In June of 2008, a group of friends who met for weekly coworking sessions (aka Jelly! meetings) at Panera Bread in West Knoxville started to brainstorm what would be the ideal conditions for self-employed professionals, entrepreneurs, and virtual employees in the tech, cleantech, and professional services industries. The result was an innovative vision for triple-bottom line economic development for Knoxville. Learn how they went about opening Knoxville’s first coworking space and what their projects are for the future for Knoxville Overground, a nonprofit organization.

Their flagship project is a proposal for a 5,000 square foot “micro-enterprise development center” which would integrate a business accelerator, a social lounge open to the public, and classrooms where there will be ongoing classes in the spirit of “BarCamp” that cover areas from emerging markets to classes on raising capital. Drawing inspiration from programs like the Renaissance Entrepreneurship Center in San Francisco to the Entrepreneur Center in San Jose, CA to Y Combinator, the aim is to integrate best practices to create the ideal ecosystem for entrepreneurship.

The speaker, Alex Lavidge, moved back to his hometown of Knoxville after spending several years in Silicon Valley where he worked with several Web and cleantech startups in fields from public relations to user-interface consulting. Also included in the presentation will be notes from his trips around the world where he surveyed best practices from business incubators and coworking hubs as well as comments on how those insights are influencing the shape Knoxville Overground is taking. He will end on the “5 main reasons” why this group feels as though Knoxville has what is takes to be an up and coming mecca for tech entrepreneurs, creatives, and self-employed professionals — just like Austin, TX — and what other organizations like KO are doing in the region to make it happen in Knoxville, TN.