“I think maybe there’s a desire, in a rural place like [Pagosa] where people are really spread out, that — while there is a beauty in working independently, working in your pajamas at home — but there’s just a natural human need to gather. And also to meet other, similar professionals who are remote workers, tech workers, education workers. I think those kinds of knowledge workers really like to have the chance to meet one another, here in Pagosa.
“So there’s a little bit of that ‘cross-pollinating’ going on in the office…”
Daewn Kolpin, one of the founders of the Pagosa Innovation Center, had agreed to an interview, to talk about the first year of business at PIC — a year that coincided with a year of pandemic changes. More people working ‘remotely’, for example. When public health agencies across the nation limited the number of people who could safely occupy indoor spaces, a lot of people — teachers, bookkeepers, programmers, graphic designers, parents, doctors, and a plethora of other professionals and non-professionals — began to work “from home” in ways they might not have done absent the health emergency.
PIC opened its doors in August 2020, just as a spike in infections was making its appearance in Archuleta County and neighboring La Plata County.
Also making their appearance, during the COVID summer of 2020, were record numbers of visitors… including tourists, home buyers, and ‘knowledge workers’.
