Looking for a way to support local artists this weekend? Come on out for the 4th Annual Long Beach Poetry Festival this Saturday, October 18th, from 10:30am-9pm. Hosted by local writers Donna Hilbert, Kevin Lee, Tamara Madison, Clint Margrave, and Paul Tayyar, and sponsored in part by a grant from Poets & Writers, this all-day event is FREE and open to the public. 

This year's festival, taking place downtown in the Cultural Alliance Long Beach's Bungalow Building at 727 N Pine Ave, will be headlined by Joe Weil, along with a full day of Southern California and Long Beach poets. In fact, stop by at 12pm to hear WE Labs' own Danielle Mitchell, who runs The Poetry Lab every first and third Thursday of the month, right here in our coworking space. 

Below is a full schedule of Saturday's readers. We hope to see you there!

10:30: Doors open

11:00 – 12:00
Elder Zamora
Ricki Mandeville
John Gardiner

12:00 – 1:00
Danielle Mitchell
Olivier Bochettaz
Kevin Ridgeway

1:30 – 2:30
Grant Hier
Jennifer K Sweeney
Michael Miller

3:00–4:00
Mathieu Cailler
Lynne Thompson
Shawnte Orion

4:00– 5:00
Bill Gainer
Julia Stein
Michael Meyerhofer

5:00-6:00
John Tottenham
Sonia Greenfield
Manuel Paul Lopez

6:00-7:00
Douglas Kearney
Emily Vogel
Troy Jollimore

7:30
Joe Weil

1. We have 8500 square feet of space to accommodate you and your party.
Have you been to WE Labs? WE occupy the entire 8th floor in a building that is in the exact center of the downtown area. Located on the corner of Long Beach Boulevard and Broadway, WE have a 360 degree view of the city of Long Beach where, every night, you can see the fireworks from Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, and the Queen Mary.

2. Getting here is EASY!
Downtown Long Beach is a notoriously hard place to find parking, but not at WE Labs. WE are located one block away from the free 2-hour City Parking lots.  If that isn’t enough time, there are two (count ‘em, two) City of Long Beach lots that cost only $5 for the entire day located across the street from us!!!  As if that weren’t easy enough, WE are also located one block away from the Transit Mall.  You can go green and get drunk at the same time.

3. Affordable
WE Labs is a community-minded connector organization that welcomes all organizations and parties. Our focus as a business is to have a space where anyone can drop in and connect. WE don’t expect you to work by yourself, why do you think that we would want you to party by yourself? WE have packages available at all price points.

4.Access to a super awesome event coordinator.
Did you even know that WE Labs has an event coordinator?  Well, it does, and she is AWESOME!!! Award-winning and notorious for wrangling zombies and WE Labs staff, Ina can help you with all of your party needs. Remember how WE don’t want you to work or party by yourself?  Well, WE also don’t want you to plan by yourself—that’s what Ina is for!

So really, what are you waiting for? Contact us about your next event. WE are here for YOU.

There are literally thousands of reasons why Long Beach is an amazing place to start or relocate a business. But we had to pick five (time constraints, you see).* Let’s get to it: 

Number 5 (yes, its a count down)
Long beach is walkable, bikeable, and generally just easy to get around. We are the 11th most walkable city and the 3rd most bikeable city in the US. In California, that ranking translates to 2nd and 2nd, right behind San Francisco in both cases. What makes for a better start to your work day than a non-traffic traumatised team? 

Number 4
Being part of a major metropolitan area is important to any business looking to grow and attract talent. In Long Beach, we are in LA County, but not in L.A. Don’t get us wrong, we love our big neighbor to the north, but as many metro residents will tell you, there is a big difference between living in L.A. and visiting L.A. In our opinion, we’ve got it just right. We live right next to the beach, have everything a big city has to offer and we have another big city just a train ride or short drive away. Did we mention its usually about 10-15 degrees cooler in Long Beach than it is in L.A.?

Number 3
Every good business leader knows that innovation, creativity and business outlook only improve in a diverse environment with a diverse team and LA Metro is one of the most diverse places on earth. In the United States, it is THE most diverse major metropolitan area. Awhile back, USA Today did a comparative study which broke down the stats and it turns out, Long Beach is a big reason why LA metro is number one on the diversity charts: Long Beach just happens to be the most diverse city in the US, contributing significantly to LA Metro’s ranking as the most diverse metro area. 

Number 2
Long Beach is probably the easiest city in the United States to get involved in civic and community affairs. We have a robust nonprofit community and our our community leaders, elected or not, are easier to talk to than a neighbor of ten years. Its like having a nearly 500k-person support network. We call it community. For startups and entrepreneurs, just about everywhere you turn there is someone, some organization or some institution, just waiting to help you get off the ground. For more information, see our previous post: Five Local Startup Resources You Might Not Know About.

Number 1
The number one reason Long Beach is such a great city to start or relocate your business is definitely WE Labs (forgive us for self-aggrandizing, but it's our blog and we can do what we want). WE are connected, innovative, supportive and hard working. WE are basically the best business thing to come along since the abacus. We are your ultimate resource and we like to share, just like this list you are currently reading. And this list.

Don’t want to take our word for it? Then drop us a line or, better, just swing by and check us out. You won’t be sorry.

*subject to change on whim, fancy, sound argument or for any other reason.

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Article by Lincoln Bauer, edited by Victoria McCoy

Whether you want to startup a restaurant, a consultancy, the next big tech company or anything in between, here are five resources local to Long Beach, that can get you going in the right direction. And did we say one of them is free money?

Small Business Development Center (SBDC)
Hosted by Long Beach City College, the SBDC is an out-of-this-world resource for any aspiring entrepreneur. They host a whole series of workshops and seminars geared towards equipping would-be business owners with the tools and resources they need to be successful.

One program they offer which we like a lot is the Small Business Brigade series of workshops. Its simple: take at least five of their seminars and get a business consultant, all for free. These workshops are set up specifically for veterans and their spouses, but fear not non-veteran citizens, they offer a ton of educational programming and resources for just about any- and everyone. Check them out.
http://longbeachsbdc.org/

City of Long Beach Corridor Beautification Grant Opportunities
Yes, free money, and its a lot bigger than it sounds. Basically, any startup looking to locate in one of Long Beach’s many Community Block Grant areas is eligible to apply for this grant. The grant covers up to $2000 in startup costs/business opening costs and is doled out each year on a first come, first served basis to all qualifying/approved applicants. You can find out more about this opportunity by visiting the City of Long Beach’s webpage on the subject. http://www.longbeach.gov/ecd/financial_assistance/$2000_start_up_grant/default.asp

City of Long Beach Business Loan Program
Yes, the city has a pretty well known and established program for supporting existing businesses, but did you know they also have a loan program for up to $25,000 for startups? Well, they do. Check it out here.
http://www.longbeach.gov/ecd/financial_assistance/business_loans/

WE Labs
You read that right. WE Labs is probably Long Beach’s best business startup support group and then some. Pretty much every single one of our members is part of a startup, started up their own business or is in the process of starting up. WE are consultants, designers, technologists, makers, innovators and producers. If you have a question about starting up in Long Beach, why not come join our family and ask someone who has probably already answered it themselves?

We also offer a boatload of networking and educational opportunities. Our Pitch Lab and WE Hour monthly event is perfect for startups. You can present your idea or plan and get instant feedback from the community in an informal, comfortable setting. You can find out more about our resources, events and opportunities by following us on Twitter and/or Facebook. Oh, check out our website too.

Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation’s Business Incentives Guide
A lot of the resources we mentioned in this post are also listed in this guide, but it includes a great deal more information on resources available through the State of California, Federal government resources (including Small Business Administration resources) and tax incentives for startups.
http://laedc.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/2012_LAEDCIncentiveGuide.pdf