S3: Hip Co-Working Spaces of Bamboo Detroit- Episode #73

Bamboo Detroit Update with Amanda Lewan Romy catches up with co-founder, Amanda Lewan to hear about the most recent expansion of one of Detroit’s hottest hippest co-working spaces. Listen in to some of the secrets of the success including the special nature of the diversity in members and programming.   Full Transcript Read Full Transcript Romy: Thanks for joining me for another episode of the Bonfires of Social Enterprise! This is Romy and I want to thank you for your loyalty and following. It keeps us all going around here! This time, we follow up with Amanda Lewan of Bamboo Detroit. Bamboo is a co-working space that has some very special characteristics… it is very diversified and full of energy. Not to mention that it is one of the ‘hippest’ places in town. Is that even a word? ‘Hippest?’ Oh well, you know what I mean. People want to be there! We did an interview with Amanda back in Season 1. She is one of the owners and visionaries of this space. We will catch up with her in just a moment because we are going to hear from Hudson Robertson of Traverse City, Michigan on the fun fuel… Hudson: My name is Hudson Robertson and I am bringing the Fun Fuel for this episode. This information comes from an article published in the online magazine PhatRice.com on September 18th of 2014. The article is called “7 Crazy-Interesting Facts about Bamboo” 1. Bamboo is anti-bacterial - bamboo has natural pest-fighting powers, thanks to the plant's unique resistance to bacteria and fungi. 2. Panda’s Did not always eat it like you see in pictures. - At some point, pandas came to love the taste of bamboo and hate hunting, giving us the peaceful and herbivorous, bamboo-munching creatures we know today. Here are a few more…. Bamboo tastes delicious, it grows on every continent, and Bamboo is stronger than steel - In compression tests, bamboo comes out stronger than brick, wood, concrete or steel, meaning it can hold more force than any of those materials. Some scientists even theorize that a length of bamboo 10 centimeters across could hold a 11,000-pound elephant -- though that particular experiment has yet to be attempted. I hope you enjoyed this Fun Fuel. This is Hudson Robertson. Enjoy the show! Romy: Thanks so much Hudson. I might have to go find some Bamboo to try in a salad. I hadn’t thought about that before! Ha ha Okay, let’s turn our attention to Amanda Lewan from Bamboo Detroit… Amanda: Yes, we just opened up at our new location, 1420 Washington Boulevard on floor three. The building is called the Julian C. Madison Building, so we're super pumped about it. It's a beautiful building right downtown. It's locally owned by a wonderful family. The building's named after our landlord, Sharon Madison's father, Julian C. Madison. He was a history-making entrepreneur himself. Romy: Oh, he was? Amanda: It's very inspiring to live that sort of similar path with our inclusive entrepreneurial hub here. Romy: Yeah, can we hear a little bit about that story? Amanda: Yeah, so Sharon's father and grandfather were trailblazers. They were the first and third African American engineers in the state of Ohio, and I think his grandfather was one of the very first engineers, African American engineers hired by the federal government. When they bought this building, they named it after her father. One of the things they always described it as he always had a spirit of ... A belief that one should take their life...