Impact Hub Salt Lake Opens Doors to Social Enterprise in Utah
Salt Lake City, UT (PRWEB) April 30, 2015 -- After more than a year of restoration, the historic building located at 150 South State Street opens as the permanent home of Impact Hub Salt Lake. Lt. Governor Spencer Cox and local civic and business leaders celebrated the grand opening with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, April 30th.
“Salt Lake’s history is rooted in a pioneering and entrepreneurial spirit,” said Brian Lemke, Vice President of Business Development, Salt Lake Chamber. “The renovation of this century-old building is consistent with the historic preservation goals of the city, and the vision established in the Chamber’s ‘Downtown Rising’ master plan. The historic building was a thriving center of commerce throughout the 20th century, and today we celebrate the Impact Hub, which is leading Salt Lake’s innovation commerce in the 21st century.”
Impact Hub Salt Lake is a membership-based, co-working and networking community, and incubator for social enterprises and entrepreneurs. As part of the Impact Hub global network, members in Salt Lake City have access to resources across 75+ Impact Hubs and 10,000+ community members across 5 continents.
Impact Hub Salt Lake consists of three distinct elements:
First, it is a vibrant community of passionate and entrepreneurial people who share an underlying intention to improve their communities and act as peers to cross-fertilize and develop their ventures.
Second, it is a source of inspiration that provides meaningful content through thought-provoking events, innovation labs, learning spaces, incubation, programs and facilitated conversations that support business development and drive positive impact.
Third, it is a physical space that offers a flexible and highly functional infrastructure to work, meet, learn and connect. The magic happens where these three elements connect and are brought to life through the art of hosting.
“Innovation is most often the result of collaboration, and the layering and multiplying of ideas,” said Søren Simonsen, Impact Hub Co-founder & President, and a prominent Utah architect and urban designer. “Impact Hub represents a microcosm of how cities came to be. People coming together, as a community, to solve problems and cross-pollinate ideas. Essentially, the Impact Hub is like a modern-day town square, bringing people and ideas together and forward.”
Impact Hub Salt Lake was designed to provide a collaborative environment in which people can work, meet and learn within a modular structure.
“The Impact Hub offers opportunity for everyone, whether you’re a start-up non-profit, an entrepreneur experiencing early stages of growth or an established business,” said Dustin Haggett, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Impact Hub Salt Lake, who first became interested in the concept while completing his graduate program in sustainable management. “I didn’t know such a community existed and was immediately impressed by the energy of the people and the variety of projects and ventures incubating there. Start-up life can be difficult and there is something intriguing about sharing a space with other like-minded entrepreneurs who have an interest in your success.”
Over 400 members, across a number of private and non-profit sectors have joined Impact Hub Salt Lake, which has been in a temporary pop-up space since early 2014.
“I love that Impact Hub attracts so many innovative and driven individuals,” said Sarah Burroughs, Impact Hub member and founder of Anne B Designs. “It's refreshing being around people who dream big and who don't settle for mediocre products and systems. And everyone at Impact Hub supports each other and gets excited for each others' successes.”
“I came to the HUB to get in on a piece of the action within the SLC startup scene. My sportswear company, Swoob, is a small business that doesn't have the need for dedicated office space,” said Kyle Muir, Impact Hub member and founder of Swoob + Hyperactive Capital. “When I understood the purpose of Impact Hub, and after meeting the people working out the of the space, it felt like the right place for me.”
Community and business partners across the state have shown support from the start by giving time, investment funds and contributing to the community of ideas. Those include Variance Ventures, BoomStartup, CLEARLINK, Zions Bank, Holland & Hart, XMission, Durham Jones Pingar and many more have already seen an impact the investment has made on their own businesses and employees from the idea sharing alone.
"Every business, large or small, benefits by having a place where they can both give back to the business community in unique ways, and foster new thinking and ideas within their employees. It's this collection of community and business relationships that is the essence of what a thriving Impact Economy looks like," said Phil Hansen, CEO of CLEARLINK and Impact Hub partner. "We're excited to be part of the impact growing businesses and non-profits will have on our local economy.”
Throughout the week of April 27th, the Impact Hub will be hosting sessions for members and potential members. The week culminates on Thursday, April 30th with the ribbon cutting at 10:00 am and celebration party at 7:00 p.m.
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About Impact Hub Global:
Impact Hubs make up a global network of people, places, and programs that inspire, connect and catalyze impact. The first Impact Hub opened its doors in London in early 2005. Now after almost ten years later, there are more than 60 operating locations around the world, with many more Impact Hub startup initiatives in progress.
About Impact Hub Salt Lake:
Impact Hub Salt Lake is a co-working space, venue, think-tank and incubator for social entrepreneurs. We connect entrepreneurs, investors and supporters with the aim of finding ways to disrupt traditional economic thinking by shifting focus from solely profit towards impact.
Tyson Olcott, CLEARLINK, http://www.clearlink.com, +1 (801) 558-9772, [email protected]
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