Business Resource: Collaborative Thread

The blog this year will focus on Women+Business+Style, and January’s posts center on some fabulous resources for San Diego businesses, particularly on women-owned businesses. First was Social Studio Shop!

Now here’s a little about my favorite women’s networking group, Collaborative Thread.

Collaborative Thread is a collaborative community for female creatives and women-owned businesses. Their official about webpage says, “Collaborative Thread is here to provide a welcoming, supportive, and collaborative community for female creatives. Our goal is to bring together all creative types and provide the opportunity to meet face-to-face with the inspiring women who are helping shape San Diego’s creative culture. #followthethreadsd”

I highly recommend their events even if you don’t need to network with other creatives to find clients or vendors. It’s great be surrounded by amazing women and know you are not alone in starting or maintaining your own business! This community of inspiration and support is especially important if your friends and family work traditional 9-5 jobs.

Collaborative Thread has a great Facebook group for asking questions about business services you may need such as designers, photographers, website help, and more. The group is also a place to announce your events and projects you are collaborating on. If you’re looking for creative help with any aspect of your business, you’re sure to find an expert in this group of ~600 awesome ladies! Find it here.

Collaborative Thread usually alternates their event location between central San Diego and North County, and varies the format of events such as a Q&A panel of awesome ladies. The panel at Museum of Contemporary Art in La Jolla including Mrs. Lilien was one of my favorites! Different creative businesses are featured in each event’s planning, such as photographers to photograph the event, food businesses for delicious event food, a craft/maker project for all to create, a styled photo booth, and a designer for name tags.

History

The group started as a chapter of Creative Connection USA, a national social meet-up for fabulous female creatives started in 2011 by graphic designer Elise Ostermann in Dallas. The first meetup I attended was a Creative Connection event at West Elm in spring 2013 , where I met tons of wonderful women including the founders, and also met one of my now-favorite boutique owners, Celia from vo•cab•u•lar•y. The San Diego chapter founders were Marissa Cool, Jenny Boyce, Conni Jespersen, and Betsy Haley. Jenny moved to Boston soon after that, and Conni moved to Toronto (and back! Welcome back!). Creative Connection as a national group shut down in 2014, so in order to keep our San Diego group going (the only active group), they needed a new name. It was rebranded Collaborative Thread in 2015 and Fruit From Her Hands made this amazing sign out of, you guessed it, thread!

In 2015-2016, Betsy moved to SF and then Marisa moved to NYC, so Kayt from Kayt Joyce Design and Print took the reins. Recently it may have looked like the group was on a break, but CEO Kayt was busy working her small business solutions magic, organizing behind-the-scenes details such as the website, financials, and more. There was a mini-meetup “speed-dating” with creatives in November and I am excited to see the fun plans for 2017!

Website
Facebook Group
Facebook Page
Instagram @collaborativethread
Twitter: @collabthread
#followthethread

2018 update: Colloborative Thread has morphed into a Facebook Group only, but you can review other resources for women in business on my new website.