Dayton’s doorway to innovation
A door can symbolize a transition into new opportunities or a passageway linking one place to another. A historic door from the heart of the University has found a new home at the Greater West Dayton Incubator to do just that.
Tucked inside the meeting room of the GWDI’s main office at 1105 W. Third St. is a conference table quite unlike many others. The table, reclaimed by the Matthew Tamerisk Collection, was taken from the Chapel of the Immaculate Conception during its 2015 renovation. Repurposing the door was a several-month-long project for designer Matt Spitz.
“It really captures the history of the university, the history of the city and the innovation that has happened right here in the city of Dayton,” Spitz said. “The door really creates a platform for economic development and continued innovation going forward.”
The other chapel door was reclaimed by Spitz’s team and placed in The Hub inside of the newly renovated Dayton Arcade. The Hub and the GWDI serve as a new wave of UD innovation and commitment to the community. The incubator operates out of a satellite office within the Hub, as well as its main headquarters in West Dayton.
The GWDI was born out of the University’s vision to become an anti-racist institution and to connect women-owned and minority-owned businesses with resources like micro-lending services, networking opportunities, training and consulting services.
Whitney Barkley was selected to lead the GWDI as its director on Oct. 11. She said taking the job was a “no-brainer” after spending a lot of time in the city as a child and young adult. She thinks of the incubator as a “place where ideas can come to life.”
As an entrepreneur herself, Barkley knows what it is like to develop a small business at every stage. She began her journey in 2015 when she started content marketing company Speakerazzi, and she said she is passionate about being on the frontline of innovation right alongside women and minority business owners.
“I know what Dayton is capable of,” Barkley said. “I know what its entrepreneurs can do, and I'm just wanting to be that conduit to connect them to the resources that they need to succeed.”
A “business blitz” is one of Barkley’s plans for the GWDI going forward. The blitz will tackle major challenges business owners face in legitimizing, funding and digitizing their businesses.
As a long-term goal, Barkley said she hopes to take advantage of the GWDI’s relationship with the L. William Crotty Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership and the UD students who study entrepreneurship there. She wants to assist in preparing Flyers to be community leaders in business and innovation, she said.
The annual Flyer Pitch Competition, sponsored by the Crotty Center and the GWDI, and the Cultural Capital microloan program are two of the Incubator’s current ventures that provide resources for the city’s underrepresented business owners and loops UD into the entrepreneurial action. .
Much like the chapel door conference table, the GWDI serves as a transition to a new era of innovation and a passageway connecting the UD campus community with the entrepreneurial hub in West Dayton.
“I think a lot of people in Ohio don't really know that Dayton is the place where innovation happens,” Barkley said. “This is where people invent things. This is where a lot of magic happens.”