Collaborative SmartSpace - Central Region Ecosystem for Arts, Technology, and Entrepreneurship

The Innovation Campus at WKU’s new 30,000-square foot Collaborative SmartSpace opened in 2022 to strategy workers, creative professionals, and anyone else looking for a place to work.

Members who join the SmartSpace have 24/7 secure access to the facility, consistent wireless fiber internet, access to a training room and conference rooms throughout the facility, a work pod for teammates or collaborators who come in for meetings, a storytelling and meeting room at the entrance, and all other amenities that will become available to Innovation Campus tenants–an ever-growing list.

The open concept of the Collaborative SmartSpace is intended to provide a venue where creative people who work in this region can meet one another, share their networks, develop new concepts, and find talented people who work across various creative and strategic fields.

Anyone interested in learning more about membership of the Collaborative SmartSpace can contact Executive Director Jeff Hook at (270) 901-3490 or at william.hook@wku.edu.

“The Collaborative SmartSpace environment appeals to the versatility of working remotely. With the development of that type of space comes the need for a dynamic Downtown experience, because the talent utilizing that type of collaborative space ultimately craves the same sort of energy a vibrant downtown offers. Bowling Green is building an entire destination experience from the ground up. The workforce development opportunities an arts and entertainment district brings are endless.”

“The Innovation Campus is something special–state of the art, for real. From my first meeting with a fellow WKU student and collaborator, we were amazed by the location and have accomplished a lot.”

“As a student, having access to real industry professionals and people who do research full time can give us a chance to bring ideas to the table in a professional setting–working with a lot of different groups who wouldn’t normally have space to collaborate. If you’d told me I’d be able to be part of something like this as a student at WKU before now, I’d think you were crazy. But having a resource like this in Bowling Green, just a few minutes from the main campus, is really special and has a lot of cool applications for students moving forward.”

“The significance of space is often undervalued. The creation of the Collaborative SmartSpace at WKU provides an environment for high-impact engagement of faculty, staff, students, and external creatives to develop innovative thoughts, concepts, and projects.”