Amy Donahue, Director of Marketing and Communication, River City Company
Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur, have an idea for a startup or are just looking for a new place to do a little work other than your routine coffee shop, Basecamp in Miller Plaza offers a free, monthly coworking opportunity anyone can enjoy in the heart of Chattanooga’s Innovation District, a 140-acre area in downtown where workers and companies lead the efforts of building our knowledge economy.
Miller Plaza is a cherished physical asset, and events like Basecamp bolster the networking and economic assets of the first ever Innovation District in a mid-sized city here in Chattanooga.
Transformed for the entire week long stretch of Startup Week Chattanooga every October, monthly, one-day Basecamp events now happen the first Tuesday of every month from April through September to keep the Startup Week buzz going year round.
Basecamp participants enjoy:
- Networking
- Morning coffee and pastries
- Dedicated charging and work stations with a variety of seating choices
- Games like ping pong and corn hole
- High speed Wi-Fi
- Co.Lab Talk Shop Tuesday event featuring a local business leader and lunch
- Free evening Innovation Happy Hour at The Edney
Whether you want to cowork the entire day, stop by in between appointments or host team meetings in the space, Basecamp is designed to be a flexible and communal work setting for the day while offering perks and insight from business leaders in the community.
According to the Brookings Institute in their seminal work “The Rise of Innovation Districts: A New Geography of Innovation in America”, an Innovation District or ecosystem occurs where economic, physical and networking assets converge. Economic assets are institutions and organizations in the district. Physical assets are the public and privately owned spaces like streets, parks and buildings. Last, networking assets are the relationships between the economic assets that can perpetuate and grow ideas in the district.
Basecamp highlights all three major assets of Chattanooga’s Innovation District: economic by the companies and individuals in attendance, physical in the open and accessible Miller Plaza and networking among those in attendance.
Basecamp in Miller Plaza is an easy, cost-effective (free!) and open access point to all that is happening in the Innovation District.
Basecamp is powered by EPB Fiber Optics in partnership with Startup Week Chattanooga, Co.Lab and River City Company. More information about Basecamp in Miller Plaza here.
