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If you live in Knoxville and spend any time on Instagram, chances are New2Knox has crossed your feed — from their weekly event roundups to tours of small businesses to advertising their Hops as a way to explore the city and connect offline.

Next month, New2Knox turns 10! The three powerhouse women running it, Emilie Stooksbury, Emily Stevens and Bailey Hunter are marking the occasion with a Knoxville Friendship Fair on Saturday, Sept. 13, at Bearden Beer Market.

We grabbed coffee with Stooksbury to talk through how they turned a side project into one of Knoxville’s most-followed community accounts, reaching over 65,700 Instagram followers.

The backstory

The idea for New2Knox started mid-run. Stooksbury had just moved to Knoxville from Austin and was training for the Knoxville half-marathon as a way to hopefully make some new friends. But two things kept nagging at her: making friends as an adult is hard, and Knoxville wasn’t quite feeling like home yet.

Stevens was also training for the half-marathon and the two soon became friends and roommates. She heard Stooksbury voice those concerns and decided to do something. She invited the internet to a party at local beer garden, and people actually showed up! That was all the proof they needed. There was a real need here for community, and New2Knox was born.

Hunter joined the team shortly after. Now, they are a decade in. Time flies when you’re having fun!

A social feed turned retention tool

What started as a social “passion project” to make Knoxville feel more connected has turned into something the team didn’t fully expect: a real driver of talent retention. New2Knox skews toward the grad-school-to-young-professional crowd, and Stooksbury said that group can often struggle with finding a life outside of work.

“There’s tons of opportunities to network in Knoxville, and that’s important. But to keep talent here, it’s also about fulfilling the question of ‘What do I want to do outside of work?’ It’s about finding the girls you’re going to watch reality tv with after a long day. Or finding the guy gang you’re going to the brewery to play trivia with,” Stooksbury reflected.

Ultimately, having community outside of work is really what plants deep roots for a young professional to stay in the area long-term. And when they do, they’ll need housing. New2Knox helps in that department as well through Move2Knox. Both Stevens and Hunter are realtors and will host first-time homebuyer FAQ sessions as another way to help young professionals dig deep here.

As more and more young professionals have started calling the city “home” over the years, Stooksbury has felt the city’s vibe shift right alongside New2Knox’s growth.

“Coming from Austin, there was a huge sense of pride and feeling like you were part of something bigger. I didn’t see that here at first. The city has had a lot of change over the years, and there’s always more we can all do to help it be better, but I do get that sense here now. People are proud to be here. There’s a true vibrancy to the city with more younger professionals here,” she said.

The next decade

New2Knox’s next decade will likely be an ebb and flow. More transplants and new businesses coming to the area will keep the team busy, but Stooksbury said it’s just as much about reading the room. Other efforts — like book clubs, craft groups and various run clubs — have popped up over the years. With New2Knox paving that path, it’s frankly easier to find community now.

They’ll keep doing that they’ve always done, but they also want to now help bring those scattered communities and siloed clubs under one roof more often. That’s the whole idea behind the Knoxville Friendship Fair. Young professionals: Mark your calendars, plan to be there to plug in, and help celebrate 10 years of New2Knox!

Follow New2Knox on Instagram here.

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