At Sparkbox, we love to learn and share our learnings—we also love to make new friends. So in 2011, we decided to take our newly created full-day workshop “Build Responsively” on the road and meet new friends in the surrounding states. Since we targeted nearby cities, we decided to call it the Midwest Tour. On the list of cities was Columbus, Cleveland, Grand Rapids, and Pittsburgh. While running our workshop in Pittsburgh, we learned an important lesson: Pittsburgh does not consider itself part of the Midwest.
Over the years, we have had the opportunity to make many trips to Pittsburgh. From attending conferences, visiting the local Refresh Group, and forming new business relationships, we’ve come to know the city quite well. One of our favorite restaurants, Gaucho, has become known around the office as “The Meat Hut” and is a must-visit whenever we are in town.
Last Monday marked a fairly special day in our six-year relationship with Pittsburgh: Sparkbox officially opened an office there. Over the last seven months, we have hired three people who live in Pittsburgh, and giving them a shared space to collaborate felt right. Sparkbox has been a hybrid (co-located and distributed) company for several years now, but this is the first time we have opened an office outside our beloved Dayton, Ohio. We are starting small with an office in a new co-working space, Industrious, but we believe there are continued opportunities for growth.
We are excited about this new chapter for Sparkbox. This means that Sparkbox will be looking for opportunities to become involved in the local Pittsburgh web community, just as we have done in Dayton for the last eight years. Reach out if you live around the city, and let’s find a way to get connected.
