That unfinished novel. That miscellaneous skill you promised your friends you could learn. That seemingly unending ‘to-do’ list. Regret no more!
Gignite is here Dayton, and it’s coming for all of your “what if’s”, “could I really’s”, and “maybe one day’s”.
Olivia Barrow first dreamed up Gignite a couple years ago; after her move away from Dayton to Madison, Wisconsin. Before leaving, Olivia was inspired by the emergence of Nucleus; a “non-profit co-share facility that provides an encouraging and supportive work environment” located on 5th street in downtown Dayton.
Former Daytonian Oliva Barrow
Olivia saw the power of mutual inspiration and collaboration between creators in a community, and hoped to expand that culture to the everyday residents of Dayton.
“Co-working is such cool idea, it’s so great to have access to a creative space and creative collaborators, and be inspired by other businesses” says Olivia, “How can someone who has a 9-5 in an office, tap into that community in a meaningful way?”
Enter Gignite!
Gignite is an “8-week incubator for side gigs, passion projects, and hobbies. We provide the time, space, accountability, and inspiration for you to turn those “one day I want to” ideas into real projects.”
And here’s what ya get. You get a workspace ideal for any and all passion projects you could think of (the meetings are held at the Nucleus office mentioned above), a never ending well of community collaboration, mutual inspiration, constructive critique, and a whole assortment of amenities to get your creative cogs turning including refreshments, wifi, paper and pens, and of course the most sacred gift of all: uninterrupted focus time for you and your “what if” side project to work things out.
Gignite costs $150 up front, with a $50 refund fee after meeting the attendance requirements. It may seem strange, but this is what makes Gignite so effective. Olivia puts a strong emphasis on accountability.
Olivia hopes the fee paid upfront helps members remember the commitment they’ve made to themselves and their project, so they “have a reason to keep showing up even if someone says ‘hey wanna go to trivia tomorrow’ and you’re like ‘oh yea!’, or that concert — you say ‘no, I paid for this. I said I was gonna work on my novel, or whatever’”.
It’s the difference between simply putting in the effort when it’s convenient and making your project a priority in your life.
While Gignite is just beginning in Dayton, Olivia has already gotten the ball rolling in Madison with two cohorts started earlier in 2017. Members have used Gignite to help accomplish a very wide variety of tasks: including learning to watercolor, launching a consulting business, a blog start-up, and crossing off a long to-do list.
“It went really well, the projects were really diverse. I felt like the cohort got more energy out of seeing such different things being worked on and hearing about how different people overcame different problems.”
The first Dayton cohort begins this coming Monday, on February 26th from 6:30-9:30pm. Sign up here, and find any additional information you may need at the Gignite Facebook page here!
