Less than an hour north of San Francisco, Cotati is centrally located within Sonoma County and is just a short drive to many local wineries. The downtown plaza is a historical landmark, as only one of two towns designed in a hexagonal pattern.
The town flourished with ‘flower power’ in the turbulent ‘60s as “Cotati counterculture” took the town by storm, transforming the town into a hippie hotspot, with iconic bands from the era, such as the Grateful Dead, dropping in to perform.
Although the influence of the counterculture has mellowed somewhat, it continues to be home to a number of popular cafés and nightspots, as a number of events and festivals including the renowned Cotati Accordion Festival.
Today, Cotati serves as the ‘inspirational home’ to Blairworks. Originally founded as Pacific Web in downtown Cotati in 1996, Blairworks has been an active developer of the local Internet community, including the development of websites for the City of Cotati, the Cotati Chamber of Commerce, and the Cotati Jazz Festival.
For many years, the Pacific Web office was located on the edge of Cotati’s famous downtown hub. In the early 2000’s, we began to take advantage of new capabilities the Internet offered by transforming our development infrastructure into something that was decentralized and remotely accessible. This has enabled us to work more robustly with web specialists, regardless of their geographical location. In 2004, the building we had occupied was sold to an owner that intended to occupy the property and we took the opportunity to complete the decentralization of our systems — going completely ‘virtual’.
While we no longer have an office in Cotati, we often suggest the Redwood Cafe in Cotati as a location for casual meetings with clients, as it is an excellent café with healthy food, nice tables and wireless Internet. You’ll also find Mark Blair working there upon occasion, tunneling into the Blairworks network over a hot cup of coffee.