A team of students at the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service is concluding its work with the Arkansas Regional Innovation Hub.
Tamara Bates (Memphis, Tenn.), Patrick Isokpunwu (Benin City, Nigeria), Michael Morrison (Van Buren, Ark.), and Jacey Winn (Wynne, Ark.) have spent the academic year working to assess the Innovation Hub’s membership strategy and member experience as part of the school’s field service work.
For its deliverable, the team will recommend a tangible set of actions to improve outreach and increase membership and a set of projects, initiatives, and ideas to improve the overall member experience.
Based in North Little Rock, the Innovation Hub is a nonprofit dedicated to improving the lives of Arkansans by inspiring innovation and expanding opportunities. Its features and equipment include a wood and metal shop, laser cutting equipment, 3D printing, computer numerical control machine, and more. The nonprofit offers workshops and classes and is a popular destination for school field trips.
Since the Hub’s opening in 2014, its facilities, equipment, and classes have provided the tools and training to entrepreneurs, students, and others to prepare them to join and grow Arkansas’s economic ecosystem.
Working with Casey Jeffery, who handles membership engagement at the Innovation Hub, the team interviewed members of the Innovation Hub’s staff and conducted surveys with current members, past members, and guests of the Innovation Hub to assess the member experience. The surveys were designed to find feedback on how a membership-based organization could improve.
“We want to know what members or guests are looking for,” Jeffery said. “We want to know how the staff feels about how the hub is run and if they think our memberships could be better or what we could offer our members as a member-based organization.”
The team also conducted interviews with makerspaces across the country in search of ideas and peer research. The Innovation Hub’s services, and the mid-size market with a mix of urban and rural areas in central Arkansas, make it a unique organization.
“We are a little bit different because we have co-working and a makerspace and a production area,” Jeffery said. “It’s hard to find someone exactly like us.”
The team was able to talk with makerspaces in Baltimore and Boston that shared resources they used to help build their membership communities. The team will present its findings online on Friday, April 17.
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