Reflecting on 2022, we’re so thankful for everyone who has made this an incredible year: our partners, Stoke members, mentors, guests who visited our space, event attendees, program participants, and more. Every community member is so supportive of and encouraging to one another, and it’s a pleasure to witness. It is an honor to work for and serve the Denton community! Here are some highlights from the Stoke team about 2022.
The Stoke Team Doubled!
This year, we were fortunate to gain Mary Chavez as our community coordinator and Juli James as our associate director. Mary helps take care of our members as well as the space and is the creative behind our social media. They help keep Stoke running smoothly and wears many hats in addition to community care. Juli is an educator, entrepreneur, co-founder, and innovator and has been incredible in evaluating Stoke strategy and making our processes more efficient. Her experience and insights make our team that much stronger. Both Mary and Juli have brought their amazing talents to the table and have helped Stoke accomplish so much for Denton.
Our Community Grew Too!
Stoke members have always been a diverse group of people, and this year, we’ve seen that increase even more! We were happy to welcome more students, remote workers, small business owners, freelancers, techies, and even some former members back to the space.
We’ve enjoyed member get-togethers every month plus the more frequent hang-outs of working on the jigsaw puzzle with one another for brain breaks in the afternoon.
This year, we hosted our first Cheese Party for members (which is exactly what it sounds like: heaven) as well as a pumpkin carving for members and their families. We’re looking forward to Festivus as our December member meetup.
One of the best things about bringing Stoke members together is that during these events, we often see folks sharing resources and contacts and even collaborating on projects. It’s like networking but without the formalness of a “networking” event - we love a casual conversation that turns into something productive!
AccelerateHER Second Cohort Pitch Event
In February, we celebrated the hard work of the second cohort of the AccelerateHER incubator program. They each pitched their businesses to a crowd of supporters, potential customers and investors, and more, and then we had a social hour at Armadillo Ale Works! We are so proud of them, and we are now in the middle of the program for the third cohort.
FlintConf
We hosted FlintConf at Sunago Bell at the top of the Wells Fargo tower in May, and it was the perfect venue. Speakers and panelists shared their experiences and their expertise through the day to a full room of attendees in the most gorgeous space. Not only were the views of Denton amazing, but the visions that people shared for Denton during a rapid-fire Big Ideas pitch were great too! Will Milne photographed beautifully the day’s events.
Thanks again to our sponsors: TWU Center for Women Entrepreneurs, City of Denton, Bunch Bikes, Independent Financial, The Local Circuit, Wallace Accounting and Advisory, and Aspiro Digital Agency.
Global Entrepreneurship Week
True to tradition, Stoke went all out and hosted events each day during Global Entrepreneurship Week (November 14th - November 18th). We hung out at Dan’s Silverleaf with the City of Denton economic development team and TWU Center For Women Entrepreneurs on Monday to kick off the week, and then had Coffee + Convo at Stoke (for the first time in years) with Randi Skinner on Tuesday morning. A dozen spots around Denton opened the doors to their studios, businesses, and shops to welcome folks on the Denton Startup Crawl on Wednesday evening. Thursday evening, we hosted Big Ideas at Stoke again for the first time in three years, with Dentonites sharing what they would like to see or see change in Denton. On Friday, we had the first ever Denton Pitch Competition!
Denton Pitch Competition
In partnership with the City of Denton and Denton Business Allies, Stoke facilitated a shark-tank style pitch competition for prizes of $2,000, $3,000, and $5,000. 15 applicants were selected to receive pitch coaching and ultimately 8 business owners would pitch to a panel of judges.
The winners of this year’s Denton Pitch Competition were
Hans Film & Photo LLC - Cinematographers and photographers that create wedding films and photos custom to the needs of their couples.
CirclesU - A hyper localized content sharing app that instantly connects communities digitally.
The Monthly Junk - Production company that provides end to end creative content solutions for clients seeking commercial, promotional, social, or film work. They tell joyful and compelling stories for women owned businesses from a female perspective.
Stoke Jr.
During the Thanksgiving break, Stoke welcomed its first group of young entrepreneurs as we launched a new program - Stoke Jr. This program was designed for middle schoolers to learn about and explore the world of entrepreneurship. They received investments, designed and manufactured their own products, and created a marketing plan. Over the three days, they learned collaborative ways to problem solve and were the biggest supporters of ideas from their fellow entrepreneurs. From the lemonade stand to the board room, we couldn’t have asked for a better group to help us kick off this exciting new program.
Stoke most recently hosted our last Coffee + Convo session of the year as well, on Tuesday, December 13th. The Stoke team is now reflecting, resting, and strategizing for the new year.
That’s a wrap for 2022!