WARWICKSHIRE MEANS BUSINESS

Why 1 Mill Street is much more than a coworking space

Since its launch on November 1st, 2020, 1 Mill Street has injected life back into a redundant building and brought a vibrant new dimension to the business community of Leamington Spa, as Jem Morey, Marketing and Community Development Manager at 1 Mill Street, explains.

Coworking spaces are the hot new thing. A burgeoning market which has property developers and venture capitalists falling over themselves to acquire vacant, run-down buildings on the edge of soon-to-be-gentrified neighbourhoods.  

What comes next is the redevelopment of these premises into contemporary, trendy workspaces of which the likes of Google would be envious. Complete with stylish, sharp, pretentious décor, overpriced coffee served by handle-bar moustached hipster baristas on their gap-years, and procrastination-inducing ‘break-out spaces’ (aka sofas).

At first glance, 1 Mill Street, Leamington Spa, could be an example of this. When, in fact, this is far from the truth. 

1 Mill Street was founded and funded, privately and independently, by local entrepreneur Nigel Shanahan and his wife Dessie after the sale of their Warwickshire-based business ‘Rant and Rave.’

Launched on the 1st November 2020 (the first day of the UK’s second lockdown), 1 Mill Street was built on values of trust, innovation, but more importantly, member success. If their members are achieving great things, this reflects well back on them as well as the wider community of Leamington Spa and Warwickshire. 

In the 18 months since 1 Mill Street opened, it has become a melting pot, an eclectic mix of local businesses, digital creatives and freelancers collaborating and making great things happen. Set over three floors, 1 Mill Sill Street has flexible workspaces, inspiring meeting rooms, a state-of-the-art podcast studio and is home to (possibly!) Leamington’s best coffeehouse and bar.  

Now, as a sizeable share of 1 Mill Street is dedicated to their membership, there is some confusion as to what the public, non-member businesses and freelancers can do here.  Well, emblazoned on the front of our building are the words ‘Everyone’s Welcome’, and they stand by this statement.

Yes, they do have an exclusive members coworking area, but the rest of our facilities are open to everyone. You don’t need a membership to work or study from their coffeehouse, book a meeting room, record in their production studio, or use their events space.

But what really sets 1 Mill Street apart from the soulless, uninspired outlets seen on every London, Birmingham and Manchester street corner is their events calendar.  

Their events are largely free and open to members, the local business community, and the public. They are punchy, action-packed, 90-minute sessions with key-takeaways. They do this to stop everyone needing to take a day off work to attend an eight-hour seminar.

These events fall into three categories:

For You, is all about self-development. For example, there are monthly visits from clinical psychologists and clinical hypnotherapists that help freelancers and business owners perform at their peak.

For Your Business, is all about business-development. Examples of these events concentrate on marketing, sales, product development, and R&D.

And finally, For Fun! 1 Mill Street believes you can’t be expected to spend the lion share of your life working on yourself and your business without blowing out some steam at the end of the week.

If this has piqued your interest, you can find all the details on these events by becoming a Social Member on their website, for free.  

1 Mill Street needs to be seen to be believed, and they’re always happy to show anyone around their space. If that sounds like you, pop in and say hi, drop them an email or message them via one of their social channels.

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