Photos: KC Coworking Day sings virtues of big ideas in startup spaces

KC Coworking Day is a celebration of people whose vision exceeds their circumstances, said Bob Martin.

Bob Martin, iWerx

“If you’re an entrepreneur, and you have a vision, I hope your vision is so big that you’re uncomfortable sharing it with everybody — that there’s only a handful of people to whom you’re going to say, ‘This is what I’m going to do,’” Martin told a crowd gathered Thursday evening at Brookside Gardens for the third annual KC Coworking Day.

The event invited startup founders and leaders to take the stage and get vulnerable — detailing those scary big ideas that unite entrepreneurs — through quick-paced storytelling. For many presenters, it was an apt opportunity to laud the impact of the Kansas City coworking spaces that welcomed them along the way.

A partner at iWerx, an entrepreneur development center in North Kansas City, Martin’s frequent collaborators Mary Kay O’Connor, founder and CEO of PatientsVoices, and Pam Newton, Uncommon Relics Design Studio, were among those to discuss their journeys and the roles coworking played.

“I would suggest that it’s a celebration of survival, as much as it is a celebration of thriving,” Martin told the crowd in his introductory remarks.

Organized by the KC Coworking Alliance, the event provided a party-like atmosphere for members of the group’s 15-strong coworking businesses, which include iWerx, Cowork Waldo, Plexpod, WeWork, Grid, Bridge Space, Office Evolution, 31w31 The Nonprofit Village, Corbin Mill Place, Eastside Collaborative, eCafe, Ennovation Center, the Enterprise Center in Johnson County, Firebrand Collective, and Spark KC.

Joining in the on-stage sharing were the event’s caterers, Mattie’s Foods and KC Cajun, who served up praise for their homebase, the Ennovation Center in Independence.

Check out photos of KC Coworking Day 2018 — including a glimpse of the closing performer, Eems — in the gallery below.