Downtown business studio hopes to empower startups
Brad Harper
Air Force veteran and business owner Rashim McKinney has been all over the world and hasn’t seen another community with the same diverse set of skills and expertise as he sees in Montgomery.
“We’re such a talented group of people, such a creative bunch of people, such an authentic bunch of people,” he said. “… The one group of people we’ve got to convince of that is Montgomerians.”
That’s one of the ideas behind the Work Together Business Studio, a space for programming and meetups geared toward the area’s makers, creatives, small businesses, entrepreneurs and freelancers. The Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce launched it Tuesday at a renovated section of its 600 S. Court Street resource center.
About 100 people can use the space at any one time for working, training or community building, and there’s WiFi, audio and video connections, a conference room and more. The Chamber set it up after meeting with McKinney and others about the needs of the startup and entrepreneur community. They’ll offer programming and events geared toward that crowd starting in the spring.
“Our mission is to connect people to people and people to resources and this space allows us to do just that,” Chamber Chairman Willie Durham said.
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It all started Tuesday with a half-day event called InnovateMGM featuring presentations by McKinney and other locals.
McKinney said the goal is to allow different parts of the business and creative community to discover each other and collaborate in ways that elevate everyone. Do it properly, and you can help people redefine how they see themselves and how their city as a whole, he said.
“When we put our best foot forward, we can do great things,” McKinney said. “But history shows we don’t very good things when we’re separate and apart, whether that’s along racial lines, or ideological lines, or whether it’s just disciplines.”
You can see more at montgomerychamber.com/businessstudio.
Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Brad Harper at bharper1@gannett.com.