The Commons on Champa is one of the newest, hippest, and most exciting co-working spaces in Denver. The space opened just this past April, but it’s already taking the city’s startup community by storm.

About a month and half ago on July 20th, the Commons got themselves a new Program Director in Amy Wofford who oversees everything from programs and operations to just making sure that the building is doing what it was created for.

Image.

We caught up with Amy this week to see how things have been going since she got started:

Innovators Peak: Obviously you would view the space as pretty successful since you’ve been involved, right?

Amy Wofford: Oh yeah. I probably do three or four tours a day with new people who heard about us, but don’t really know what we do and want to come check it out because it sounds awesome. Sure enough they usually end up coming back all the time with their friends. We’ve probably had over 4,000 people through the space in the first four months. Denver Startup Week is going to be our next big launchpad.

Wow that’s a lot of people—so what types of industries do you see most making use of the space? Or is it really just kind of diverse in that sense?

It’s really diverse and that’s what we want here. We want all types of conversations about entrepreneurship and innovation happening here regardless of what industry you’re in. So if it’s manufacturing or technology or nonprofit, we want all of those conversations happening here.

You mentioned non-profits—the second floor of the Commons is specifically reserved for just for them, right?

Yes, we have the whole upstairs and we have open desks still left to rent. We have five separate huddle rooms up here that people can use for conference calls or board meetings in addition to being able to call it their headquarters, have a mailing address, and all of their meetings here.

How has the reaction to that space been?

People have been really excited. It’s always just a matter of timing and figuring out when they can get here. If they have to get their customers, their clients, and their community familiar with the space — the first floor is a really great place to start that and have the second floor as their headquarters. Everyone has been really excited. We’ve been giving a ton of tours. I think Denver Startup Week will give us a lot more exposure to non-profits.

How do you think spaces like this are playing a role in Denver becoming the great startup city it is today?

I think that we get to play a huge role in innovation and entrepreneurship here in the city just by having a space that is inclusive and accessible. Everything we have here is either free or low-cost to use and attend. I think that helps to advance collaboration so much more by bringing people together rather than having to deal with stuff over the phone or paying a high price to have relationships developed.

Speaking of relationships, can you tell me about some of your valuable partnerships and how they play a role in your success at the Commons?

We have incredible partners — over 40 organizations helped make this space possible. They helped build the space to create the community and now they want the community to build it going forward.

We’re obviously so thankful for our partnership with Comcast and the amazing work they’ve done here in providing the technology and the Wi-Fi. People truly do compliment and thank us for that everyday and it’s made [the Commons] a place that attracts people rather than one that looks outdated.

Obviously we’re also so thankful for JP Morgan Chase who provided the launching pad to get started here, the Downtown Denver Partnership, Colorado Technology Association, Liberty Global was a key partner — I could go on and on.

What kinds of exciting events do you have coming up?

We have some really exciting events coming:

-Denver Startup Week is September 28th through October 2nd is going to be huge.  The base camp is downtown but we plan on having a lot of programs and events going on here that week.

-We are going to be announced this week as the host for the 1776 Challenge Cup. It’s over 40 cities worldwide and we’ll be the Denver host, which we’re looking at having the last week of October.

-Comcast is having a non-profit panel here on September 12th, which we would love for people to come.

Those are a few that come to mind but we really have some much ore going on that you can find on our website.