CoLab: A Good Start for an Important Idea

Sam Steidle hugs the mayor after cutting a robbon at CoLab tonight.

What developer and innovator Ed Walker calls a business with "the best chance to have a major impact" on the city's business culture, CoLab, opened tonight with fanfare in Grandin Village. It was a big and excited crowd that gathered in the 12,000 square foot facility beside the Roanoke Valley Natural Foods Co-Op for the ribbon-cutting.

Part of the crowd filling the building at CoLab.

The CoLab is a natural extension of my friend Samantha Steidle's Business Lounge, which has had success in two different locations downtown.

The next generation combines a number of very small businesses with something in common in one place, something that Walker has emphasized over and over in trying to rethink the way business is done in these parts.

Sam and the mayor cut the ribbon.

My buddies Dan Radmacher and Vickie Damico chat.

Not even Sam can get the mayor to shut up.

Boutique owner Gayla D'Gaia with ex-Chicago Bear Pete Johnson.

Jill Elswick, Janeson Keeley, Anne Piedmont look at pix.

Entrepreneur and pal Linda Foster chats business.

Jill Elswick with her favorite editr.