Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Impact Hub Salt Lake Opens in Temporary Space

Artist rendering of Impact HUB Salt Lake's facade

Salt Lake City is officially the home of the first Impact Hub in Utah. The HUBconcept – which brings together social innovators and entrepreneurs - started in London and is now a global network spanning five continents. The space in Salt Lake isn’t ready yet, but organizers have a temporary space in the meantime. They call it a Pop-up HUB.

An Impact HUB is a place for innovators to do their work, but the marketing and operations director for HUB Salt Lake Ryan Chatterton will tell you, it’s more than that.

“It’s often compared to a co-working space, and we do offer co-working services, but that’s not what we do,” Chatterton says. “We’re as much invested in changing our society for the better, as we are in providing space for people who are doing that.”

Andrea Smardon
Impact Hub Salt Lake staff Ryan Chatterton and Alev Bilginsoy prepare for an opening event at the temporary "pop-up HUB" at 44 Exchange Place in Salt Lake City.

Impact Hub Salt Lake will be located at 150 South State Street. It will provide 13,000 square feet for members to network, get training, share resources and ideas. Chatterton says they had expected to be able to open their doors sooner, but design and construction has taken longer than expected. In the meantime, they have a smaller temporary space at Exchange Place in downtown Salt Lake. They already have more than 400 founding members ranging from air quality activists to tech entrepreneurs, and Chatterton says they want Impact Hub Salt Lake to move forward even if their main space isn’t ready.

“We decided to open this space a couple months ago as a way to carry on the momentum that we’ve been building last fall and really start providing value to our members, and start participating in the community where we could make a real impact,” Chatterton says.

They are now rolling out programs for members including networking events and business training. A members-only event on Thursday evening will celebrate the opening at the Pop-up HUB. Chatterton says the main space will likely be open this summer.

Andrea Smardon is new at KUER, but she has worked in public broadcasting for more than a decade. Most recently, she worked as a reporter and news announcer for WGBH radio. While in Boston, she produced stories for Morning Edition, Marketplace Money, and The World. Her print work was published in The Boston Globe and Boston.com. Prior to that, she worked at Seattleââ
KUER is listener-supported public radio. Support this work by making a donation today.