Spark up your community with Knowledge Park Coders
This new tech meet up group along with the help of the Technology Incubator is taking on the challenge of supporting innovation in the local community.
The dulled, sand-colored building loomed above the small shops and stores that lined the downtown street. While the street was quiet, save for the whistling wind through the trees, 100 feet above ground level was a different story.
Technology Incubator logo.
The fifth floor was astir as the first Knowledge Park Coders meeting was taking place at Rock Hill, South Carolina’s Technology Incubator. The floor was humming with a fury of voices filled with technological innovation and free flowing ideas.
“We call ourselves the innovation center in the sky,” said David Warner, the leader of the Technology Incubator. “Our company is just one small part of the new economic development area that the town is planning called Knowledge Park.”
Coders and students listening to David Warner speak at the first KP Coders meeting hosted at the Technology Incubator.
Knowledge Park encompasses the down town center of Rock Hill, the local state university, Winthrop University, and completes the obtuse circle at the bleachery, which is currently being worked on and transformed into a University Center for college students and locals.
“In order to stir up all of this development, we need jobs. That’s where I come in,” Warner said. “Technology is where all the jobs are coming from, so my mission is to help start up these companies so they can provide jobs for the community in the future.”
Four years into its pilot program, Warner has coined these job titles as “knowledge worker jobs” and hopes that Rock Hill will become the “employment center of York county.”
On Sept. 22, techies and coders from around the Rock Hill area took the golden plated elevator from the first-floor french bakery to a world of possibility.
Knowledge Park Coders logo.
“I first reached out to the tech incubator on Facebook and asked if there was a group of techies I could meet with and network with,” said Casey Da Silva, one of the founding members of KP Coders. “David invited me to come to the office and we started talking and the Knowledge Park Coders is what we’ve come up with.”
Attendees of the meeting were encouraged to put ideas on how to spark innovation in the community up a whiteboard.
As a social worker and victim advocate for the city of Rock Hill, Da Silva wants to improve the economic community around her. Pairing with Warner at the Technology Incubator has given her a hub for techies and coders to meet and generate ideas. Da Silva said she likes the “idea of starting community projects” and hopes generating new growth and ideas will help bring down “roadblocks that we have in our community.”
Members of the local community share the team’s excitement for development. “Casey had mentioned about doing something in rock hill and I thought ‘oh that’s great there’s more things coming down this way,’” said Jim Graham, a supervisory principal in Fort Mill for an insurance company and member of a coding bootcamp in Charlotte. “Because while I love the city of Charlotte, and I like going up there sometimes it’s not always easy to get up there for these events so it’s nice to see things closer to home to go to.”
A range of ideas on how to connect with the community, submitted by participants.
Warner and Da Silva share a dream that they can get the area of Rock Hill stimulated with growth and provide a source of jobs and creativity for the developing area. Through her social work, Da Silva said there is a “lack of connection” between the underserved population and social services.
“I think it’s a negative thing for them, because they don’t get to reap all the benefits that people who have better access to technology can reap,” said Da Silva.
The Technology Incubator has partnerships with Winthrop University, York Hill Technical College and Clemson University.
Interested in technology and making a change? Reach the Knowledge Park Coders on Slack or at their Facebook page.