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There’s been an array of national and global accolades given to Asbury Park over the past few years; celebrating everything from its beaches to its entertainment venues and restaurants.

Today, Livability joins the list by naming the 1.4 square mile city along the Jersey Shore among its top eight best communities for entrepreneurs.

“The accolade captures the spirit of how this city’s revitalization began,” Mayor John Moor [at right] said. “Throughout our downtown and waterfront, there are a number of retail stores, galleries and restaurants that are owned and operated by creative people who who took a chance in settling in town.”

The 30 year old publication, which works with over 19,000 community’s across the nation, chose to spotlight thriving beach communities with surprisingly vibrant tech scenes.

“In postcard-perfect settings like these, you can network and hustle by day, and live the vacation life by night,” Claire Hannum wrote. “One of the best perks of entrepreneurial life is the freedom to take your career with you wherever you go. When you’re your own boss, your office can be whichever city you choose to park your laptop. Which begs the question: if you can work from anywhere, why not work from paradise?”

Asbury Park ranked third, behind Charleston SC and Sarasota Fla.

“Asbury Park was praised for its deep-rooted history in creativity and being a haven for up-and-coming musicians,” Content Coordinator Cara Sanders said.

The spotlight praised Cowerks and The Asbury, the city’s latest hotel and entertainment venue.

Asbury Park’s historic music scene put stars like Bruce Springsteen and Jon Bon Jovi on the map. After a few decades of decline, this Jersey Shore community is enjoying a well-deserved comeback. The Asbury Hotel, the first new hotel to go up in Asbury Park in over 50 years, opened its doors in 2016. This helped open the floodgates for a new wave of tourists, businesses and residents.

The city is an especially great spot for entrepreneurs who specialize in creative fields. Up-and-coming musicians play in cozy bars on every block, and artists flock to the boardwalk. The scene is growing so quickly that Cowerks, Asbury Park’s leading co-working space, recently expanded to accommodate all the freelancers and remote workers who utilize the space.

The Asbury opened in May 2016 and has hosted national and local performing artists and many local entrepreneurial endeavours, including Babes In Business networking gatherings and Women’s Convention events.

Founded in 2010, Cowerks not only tapped into the local entrepreneurial spirit but redefined the shared work space concept at its Lake Avenue and Main Street locations by offering flexible workspace, private office space, and a community for Monmouth and Ocean County ‘entrepreneurs, startups, tech enthusiasts, and business leaders looking to network, learn, and grow their businesses.’

The team behind Cowerks is led by Danny Croak, Bret Morgan and Greg Edgeton [above right], who administer a series of events aimed at helping local entrepreneurs discuss ideas and trends in technology and marketing.

“Since we started in 2010, our goal has always been to contribute to building Asbury Park as not only a cultural center but a place for startups to network, grow, and thrive,” Morgan said. “We’re located just an hour from NYC and an hour from Philly so while we may have been a bit early in the coworking game; we’ve known that it was only a matter of time before the greater community recognized Asbury Park’s potential as a tech hub.”

Morgan partners with Kevin Fricovsky in hosting the Annual Asbury Agile conference, which will be held this year from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Oct 5 at The Asbury. 

Keynote speakers include:

Aetna Health Engineer Chandra Carney on Accessibility in Agile Environments;

EY Senior Blockchain Consultant Devon Yarbrough on Building the Future on Blockchain;

Vydia VP Ricky Saporta on Thinking Like a Data Scientist;

Bontouch Lead Product Designer Fiona Rolander on Setting Users up for Success

Deft Services Software Engineer Brenda Storer presenting You May Not Need Media Queries. Using CSS Grid in the Real World

And, Stack Overflow’s Senior Product Designer Ted Goas on Distributed Design: How Stack Overflow builds strong remote teams

This year, the Eighth Annual Asbury Agile has grown to feature three Thursday [Oct 4] workshops:

From 10 a.m. to noon Oct. 4, McCarter & English Managing Partner David Sorin offers Cryptocurrency as a New Capital Raising Tool – The “New” Choice: Debt, Equity or Tokenization. The workshop explores the history behind debt vs equity financing, and the advantages of tokenization. Buy tickets here.

From 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Generative Art with Product Engineer/Artist Tim Holman that explores the artistic and scientific creativities behind Javascript, Canvas, HTML, and CSS technologies. Buy tickets here.

Industry experts Neha Agarwal, Rakesh Gidwani, Daniella Schneider, and Chris Shei offer Let’s Play Agile, an interactive workshop that offers participants an opportunity to tackle situations that mimic real life scenarios, such as handling shifting priorities, maintaining flexibility, collaborating across teams, working with limited resources, resolving conflicting objectives, and managing various stakeholder opinions. This workshop will be held from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Buy tickets here.

For more information and the full lineup of events and after party information on the 8th Annual Asbury Agile Conference, click here.

For more about Cowerks, click here; and for more about The Asbury, click here.

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The Asbury Park Sun is affiliated with the triCityNews newspaper.

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