Venture Cafe St. Louis, which has provided weekly entrepreneurial programming in the Cortex innovation district for nearly a decade, plans to wind down its current operations.
Venture Care, known for its weekly Thursday Gathering, said it will cease holding the event, with its last iteration planned for Dec. 14.
“After nine remarkable years of activating the innovation ecosystem in St. Louis, Venture Café St. Louis bids farewell to its current format at the end of December. This decision comes at a time of change in the market where the needs of our innovation community are evolving,” John Land, general manager of CIC St. Louis, said in an email announcing the decision.
A staple of the local startup ecosystem, Venture Cafe St. Louis provides programming and networking for entrepreneurs and community members. Its weekly Thursday Gathering is held at 4240 Duncan Ave. in the Cortex district. Venture Cafe is the programming arm of CIC St. Louis, the local organization of Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC), a global operator of innovation-focused real estate, including 4240 Duncan Ave.
Whether Venture Cafe could return in some format remains uncertain. CIC said it plans to work with partners on future programming around innovation.
“We aren't shutting the door on providing programming under the Venture Cafe umbrella in the future, but it's not something we are guaranteeing at this time,” CIC said in a statement.
Venture Cafe’s decision to end weekly programming comes as its attendance has lagged compared with before the Covid-19 pandemic, with its leadership shifting several times in recent years. Venture Cafe said it averaged about 125 weekly attendees in 2022, compared with 382 in 2019, its last full year of programming before the Covid-19 pandemic began.
After pausing its programming during the pandemic, Venture Cafe in March 2022 reemerged as it assembled a newly hired local team to run operations. The hires were made after Venture Cafe St. Louis in September 2021 announced it was temporarily suspending its programming and that the Venture Cafe Global Institute, based in the Boston area, assumed operational oversight of the organization. J.P. Johnson was hired as director of Venture St. Louis, replacing Tyler Mathews, who resigned his position in September 2021.
Johnson departed his role earlier this year, with CIC St. Louis contracting with local technology booster group TechSTL to oversee Venture Cafe’s programming. Venture Cafe in July paused its programming for the month; officials said the break would allow time for strategizing how best to move forward with events that could provide relevant content and draw attendees on Thursdays.
TechSTL Executive Director Emily Hemingway said Venture Cafe in recent months has staged programming she describes as a “high-level conference-like experience each week,” delving into topics around entrepreneurship and technology. Despite seeking to boost programming, Hemingway said the weekly Venture Cafe gatherings have continued to average about 100 to 200 attendees each week as the “palate for events has changed over the past few years.”
“It confirms people want a different type of experience from events now and that the community is looking for something different,” Hemingway said.
Since its launch in 2014, Venture Cafe held 463 Thursday Gatherings, with more than 133,000 attendees, according to figures from CIC St. Louis. Moving forward, Land said in his email that CIC St. Louis will “contemplate how best to support the future state of the innovation economy in St. Louis.” He said CIC St. Louis plans to work with local groups to “create engaging and inspiring programming and experiences for the local community."
