Santa Barbara-based co-working center workzones celebrates its fourth anniversary with several events in April, including Co-working for a Cause.
Every Friday in April, for each non-member to come in to co-work at workzones, the company will donate 100 percent of the co-working fees to its Santa Barbara Walk to Cure Arthritis team.
Workzones sponsors a team in the annual walk which starts at 8 a.m. Saturday, April 29, at Santa Barbara City College West Campus. Visit www.walktocurearthritis.org/santabarbara.
Pam Tanase, workzones co-founder said: “The essence of co-working is that it provides one space where people of different backgrounds and interests can come together in the common goal of being productive in their businesses. This walk is so similar since a wide variety of people come together to support the goal of finding a cure for arthritis. We at workzones are proud to offer our support.”
Located in Paseo Nuevo, workzones was Santa Barbara’s first co-working location and continues to offer co-working, private offices and conference rooms for freelancers, “solopreneurs” and startup teams in the area.
The downtown site also is host to several local educational and networking groups including Santa Barbara Women Entrepreneurs, Santa Barbara Human Resources Association, Association for Women in Communications, Unity 3D and the Santa Barbara JavaScript group.
Over the past four years, workzones has housed a variety of entrepreneurs: lawyers, video editors, lifestyle coaches and social-media gurus.
Some local businesses have grown within the workzones space such as eco-lifestyle collective LoaTree (loatree.com), SaaS company ClearPathGPS (clearpathgps.com), and single serve-gel shots makers Jottshots (jottshots.com) are past members.
One current workzones member is entrepreneur Emily Solomon, who has leveraged the power of the co-working community to grow her business. Solomon is the founder of Go-Content (go-content.com), a digital marketing company serving food and alcohol companies globally.
“I love coming to workzones because it feels like coming to work to be with your friends,” she said, “The community I’ve established here is one that is real, fun and inviting every time I walk in the door.”
Kevin Battle is commissioner of College Rugby (d1arugby.com) and a major promoter of rugby in the United States. When not out on the field, Battle comes to workzones for the “office” part of his job.
“I like the space because it has an office environment without the office politics. And since it is entrepreneurs and independent contractors here, everyone is motivated and focused,” he said.
In addition to Co-Working for a Cause, other April events planned for workzones’ fourth anniversary include:
» Roll-back pricing: New memberships are being rolled back to workzones’ original 2013 price of $129/month.
» Member for a month: workzones invites the public to come co-working in April and enjoy the same benefits of being a workzones member, including co-working day passes for $15 and conference room rentals for $15 pe hour.
» Members as of April 26 are invited to participate in a workzones Power Lunch, which will provide several networking opportunities.
For more information, visit www.workzones.com.
— Pam Tanase for workzones.