GREENFIELD – With their new event series, the founders of Greenspace CoWork, the co-working space downtown, hopes to create a new platform to highlight local businesses, while also offering them an opportunity to connect and network with one another.
The Business Breakdown is scheduled to take place at Greenspace the first Wednesday of every month at Greenspace CoWork, located on the third floor of the Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center, according to Jeff Sauser and Jeremy Goldsher, co-founders of Greenspace CoWork.
“(The event is) a combination of reinvigorating the local business community and providing a new platform for businesses to tell their story,” said Sauser.
The first business to be featured will be Four Phantoms Brewing on March 2 at 5:30 p.m.
“We went over to their brewery a couple weeks ago, and learned their origin story and why they’re there,” Sauser said. “Hopefully, there’s a common theme (among businesses) – why did you chose Greenfield? Why did you choose Western Mass?”
At each event, the featured business owners will offer a brief presentation on what they do, while also opening a discussion with others on the challenges they’ve faced, or ideas they have for the future.
Sauser said as COVID begins “calming down,” he and Goldsher have been trying to create opportunities for people to gather again when its safe.
“While there have been forums and other online things, a number of business owners in particular need an in-person opportunity to network and connect,” he said. “And there have also been a number of new businesses formed, and changes in the landscape we’d like to highlight.”
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Greenfield has welcomed Plum, Parker on Main, Four Phantoms Brewing and Nima’s Nails to the business community.
Goldsher added that the monthly event aims to compliment the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce breakfasts.
“At the end of the day, we simply hope this is a fun and informal gathering that people can feel good coming to and being in-person,” he said.
The desire to host an event like this has been in the works for the better part of the last four years, Goldsher said, but the partnership really started thinking about it about a year and a half ago.
“We started theorizing about getting businesses together and having honest conversations,” Goldsher recalled. “I know from my fellow peers running businesses downtown that many of us are going through the same experiences … I find everybody is silently grappling with these issues.”
Goldsher said looking ahead to the future, he hopes to see Greenspace CoWork focus more on using their space as a platform to elevate other businesses.
“I think we just want to establish ourselves as the gateway we’ve been to the downtown community, and ... have those conversations with each other,” Goldsher said.
Sauser echoed a similar sentiment.
“It’s our hope that it lasts indefinitely,” he said. “Hopefully, it becomes an anchor in the community.”
Reporter Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter: @MaryEByrne