Back on August 23rd, The Hub celebrated its 4th year of operation out of our Queen Street location. We are so honored to have made it this far as a coworking space, creative outlet and a gathering place. Together, we have grown through renovations, a rebrand, community volunteer opportunities and countless events–pau hanas, networking opportunities, movie premieres, crop swaps– just to name a few! We only hope that this growth continues long-term, and that we can provide the location, resources and opportunities for you and your business to, as we say, “do well and do good.”
Before 2020, the Hub was a community resource for businesses needing a venue for their meetings and events. The Hub was and still is a gathering place for many of its own community members allowing the businesses in our own network to spotlight their products/services. While events have taken more of a back seat nowadays, we can’t help but to reminisce on some of the past events that we have had the pleasure of hosting. We hope to bring events back when we’re able to gather in a safe manner again.
- Art@Hub Shows
- The Hub has had the pleasure of having it’s space beautified by murals painted by local artists. Artists would create murals or installations on the common theme of “Community.” In exchange, the Hub would provide membership or residency for artists to continue their work or provide classes to the community. Each artist would also be featured in their own Art@Hub Show where they’d display their gallery of work. Local artists that have created murals or installations for the Hub are Lauren Hana Chai, Boz Schurr, Aimee Dukes, Shenae Tam, Bai Xin Chen, Ryan Higa, Aria Villafranca, and Lauren Trangmar.
- Indie Lens Film Nights
- In partnership with PBS Hawaii, we would transform our Main Event Space into a theater and feature independent documentary films focused on a variety of social issues. PBS Hawaii would even bring pizza, a popcorn machine and arare/mochi crunch. Some popular features were “Out of State” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
- Climathon
- In fall 2019, we hosted the first ever Honolulu Climathon. We hosted the Climathon Honolulu Hackathon with guest judges Chelsea Harder of Hawaiʻi Green Growth, June Matsumoto of Pacific Islands Institute, and Chris Barzman from Sustainable Tourism Association of Hawaii. We focused on sustainable tourism and guided our participants with the guiding question of: “How do we reduce the human impact of tourism in Honolulu?”
Climathon 2019 Winners Team Get Zero Wasted
- In fall 2019, we hosted the first ever Honolulu Climathon. We hosted the Climathon Honolulu Hackathon with guest judges Chelsea Harder of Hawaiʻi Green Growth, June Matsumoto of Pacific Islands Institute, and Chris Barzman from Sustainable Tourism Association of Hawaii. We focused on sustainable tourism and guided our participants with the guiding question of: “How do we reduce the human impact of tourism in Honolulu?”
- Wellness Wednesday
- Awakened Mana has been hosting Wellness Wednesday events once a month at the Hub since our early Impact Hub Honolulu days. They are creators of conscious events and products. With a focus on movement, health, sustainability, growth and community, their events and products inspire reflection and an awakened consciousness. Popular events have consisted of Sound Healing Meditation, Kombucha Brewing Workshops and Light Alchemy.
- Weekly Member Luncheon
- Formerly held every Wednesday in the community kitchen, our Member Luncheon was an opportunity for our members to connect with each other during the lunch hour. We’d provide pizza or food from local neighborhood restaurants (thank you, Thyda’s Tacos!) and break the ice for everyone.
- Monthly Crop Swaps – Back on!
- This series of events was born from members sharing their abundance from their home gardens and crops. Our amazing members would bring in apple bananas, mangos, marrungay leaves (malunggay/moringa) and all kinds of herbs to share with others. We figured why not make this a monthly occurrence? This was also the perfect pairing with Long Spoon Farms to help with the monthly efforts as they were providing a similar community service in Kaimuki.
Another growth point of ours has been our membership. Our core group of members has changed over the years, as we steadily welcome freelancers, digital nomads, entrepreneurs, small business owners and non-profit organizations seeking a flexible workspace. Our variety of month to month membership options and offices allowed our members to use our space at their convenience and scale up when ready. When COVID-19 made its way to the Hawaiian Islands, we were just as worried as everyone else. Our memberships took a hit and some long standing office members had to vacate. Since then, we’ve reached a new demographic of remote workers, businesses seeking office space that didn’t require a long lease and workers wanting an alternative space to their home office (or dining tables).
We’d love to recognize several of our previous members, that have scaled their businesses over the years:
- DreamHouse ‘Ewa Beach
- Zero Waste Oahu
- HI Tech Hui
- LifeDNA
- Blue Logic Labs
- KM & Associates, eXp Realty
- Pineapple Group HI, eXp Realty
After working with some incredible entrepreneurs/companies, we were inspired to make a greater impact in our community. Since 2017, we have created and joined forces with a variety of programs that have allowed us to provide many mentoring, coaching and networking opportunities for our members and the greater community.
Programs:
The Social Impact Incubator Program helps fill the opportunity gap for very early stage entrepreneurs – especially educators – in Hawaiʻi. SIIP is a six month program where participants gain access to content specialists, top-notch mentorship, weekly learning modules and up to $8,000 in capital to take their venture to the next level. We are currently working together with Teach for America Hawaii on the second cohort of entrepreneurs.
The Hawaii Freelancer’s Network is open to any small business, entrepreneur, freelancer or business leader, current or aspiring! Via monthly workshops at the Hub, HFN helps to connect members to the greater community and share valuable knowledge and insights.
- Women’s Personal Finance Group
Women’s Personal Finance workgroup was a casual bi-monthly meetup at the Hub for any woman that wants to learn more about finances, better understand their own financial habits and needs, and get more comfortable asking questions and learning about this big subject.
