STEEL: Energy & the West Opens at Watertower Place through July 30, 2022

Watertower Place is committed to sharing the stories of Pueblo through its unique public tour program. This traveling exhibit explores the history of mining, steel and electricity production. In conjunction with Exploring Steel, visitors can also enjoy the documentary film 'Forging the West' by Jim Havey. Special thanks to the Pueblo City-County Library District for making this educational program possible. Please enter at the Firehouse Entrance. For more information visit www.pueblowatertowerplace.com.

Date/Time
Date(s) - Monday, June 6, 2022 through Friday, July 29, 2022
10:00 am - 4:00 pm
06/03/22 - 07/29/22
Add to your calendar: iCal

Location
Watertower Place
303 S. Santa Fe Ave.
Pueblo, CO 81003

Fire House Entrance

Fire House Entrance Welcome Sign

Fire House Entrance Lobby

Exhibition Entrance

Exhibition in Innovation Hub

Forging the West Film Presentation by Jim Havey

Steel: Energy and the West

Steel: Energy and the West

Steel: Energy and the West

Steel: Energy and the West

Steel: Energy and the West

Steel: Energy and the West

Building for the Future • Key Areas of Focus

The World of Hi Tech, Cyber-security & Privacy

A tech startup is a company whose purpose is to bring technology products or services to market. These companies deliver new technology products or services or deliver existing technology products or services in new ways. At Watertower Place we have extensive resources and partnerships from the traditional industrial sector to cyber security. We foster technological innovation and align our platforms with both private and public sector thought leaders in the field.

Food Entrepreneurship

Small cottage industries, food trucks, and caterers all have a need for low-cost kitchen space. This has led to the development of shared commercial kitchens that can be rented for hourly or daily rates. But finding a place to make specialty food products is only the first step. Entrepreneurs who want to make a profit have to successfully package, market, and sell their products, too. That's where food incubators come in. At Watertower Place we understand the issues surrounding food accessibility and want to make a difference in our community. Whether you want to open a restaurant or create a special line of desserts, we have the capacity to empower food entrepreneurs to achieve their goals.

Small Batch Manufacturing

Whether you’re a ‘maker’ who wants to start producing on a bigger scale, or an emerging designer trying to find a production partner within close proximity and low minimum order requirements, or a small business looking to work with lower units, small batch manufacturing in the United States is a viable option. Pueblo has a rich history of manufacturing and at Watertower Place we have established working relationships with key regional thought leaders who serve our entrepreneurial community by investing time, resources, and professional expertise to emerging makers and designers.

Media Center & Communications • The Launching Pad

Content creation is now a $200+ billion global industry with leaders like Disney and Netflix. At Watertower Place we realize that no matter how large or small the enterprise, authentic and genuine storytelling is necessary to reach targeted audiences and to develop brand loyalty. Our Media Center features green screen technologies for film production, podcasting studios, photography labs and a complete resource library and team of professionals to help tell your story. The Media Center is pleased to have Positive Content and the Pueblo Regional Film Commission as initial core tenants and communication partners.

Nonprofit Alley

Watertower Place is opening a unique co-working space called the Nonprofit Alley. We know that seemingly disparate organizations—an arts group and a entrepreneurial start-up group, for example—collaborate on projects in our building right now. When you’re working just feet away from a variety of people trying to make an impact, collaboration is bound to happen. Many of our members realize that they are ‘better together' and the ability to have inter-organizational interactions within your own office is incredibly advantageous. In our various work spaces advocacy evolves organically and networks are strengthened and expanded. Co-working is an essential and growing trend throughout the world and we find that members are happier and more productive.

Building for the Future • Core Values of the Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship

Colorado State University Pueblo Celebrates the Opening of the CSU-P Office at Watertower Place.

Our core values support our mission and vision to serve as a community‐based innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem through a commitment to:

• Being open and welcome to all: any person, any discipline, any field, and any idea

• Respecting new ideas and new concepts, and the dialogue around these exchanges

• Promoting the experience gained during the process of creativity, ideation, and problem solving as important as the end goal

• Being a safe space to fail and allow failure to happen

• Honoring the individual and their abilities, along with all of his/her/their dreams, ideas, processes, and approaches to problem solving and creativity

• Experimenting, making, and exploring as a method for solving problems

• Dreaming big, having fun, and getting work done

The Southern Colorado Innovation Link’s (SCIL) mission is to leverage a robust innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem to encourage the development and commercialization of intellectual property, to support IIECM, to promote the success and growth of commerce, and to foster sustained regional prosperity.

Partner Spotlight • Southern Colorado Innovation Link (SCIL)

A collaboration among more than twenty regional partners, SCIL seeks to make Southern Colorado a preferred destination to incubate and grow innovative ideas, products and business. SCIL aims to fulfill its mission through coordination of resources, hands-on technical assistance, mentorship, experienced leadership, and access to capital, all building on the existing innovation clusters in Advanced Manufacturing (AM) and Infrastructure Engineering (IE). SCIL will measure success by its effectiveness in helping inventors, innovators, entrepreneurs, creatives, and makers (IIECM) develop, protect, and commercialize their intellectual property; assisting startups in creating viable businesses, and helping businesses to thrive and grow.

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Building for the Future • Vision of the Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship

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On Friday, February 7, 2020, the Pueblo Regional Film Commission was honored to host a group of Russian film industry professionals in conjunction with the US State Department and the World Affairs Council Colorado Springs. For over 80 years, the highly competitive International Visitor Leadership Program at the State Department has been ranked as the elite professional program for visitors coming to the USA from around the world. Our guests included film festival organizers, professors of film, public relations and marketing experts from Moscow to Vladivostok.

“We are breaking down boundaries, encouraging serendipity, and building a community of individuals who ideate, create, make, sell, and scale together.”

— Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship

For over 100 years, the historic Grove neighborhood has been a center for innovation and creativity from Nuckolls to Alpha Beta. As a result, Watertower Place will retain its reputation as being one of the best community‐based innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystems in the region and serve as an model for new, innovative practices and behaviors. Practitioners of creativity, invention, and entrepreneurship from all organizations, disciplines, geographies, and walks of life will turn to Watertower Place for solutions and inspiration, turning their ideas into action at any and all levels of the ecosystem.

Welcome to the next level of excellence at Watertower Place, a world where our community is collaborating for the future.

Building for the Future • Mission of the Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship

2019 Food & Ag Summit at Watertower Place (Mark Madic of SCIL, Mayor Gradisar, and food entrepreneur & pitch winner Cooper Watts)

Watertower Place is a community-based innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem that includes a makerspace for prototyping and fabrication as well as a full spectrum of resources for entrepreneurs. Its physical presence in the heart of the historic Grove neighborhood can be found in all aspects of Pueblo life, serving as an integral resource for members of the community. This space is free and open to the public to encourage members of the community to tinker and creatively invent in their work, research, entrepreneurial pursuits, and personal projects. Through a unique partnership between multiple schools, university offices and strategic partners, Watertower Place offers a complete menu of services and facilities to guide the creation and commercialization of intellectual property from high tech to food services.

As represented by its 5‐floor, 250,000 square foot structure, each floor of Watertower Place contributes to the center’s ecosystem where ideas turn into action Here is what is taking place all throughout our building:

Community: Provide a welcoming space for all ‐‐regardless of discipline or background ‐‐ to serendipitously meet and share ideas that may solve some of society’s most complex problems or that may just be problems that are exciting to solve

Collaboration: Provide an environment that allows creativity to flourish and ideas to move from brainstorm to actionable concepts and drafts

Prototyping: Offer digital equipment and software that brings ideas and concepts to life, bringing form and function to ideas through “making”

Fabrication: Facilitate further elaboration of creative concepts and solutions through access to traditional tools such as welding, machining, and wood‐working, helping consider the manufacturability of an idea when brought to scale

Project Space: Encourage further team building and collaboration around a creative solution and idea, with room and time to scale the idea and consider next steps

Entrepreneurship: Provide guidance and services to those creative ideas that meet a market need, allowing the teams to grow and develop a viable startup company

Incubation: Provide participants with a ‘home’ to incubate their business ideas

Pitch Competition at the 1st Annual Food & Ag Summit at Watertower Place.

Our next article will focus on the Vision of the Center for Innovation & Entrepreneurship.

Watertower Place Profiles from Nuckolls Packing Company to Alpha Beta

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Emmet Nuckolls: The Visionary & Founder of the Nuckolls Packing Company

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Emmet Nuckolls (1844 - 1910)

Today we begin a series of articles featuring the stories of the individuals who brought innovation and creativity to the Grove neighborhood in Pueblo, Colorado USA.

Emmet Nuckolls was born in 1844 and lost both parents at the early age of six. His older brother was given the task of guardianship and throughout his formative years, he drove cattle throughout the Great Plains. His exposure to animals at such a young age would shape his vision for the future. Emmet was on the first cattle drive from Texas to Colorado on the Goodnight Loving Trail and during the ride he repeatedly told others that he would someday build the largest and most sophisticated slaughter and meat packing facility in the West.

Before establishing his butchering business in Leadville, Colorado his first exposure to life in Pueblo was from 1873 to 1878 when he enjoyed the favorable climate of the ‘big city’ atmosphere. Leadville proved to be a good business decision with it booming economy driven by the Guggenheim family and their large silver mines in the region. From 1879 to 1890, cattle became plentiful and provided ample meat to American consumers. In 1891 he decided to follow the Guggenheim’s lead and return to Pueblo to establish the first generation of the Nuckolls Packing Company.

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In 1909 Emmet Nuckolls created quite a political stir in the community when he decided to run for Mayor in a rather unorthodox manner. As a registered Democrat he started talking like a Republican and in a surprise move he called a parade and announced his Independent candidacy. While this ruffled the political feathers of many in the community, he also received wide support from others who saw him as a visionary and challenger to the status quo on the frontier.

Unfortunately Emmet never realized his dream of building the largest and most modern meat packing facility. He fell three stories into one of the lower pens at the packing plant and shattered his hip. After a fourteen day vigil in the hospital the Chieftain announced in one of its largest headlines that ‘Death Called’.