Milwaukee has been world famous for brewing, but it is starting to develop a new kind of expertise: brewing up communities. One example is the community that has been developed by the folks from 1834media. Gabe Wahhab and Luke Summerfield have noticed that while there is lots of exposure to the national combat sports and there is a swelling of young people who are interested in mixed martial arts, little has been done to create local communities for combat sports. Combining their love for mixed martial arts and their day time skills in web development and marketing, a couple years later, they are now ready to replicate their success in Wisconsin across the country and soon internationally.
Not only did these remarkable young men develop a great web site http://wicombatsports.com/ that allows everyone with the interest in mixed martial arts to quickly connect to the local activities, events and clubs, but they developed custom content and an active forum that allows those interested to become connected around their common interest. Perhaps more importantly, they have been able to build the community in a self funding way, providing local geocentric demographic specific space to the businesses who want to appeal to over 20,000 unique monthly Wisconsin visitors who are predominantly male between 18 and 34 years of age.
“Our website really revolutionized and shaped the combat sports community in Wisconsin,” – says Gabe Wahhab. He is quite proud of their accomplishment, and he should be. In these tough economic times 1834media is creating new opportunities for those interested in mixed martial arts to supplement their incomes by promoting the activity they love, by having a strong partner in organizing local events and programs and encouraging others to do the same.
This is not the first venture for Gabe and Luke. Currently, Gabe Wahhab runs Connecxion Technologies (http://www.connexion-tech.com) a company specializing in web development and video security. Luke Summerfield is a co-founder and operator of the Neutral Ground Academy in Grafton. But neither, is ready to rest upon their past successes, both being eager to continue making a difference in ever wider community.
Will you join with them in brewing up a worldwide network of local communities? What else is Milwaukee brewing?
Would love to hear from you,
Oleg Tumarkin, Business Coach
Oleg@e-m8.org
http://www.e-m8.org
262-893-1142
