Our Jackson Home: #731Day2017
731Day is a celebration of Jackson and all those who are proud to be a part of West Tennessee! Every July 31 (7/31) we choose to enjoy the beauty of our city and the people who make it better every day.
Join us Monday, July 31, for our second annual celebration of 731Day! Join us Monday, July 31, 2017, for our second annual celebration of 731Day! Featuring A Night of Storytelling, downtown bar crawl, #OJHshop pop-up, and Jackson’s biggest water balloon fight, as well as plenty of local businesses offering special 731Day deals. Plus, we will be launching our August-November journal (Vol. 3, Issue 2: Day & Night) as well as some new merch. The best way you can get involved is by offering a special #731day deal for your business to mobilize people throughout our community and to support all things local.
Get out in your community this 731Day, and don't forget to tag your posts with #731day and #731day2017! Learn more here.
CO.STARTERS Spotlight: Nebulosity Music & Arts Festival
What is Nebfest?
Kari Howard: It’s a 3D music festival. You’ve got three stages, vendors, a fire-breathers workshop you can attend. It’s basically like one big, happy summer music festival right here in Atwood, Tennessee.
Heath McKissick: Nebfest is three days, [. . .] 30+ artists. Rock, reggae, indie rock. [. . .] Everything’s a show. [. . .] We have workshops the whole weekend. You can come and learn how to juggle, you can learn how to eat fire, you can do belly dancing, you can do yoga. [. . .] You pay one ticket, and you just come for the whole weekend.
Kari: You know, we’re in the Bible Belt, and so we’re Southern. So we’re trying to mix this summer fun crowd with the—what should we call it?—“music artsy festival” crowd. [. . .] So we’re trying to just combine the two into one like transformational weekend, you know? They get exposed to the culture that they’re involved with, and they kind of get exposed to the culture of Jackson and the surrounding cities. Yeah, it’s super cultural, and it’s something very unique to Jackson that nobody else is doing.
CO.STARTERS Pitch Night Celebrates Another Group of Entrepreneurs
From the start, theCO has been committed to helping entrepreneurs in West Tennessee, and CO.STARTERS is the vehicle we use to support them. It’s a nine week program that equips aspiring entrepreneurs with the insights, relationships, and tools needed to turn their business ideas into action. The spring 2017 CO.STARTERS class is coming to a close, and that means one thing: Pitch Night!
Made at theCO: Father's Day Edition
A coworking makerspace brings endless possibilities to the creative. It has even served as a collaboration destination for father and son creators Bryan and Nathan Britt.
The Britts first heard about theCO last October as a Jackson Christian School (JCS) teacher asked his student Nathan to be a part of theCO’s second annual celebration of theCOtoberfest.
“He got to display the catapult basketball game he had created for a project at school in their science class makerspace lab,” Nathan’s father Bryan said.
Since then, the father-and-son team have used theCO to create everything from fidget spinners using 3D printers and signs using the CNC router. It is the environment, Bryan says, that makes the difference.
Our Jackson Home: Jackson's Top BBQ Tour
Here at theCO, we understand that local restaurant owners are some of the toughest entrepreneurs out there, and lucky us, frequenting their businesses is pretty fun! Check out this Our Jackson Home Top BBQ Tour by Katie Howerton highlighting five of our city's tastiest spots
Dev Catalyst Celebrates Another Great Trip to San Francisco
What happens in San Francisco doesn’t stay there. It impacts students far beyond their four-day trip to Silicon Valley.
The journey to the grand prize destination began with students competing daily by staying alert in Dev Catalyst classes and sharpening their skills. This was all in the efforts of students from eighteen West Tennessee high schools and one Vermont high school to complete in the annual Dev Catalyst final coding project. Project winners were awarded the chance to participate in the annual San Francisco trip amongst other prizes. Winners were announced in the annual Dev Catalyst Awardaganza featuring CO:member, Jackson Escape Rooms’ owner, and CBS’s Hunted reality TV winner Lee Wilson. Though in years past students have enjoyed the trip, this year's adventure was remixed to even further enrich each student.
Our Jackson Home: Third Generation
Here at theCO, we're helping Jackson businesses get off on the right foot, and we're always inspired by those who have been doing it right for years. Havner's Frame Shoppe is an example of that, and today we share Josh Garcia's Our Jackson Home story on this local family business.
Member Spotlight: Kimberly Lovelady
Tell me a little about yourself.
I have a health and wellness consulting firm that helps people make small changes in order to improve their lifestyle. During my other time when I'm not busy, I am a mother to two lovely boys. One is in college . . . and my youngest is in middle school. I'm married. We are getting ready to be empty-nesters. . . . I volunteer all over the place.