'Nashville Overground' could help stir startups
Milt Capps UPDATED 11:17 AM
In the past two years, Nashville's grassroots mobilizing of executives and creatives has enlisted hundreds of entrepreneurs, independent professionals and techno-innovators.Now, there's budding interest here in creating a low-overhead Nashville workplace where self-employed workers can share space and office resources, as they need them. The new facility might be modeled after Knoxville Overground (KO), which aims to provide independent workers in that city a place to hang their earbuds, for about $125 per month. During the past 90 days, KO Founder Alex Lavidge (left), a 29-year-old Knoxville entrepreneur, has shared the KO story at Gov. Phil Bredesen's annual economic-development workshop; and, with participants in Barcamp Nashville, which was held at the Sommet Center in October. Lavidge told VNC yesterday he's "been doing a lot of collaborating and [has] a long list" of Nashville executives who are interested in exploring creation of a Nashville Overground organization. Lavidge's record in Knoxville suggests Nashville Overground could happen rapidly, if stalwart champions step forward. The Knoxville group has been developing less than a year, and had its official kickoff in April. It is propelled mainly by the "people power" of its volunteers. Lavidge said he been encouraged in thinking about attempting to replicate KO in Nashville and other Tennessee cities by discussions with folks around the state. In an e-mail, he indicated he could see pursuing Nashville Overground in 2009, if the cause gains sufficient support here.
However, complementary initiatives are underway. Crook explained that she and others have created a local professional chapter of Net Impact. The parent organization encourages adopting sustainable business practices that help improve communities and the world. Nashville may be more fertile ground today for pursuing an "Overground"-type facility than in earlier years, because sectors of the business community have in recent months embraced more spontaneous entrepreneurial action. Major focusing events such as Barcamp Nashville 2, Podcamp Nashville and Nashville Startup Weekend have achieved a powerful cohesiveness that more formal commercial events and long-standing associations often fail to achieve or sustain. Spaced only a week apart in October, Barcamp 2 and NSW attracted perhaps 650 unique participants between them. Barcamp was a festive fast-paced technology show-and-tell at Sommet Center. NSW a smaller, challenging three-day event at the Owen School, designed for people who wanted to imagineer and execute new concepts for businesses and products. Some argue the success of these meet-ups is a result of the convergence of the ethos of Open Source, a desire to restore the "commons" in public life through microenterprise, the loneliness of Cube Culture, the impact of MoveOn.org, the revalidation of entrepreneurship, the rise of the Creative Class and the recognition of the impact of each individual's footprint in society, economy and environment. It's all accelerated by electronic social media, and it's newly focused on the "Triple Bottom Line" of people, planet and profits. Of course, much of it is just plain fun. ♦
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