centre{source}

In the fall of 2008, the Strategy team at centre{source} set out to create a plan for expanding the firm’s reach and involvement in the local Nashville Interactive Community. Over the course of a few months, a strategy was formed that involved looking inwardly for personal development opportunities and looking outwardly for ways to become more active and connected with community members. The cornerstone and most valuable component of this strategy has quickly become our practice of hosting a monthly mixer at the c{s} North Fourth office on the last Thursday of each month.
As the “hostess” and organizer of these events, I was initially unsure of what to expect as far as turnout and reception. As we geared up for the first mixer, held in January of 2009, I must have refreshed our Pingg invite list at least 50 times a day. As we got closer to D-Day and RSVPs began rolling in, I quickly realized that what we initially expected to be an event with attendance of around 30-40 was going to become much more!

January’s mixer proved to be a great success with over 100 attendees from various competing and complimentary firms, independent graphic designers and developers, and local tech enthusiasts. So successful, in fact, that we simply could not get people to leave! The centre{source} office, alone, proved to be a warm and inviting atmosphere for the event, and the added incentive of a networking competition for the Golden Kraut and Sivlery Beans Awards created an energy for the event that fueled repeat attendance for months to come.

For the past few months, we have seen many regulars showing up to partake in complimentary kegs of Yazoo, wine, gourmet cupcakes and munchies, and invaluable networking opportunities. Beyond the “repeat offenders,” we have welcomed many new faces from the local neighborhoods of Germantown, Salemtown, and Hope Gardens; newly unemployed job seekers coming out to share calling cards; friends and family members of c{s} employees; satisfied c{s} clients; and even a rare guest appearance from the newest member to our team, Brayden Holland, born to Nick and Brandi in February.

Each mixer has incorporated traditional interactive activities of hands-on competition through trivia, meet and greet score sheets, and coin hunts in competition for the coveted Golden Kraut and Silvery Beans Awards. Additionally, more “techie” interactive features have been utilized like wirelessly networked music throughout the house and live updating Twitter feeds using the #csmixer hashtag showing on big screens. More recently, the newly launched iPhone/iTouch application GPSAssassin has been a big hit, where people attempt to assassinate one another through GPS location used in the game.

With the advent of Spring and Summer weather, these mixers are sure to continue to grow in attendance, further solidifying the event as a staple of the local Interactive Community providing valuable networking opportunities and general camaraderie for anyone wishing to partake.

We hope to see you out at the next mixer! Bring a friend.