By: Catherine Daleo
Reading time: 1 ½  – 2 minutes

The Workshop Downtown, a local educational platform by and for creatives, has had to adapt over the last few months as a result of the pandemic.

Kelly Bennett, co-founder of the Workshop Downtown and social-media consultant shared how the organization started and how it has been impacted by the pandemic this year.

The Workshop is all-inclusive, and is “female-founded and co-founded by a person within the LGBTQIA community”.

Launched in March of 2017, Bennett and the other Workshop co-founders, Ashley Ayala and Jessica Sells, began by teaching creative workshops on the back patio of VegeNation – a local plant-based restaurant also in Downtown Las Vegas.

“Over the years it evolved into The Workshop Downtown teaching creative business workshops,” Bennett said.

 In 2018, the Workshop launched its membership program, where people could become members and get additional services that the Workshop offers. “It was really exciting!” Bennett said.

During the pandemic, they needed to move all of their workshops and their Local Creative Meetups online. 

“At first we experienced a drop in memberships because people needed to pause spending,” Bennett said. 

In response to the situation, they created a whole new online experience. 

“Because we now teach fully online, we were actually able to lower costs and add more value to our monthly memberships – which was awesome!,” Bennett said. “Now we’re able to pay more locals to teach at the Workshop Downtown, bring more education to our community and make the education more accessible online.”

Over the last few months, Bennett said that it’s been “a rollercoaster of emotions and changes”. 

“I do my best to stay focused on the impact I want to make and how I want to show up as a guiding light in the unknown,” she said. 

For those who would like to get involved in the Workshop in some capacity, Bennett shared a few ways to do so and to support their endeavors. 

“Local creatives can sign up to our email list to be the first to know when we have new workshops,” Bennett said. “We’d love for you to have workshops with us.”

She went on to say, “We have an incredible lineup for the rest of the year. You can purchase workshop tickets individually or become a member for LOTS of awesome encouragement, resources and accountability while building your business.”

You can do all of the aforementioned actions and more by visiting The Workshop’s website.

Regarding memberships, for $47 a month, Workshop members get unlimited access to all the weekly workshops available that month, as well as getting a featured listing on the site and get monthly personal accountability check-ins. 

Use promo code ‘local‘ for $5 off the first month of your membership.

Bennett concluded by saying, “We love our local creative community so much and want to support in every way we can!”

“If you are starting a business or creative project, DM us. We’re always sharing cool things for people to support!”You can follow @TheWorkshopDowntown on Instagram and Facebook “to discover local creatives and small businesses.”