Part 2: An Insider’s Tour of the Second Floor of the Innevation Center
Welcome to the Innevation Center! In this 4-part blog post, you’ll get an insider’s tour of the University of Nevada, Reno Innevation Center – Powered by Switch. In Part 1, we visited the first floor of the Reno Innevation Center. In this post, Part 2, we are headed upstairs to visit the coworking space and meet the 2nd floor companies that call the Innevation Center home. In Part 3 we’ll explore the top floor of the Innevation Center and chat with the companies that use the Innevation Center on the daily. Finally, in part 4, we’ll head down to the basement to visit what is arguably the most exciting part of the building, the Makerspace!
The Second Floor
Beeping a key card at the stairwell door and going up one flight of stairs takes us to the second floor which holds the Innevation Center’s primary coworking space. On the left is a glass door looking into an open space with numerous signature Switch metal tables, a handful of light-grey cubicled areas, and a view of northern Reno. Before beeping a key card to gain access to the coworking space, you’ll notice a blue door on the right that is the back-entrance to the second floor’s Summit Conference Room.
Coworking Lounge & Summit Conference Room
Heading into the coworking space, a window-side lounge that was tucked behind the entryway becomes visible on the left. Two work tables are pressed up against the fully windowed north side so that members can enjoy a view of Reno and the mountains while they work. Peeking into the first room on the right shows off the Summit Conference Room – the Innevation Center’s largest and fanciest conference room seating up to 12 people. Summit’s AV capabilities include two wall mounted screens, a computer station, and room-wide audio. To complement that, the back side of the room is a full whiteboard wall, and the south side is fully windowed with my favorite view in the building of South Reno and Mt. Rose in the distance.
Coworking lounge. 
Summit Conference Room.
Main Coworking Space
Walking through the coworking space and a visitor will see vinyl stickers of each company’s logo contrasting the clear tops of the cubicle walls. Fun fact, each sticker was made in-house on the vinyl cutter in downstairs in the Makerspace! Continuing back to the kithchenette a visitor passes by Tru Venture Marketing, Rix Advanced Technologies, The Flight Exchange, Fox Optimization, Coworkr, A-One Group Holdings, and Panty Drop (Whaaat? Yes it’s safe to click, they have a body inclusive lingerie subscription service managed online). All these small companies work out of the Innevation Center daily taking advantage of how the configurable space at the Innevation Center can be flexible to meet their needs. Companies pay a flat fee per person, plus either a flat fee per desk or square foot they use.
Coworking space front half. 
Coworking space back half.
The Coffee Machine!
At the back of the coworking space is the most important nook of any community space… the coffee machine. Meet Jura, the fancy-pants automated espresso maker at the Innevation Center. Think Kureg but without the single use cups (yay!), and for espresso! The Jura Impressa XS90 is rated to run 50 custom cups per day, just add beans! And boy do we need to add beans. The Innevation Center goes through an average of 10 pounds of coffee per week to keep members caffeinated. The Innevation Center has also just recently partnered with Glory Gloud Coffee to make sure we never run out again (for shame that it ever happened to begin with). In the kitchenette are a few other necessities including a tea kettle, mini-fridge, and DIY cleaning station for the little things that go wrong.
Through the door at the back of the floor, the bathrooms and back stair well can be found. You’re welcome to take the emergency stairwell at the back of the coworking space back down to the first floor, but don’t try heading back up that way. Back stairwell access to the second and third floor is always locked to keep the space safe and behind keycard access points.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this walk-through of the second floor of the Innevation Center! If you didn’t already know, I am the Assistant Director there and if you have any questions whatsoever about accessing or visiting the space, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me! I’m available on LinkedIn or Twitter or you can email me directly at crystalh@unr.edu. Or you can visit me at my desk on the first floor of the Innevation Center! If you’d like to continue seeing my blogs on innovation, business development, and our community, subscribe to my blog on the right. Thanks for reading!
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