Introduction
Ready to party?!? Us too.
Society of Work is celebrating TEN YEARS of existence starting this month! We’ve had a lot of ups, downs, and lessons learned over the years, and we’re so proud to have made it this far in our journey. We owe it all to you: our members and community!
To celebrate ten years of connecting, creating, and coworking, we’re throwing not just one, but TEN events over the next few weeks! Along with the events themselves, we will also be releasing a new series of articles on Medium featuring our community partners.
Before getting to the festivities, we want to appreciate this journey we’ve been on. How did we get to where we are today? Let’s rewind.
Society of Work History
Ten years ago, Kelly Fitzgerald saw what many others did not: something essential was missing from the Chattanooga community. As an entrepreneur herself, Fitzgerald understood that environments for creatives and professionals were lacking. At the time, individual business owners were starting their futures from home, in coffee shops, and in other various spaces.
This is where coworking saves the day.
For two years, Fitzgerald cultivated and grew a creative community focused space from Society of Work’s very first location on the 13th Floor of the First Tennessee Bank building The space had four offices open for use, one conference room, and a main coworking area. But for two years, Fitzgerald put everything she had into the Society of Work dream, hosting events and building connections within the community. By 2015, Society of Work quickly outgrew bank life and was able to expand to a new location! The Edney Innovation Center opened and the Society of Work coworking space was born. Being at the Edney allowed Society to connect with the greater entrepreneurial and startup community that was gathering on Floor Five and connecting with resources such as Co.Lab and Launch Chattanooga.
Floor Six offices filled quickly, and Society of Work expanded to Floor Seven with larger office spaces for teams. Growing in members, Society of Work needed even MORE space by the time 2018 rolled around. With the expansion to the Loveman building, we advanced/expanded to around 60 offices between the two locations!
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic took over, and Society of Work depended on its members more than ever to stay connected and support one another during an unprecedented time. During this time, Society of Work was able to provide safe work space for its members and continued to dream of ways to support the growing businesses who called SOW home.
With plans for expansion to the Northshore, we made the decision to close our Loveman location (R.I.P. 2018-March 2023). Fortunately for us, however, when one door is closed, another window is opened!
In February of this year, we were SO pleased to announce the opening of our dreamy Somer Station! This location has been so good to us. With 58 new office spaces and many new office mates, the community we have grown and nourished over the past few months is everything we could have imagined… maybe even more?!?
Coworking Community
Society of Work has been home to so many startups, freelancers, creatives, and more. It’s one thing to have the freedom to work where you want, but it’s a seriously rewarding bonus to have a community around you while you do it.
You and your company may be small, but the people out there who want to know and support your business are BIG. We have found that when we use the coworking space as a building block for community, companies and individuals thrive socially as well as professionally.
Society of Work provides more than just office space. We strive to connect you with coworkers that ask: how can we support one another? Coworkers who care.
The Ten Events
Kicked off with our Yummy Thai Food Truck Event and our Game On Game Night (which were a HIT), our birthday parties have been carefully planned by our wonderful community managers Mary Stargel and Lauren Karnes!
We’ll give special attention to each event as the month goes on, but for now, here’s an overall view of the events laid out just for you! Check out our Eventbrite page and Instagram for more details:
https://www.instagram.com/societyofwork/
· Yummy Thai Food Truck (August 3, Somer Station)
· Game On Game Night (August 8, The Edney)
· Morning Yoga Class (August 10, Somer Station)
· SOW Gives Back (August 12, Crabtree Farms)
· Free Coworking Day (August 21, The Edney & Somer Station)
· Drink and Draw! (August 31, The Edney)
· Sleepyhead Coffee Pop-up (September 7/8/9, Somer Station)
· Free Coworking Day (September 8, The Edney & Somer Station)
· Maker’s Market! (September 9, Somer Station)
· BIRTHDAY BASH (September 22, Somer Station, 6–9pm)
