Photo via EVO3 / Facebook
’s Aaron Landau wants to change the face of Summit County’s workforce.
The area faces unique challenges — because of its remote location and limited number of opportunities, most of the jobs available in Summit County are in construction, tourism and real estate. “You have a lot of people who are trying to find a way to live and work up here,” he said. “How do we keep people here if they don’t want to be a ski bum or a realtor?”
Landau opened the EVO3 workspace just over a year ago with the hope of creating a community for “intellectual powerhouses” to work — and hopefully, eventually, live — in Summit County. So many Coloradans travel to Summit County on the weekends to ski or vacation, but how could these people be convinced to stay?
Landau realized tech companies are more likely to let employees work remotely, and they’re likely to attract young professionals — the same people who head to Summit County for the weekend but then return to their homes and jobs along the Front Range. “There wasn’t something like this out there, so we decided to build it,” said Landau.
Aside from offering membership levels for individual remote workers, Landau said EVO3 also offers corporate memberships, where companies can set up a “satellite office” in Frisco where employees can work for longer periods of time. “A lot of companies say they care about work-life balance,” said Landau. “But a caveat of work-life balance in Colorado is that sometimes means spending five hours of their weekend in traffic.”
Companies like Uber are already taking advantage of EVO3’s corporate passes, and Landau said he hopes more Denver companies will consider offering that flexibility to their employees as well.
Photo via EVO3 / Facebook
The coding school, which begins April 4th with two meetings per week for two hours each meeting, will start with basic HTML and CSS lessons. “It can be a feeder for full stack, but it also gives people the tools to get started with custom websites,” Landau said.
He added in a statement the classes are also designed for local small business owners who want to improve their online presence. The school has academic approval from the State of Colorado, and Landau said scholarships and interest-free financing will be available.
Landau also wants to help the local youth get more involved with technology. He said they’re working with the local school community, and they have plans to start hosting events using products from Boulder’s .
Landau plans to host students from Frisco Elementary at EVO3 for coding lessons once or twice a month. “It’s a great introduction to coding for kids,” said Landau, “and it gives us the exposure to parents so they know there’s something more out there for their kids in Summit County.”
Landau said EVO3 also hosts a number of events connected to the larger Colorado community, like Startup Weekend and . You can celebrate the past year at their upcoming anniversary party, or apply for the coding lessons by April 1st.
With a combination of a community workspace, coding classes and engagement with the local youth, Landau and EVO3 Workspace are certainly poised to make a huge impact on business in Summit County.
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