Spencer’s Coffee

SHELLEY & JUSTIN SHEPHERD

Shelley and her husband, Justin, are the proud owners of Spencer’s Coffee, a well-known coffee shop. The couple took over the business in 2005 with assistance from an SBA loan and the Small Business Development Center at Western Kentucky University. Since then, they have expanded the downtown location twice, added a drive-thru location on 31-W Bypass, and opened a third location at Helm Commons at WKU. Spencer’s Coffee employs 60 individuals across all three locations and has become a beloved staple in the Bowling Green community. The owners’ passion for coffee and commitment to customer satisfaction continues to drive the business’s success, and they look forward to serving the community for many years.

Welcome to Bowling Green!

All of our hotels are close to the homes of companies like Bilstein, Nova Steele, Kobe Steel, Magna International, General Motors, American Howa, and many more. Dining and shopping opportunities are less than a 5-minute drive.

Bowling Green, MULTIPLE TRADES & SERVICES UNDER ONE ROOF SERVICE GROUP:

WKU's campus is just 10 minutes away.

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Chamber + WKU Innovation campus Partnership

FORGING THE PATH FOR EMERGING TECH & STORYTELLING

BY MEREDITH ROZANSKI

As the strength and diversity of the economy in our region grows, so do the strategic alliances fueling and supporting that economic development.

Especially pivotal to building our region’s focus on growing the emerging technology and storytelling ecosystem north of Nashville is the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce’s deep partnership with the Western Kentucky University Innovation Campus and the economic development entity based at the Innovation Campus’ HQ at 2413 Nashville Road in Bowling Green in what was once a 285,000-squarefoot shopping mall: the Central Region Ecosystem for Arts, Technology, and Entrepreneurship, or CREATE.

The WKU Innovation Campus is an applied research and intellectual hub that spurs innovative collaboration, promotes problem-solving, and nurtures talent to elevate the economy, the culture, and the region. Through real-world applications and entrepreneurial support, the Innovation Campus engages and connects a wide range of stakeholders to tackle challenges and foster a talent-first strategy to meet the needs of the region’s growing industries, including corporations, industry leaders, startup researchers, students, and subject matter experts. “Economic development is driven by proactive, organized action at the local level,” said Buddy Steen, CEO of the WKU Innovation Campus. “Those efforts can and should leverage regional, state, and federal stakeholder resources, but it must be led locally. And our Chamber consistently takes the lead at organizing those efforts, with a deeply collaborative spirit.”

In addition to events aimed at the startup community, the Chamber and the Innovation Campus have partnered on concentrated efforts to support and attract emerging technology and storytelling companies here–building a growing ecosystem for talent in these growing economic sectors north of Nashville.

For instance, the two entities have come together to launch a new Immersive Experience Innovation Lab, housed at the WKU Innovation Campus and focused on how new technologies and storytelling methods merge to create immersive environments that shape experiences in everything from the media, gaming, and tourism industries to employee recruitment/ training, education, and product prototyping.

“The WKU Innovation Campus is continuing to grow, evolve, and transform with each new company that chooses to call this region home,” said Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce CEO Ron Bunch. “Their labs, resources, and programs are a key reason why we’re seeing such interest north of Nashville. And we’re excited to be integrating our offerings with theirs to attract more emerging tech and storytelling professionals here.”

In addition to investing in programs and infrastructure that support these growing economic sectors, the Chamber and the Innovation Campus have put a particularly strong focus on supporting, attracting, and retaining talent.

“In 2023, it’s clear that talent is at the heart of any thriving economy,” Steen said. “Our investments must focus as much on enhancing the cultural standard of living in our community as it does on the economic standard of living. To put it bluntly: as long as we grow our reputation as a place talented people want to live, that talent will drive continued economic development.”

Together with local government officials, the Chamber and the Innovation Campus are building programs that envision the Bowling Green of the future and ensure that value proposition for the talent we want to attract and retain.

For instance, the Innovation Campus has opened a new 30,000-square-foot Collaborative SmartSpace at its headquarters, which is a 24/7 shared working space with near-perfect internet and a membership model for professionals who want a place not just to come to work but to ultimately meet, collaborate with, learn from, and share networks with other talented professionals in the region.

The focus on talent development and support has also driven a new project: the WKU CO/CREATE Talent Database–a confidential, optimized database of talent that catalogs professionals who agree to return, stay, or move to the region as we connect them to meaningful new opportunities to do so.

Only a small team has access to the names in the CO/ CREATE database, and all have signed NDAs. But that team shares data about the aggregate talent in the database to the Chamber and other partners to drive economic development efforts. The team helps match available talent with startup ventures and job opportunities in the region, as well as the resources that helps them to bring their career here. Upon their consent to a particular opportunity, their resume and information will be shared. More information on that program is available at https://cocreate-ic.com/. The shared passion and ethos for holistic economic and cultural development demonstrated by the above programs will continue to define the partnership between the Chamber and the WKU Innovation Campus.

“Bowling Green and Warren County have consistently been the fastest growing community in Kentucky for decades,” Bunch said. “And it will continue to be, for years to come. What’s especially powerful about the Innovation Campus is that it is as committed to the community, the culture, and the needs of the talent that will power the growth of this region North of Nashville as it is the emerging technology and infrastructure needed to support it.”