Throughout the summit, we recognized the incredible individuals and organizations who are actively helping shape Wichita into a place people not only move to, but choose to stay in. The Choose Wichita Champions Awards celebrate those contributing daily to talent attraction, retention, belonging, and community pride across our region.

Our 2026 Champions:

• Joseph Shepard, Council Member, City of Wichita
• WSU Tech
• Fidelity Bank
• Goodwill Industries
• Angela Green, Wichita Mom, a blogger and community advocate
• Ana Lopez, City of Wichita
• Tami Bradley, Senior Advisor, Greater Wichita Partnership

Looking Ahead: Downtown Wichita 2035

The future is bright, and it's highly connected. Downtown Wichita’s Executive Director Heather Schroeder shared a preview of the new Downtown Wichita Action Plan, which maps out growth for the next decade (2026–2035).

Building on the $2 billion invested since 2010, the new plan focuses on making downtown a vibrant, "full-service" neighborhood. Expect strategies to encourage new housing, redesign Douglas Avenue, activate the riverfront and even start a downtown shuttle. 

Raffaele G. Fazio, President & Chief Operating Officer, Chase Koch Family Office, LLC, joined Heather to seek feedback about the open space that will be developed as part of the Movement Musick activation and improvement efforts in downtown Wichita.

Your 5-Step Action Item Checklist

None of this work happens in silos. If we want to build a magnetic region, we all have to step up as the ultimate "welcome wagon." Here are the actionable steps we can all take today:  

Tell your personal "Why Wichita" story to candidates and newcomers.

Champion regional wins publicly — both in real life and online.

Show how Wichita addresses talent pain points, like sharing about our short commutes and housing affordability.

Invest in digital-first resources, remember, people research online long before they pack a box.

Be the welcome wagon — help newcomers plug into civic life, volunteering and local culture.

Download the Toolkit!

The next generation of the Choose Wichita brand has officially debuted! Greater Wichita Partnership’s Executive Vice President of Strategic Communications Cynthia Wentworth invited everyone to dive into the shared resources now live on the website. Head over to ChooseWichita.com to grab tools, assets, a new hype video and shareable media that you can use in your recruitment processes every single day.

None of this work happens in silos. Workforce development doesn't happen in isolation — it's exactly why gatherings like today are so incredibly important. Let's quit copying other cities. Let's amplify what makes us uniquely Wichita.