A new club has opened in downtown Augusta, but it’s not the kind that serves drinks at night.
While it’s a members-only establishment, it’s more about bringing people and businesses together, not being exclusive.
“Part of the model of the network is that we allow different levels of businesses and professionals,” said Natonia Tillman, the CEO of 10Twenty-Eight, a collaborative workspace, business club and networking hub on Broad Street.
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After retiring from a long career in education in 2021, Tillman launched The Network Power, a multi-platform business, specializing in marketing, advertising and learning resources for entrepreneurs. One of the key platforms is its business-to-business periodical, Network Power Magazine, published in Augusta and distributed throughout the southeast.
“It was birthed out of that,” said Tillman about 10Twenty-Eight, which she calls the “city club” for The Network Power, whose mission to connect local professionals and influencers pushed forward in phases that included online small business groups, networking events and then the magazine.
10Twenty-Eight, which opened on March 8, after a founder’s night for members on March 7 represents the fourth phase in The Network Power’s operations.
“Professionals, influencers and artists, as well, we allow them to utilize the city club in different ways,” said Tillman. “Any given day, you can find a business owner there, doing a meeting, sometimes they bring their laptop down there; they hang out.”
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Members can, and do, use the space for various events, workshops and programs. There are networking mixers for non-members; and even a retail space where members and set up shop and take advantage of the high visibility of the location, the former site of Art On Broad.
“Being apart of 10Twenty-eight has truly been life changing and a mental shift in the right direction,” said Nicole Neal, owner of Nicole Lorraine Organics, an Augusta-based beauty and skincare brand. “This is exactly what our community needs in cities around the world; a networking center that actually provides recourses, opportunities, and willing minds to help reach a common goal.”
10Twenty-Eight’s pronounced storefront location, and its proximity to so many restaurants and other established businesses such as Art On Broad and Augusta & Co., affords burgeoning enterprisers like Neal plenty of foot traffic and exposure.
“Our first choice was actually the J.B. Whites building behind the New Moon Café, which was a beautiful space, and it provided a lot of opportunity for us to do our member experiences and programming,” said Tillman. “But it didn’t provide the opportunity for the businesses to really get exposure, increase their customer base, so we decided to be very intentional about our location location, so we decided to look for a storefront instead.
That storefront, Tillman notes, provides opportunity for retailers to by drawing attention to their products and increase their revenue by selling to tourists in the area, or people that may be just perusing downtown.
“To come together to collaborate and to do bigger business deals, that’s our purpose,” Tillman said. “For everything that we do is to come make bigger moves towards our personal and professional pursuits.”
10Twenty-Eight is located at 1028 Broad St. For more information on upcoming events, or membership, visit www.thenetworkpower.com, or its Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/experience1028.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter covering business for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
