Maggie Hollinbeck and James Wagar are leading the charge on Month Offline Seattle, a move to get people off their smartphones.
Seattle helped create the modern smartphone era. Now, nearly 40 people in the heart of one of the world’s biggest technology hubs are voluntarily putting theirs away.
The inaugural Month Offline Seattle cohort challenges participants to swap their smartphones for flip phones — or other “dumb phones” — for 35 days, gathering weekly for what organizers describe as part happy hour, part support group.
What started as a niche experiment in Washington, D.C. and Brooklyn has found an enthusiastic audience in Seattle, where organizers expected 10 to 20 participants but have already attracted the largest cohort outside those two cities.
Weekly programs are scheduled during the month-long detox from July 28 to Sept. 1, with activities on Tuesday evenings like bocce ball, bowling and mini golf slated to connect people in real time. There are also themed programs during the week, starting in week one with orientation and goal setting, and followed by topics such as “communication and relationships,” and “attention and boredom.” You can register here.
For a region like Seattle that’s home to Microsoft, Amazon, T-Mobile and a booming AI industry, the idea might sound almost rebellious. But organizers say the goal isn’t to reject technology — it’s to rethink how much of our lives should revolve around our smartphones.
James Wagar, a former investment banker and self-described techno-optimist who has carried a flip phone alongside his smartphone for years, teamed up with therapist and coach Maggie Hollinbeck, who describes herself as a techno-skeptic, to get the Seattle cohort launched. Together, they’re leading the gatherings, serving as the guides to those ready to take a break from their always-connected lifestyles.
“We (finally) seem to be at the beginning of a cultural moment with more people seriously evaluating their relationships with technology,” Wagar tells GeekWire. “Those using flip phones and simpler devices may be the canaries in the coal mine. While I remain a techno-optimist, the attention economy is not sustainable.”
Pick your favorite flip phone and disengage next month with Month Offline Seattle. Photos via James Wagar and Maggie Hollinbeck
Hollinbeck said she remembers when smartphones felt like a convenience — a way to replace multiple devices with one. But over time, she felt that same “rectangle of glass” had become harder to put down, prompting her to rethink her relationship with technology. She’s already ditched her Facebook and Instagram accounts, and was ready for the next step.
“I’m here to reclaim my time and attention, and I’m doing it in this way because I’ve found that it’s actually pretty hard to disentangle myself from this pocket-sized dementor,” said Hollinbeck. “It’s gonna take a village, so we’re building one.”
The concept has been spreading nationally through the Month Offline movement, but Seattle’s response has surprised the organizers. Most participants found the group not through social media, but through flyers, word of mouth, and conversations at neighborhood pubs during the FIFA World Cup.
Cohort members can use their own flip phone or purchase one at a discounted price of $10, and a commitment to subscribe for four months of discounted wireless service from dumb.co. That’s a total commitment of $42.
Denver, Austin, Los Angeles and Philadelphia also are jumping on the “Month Offline” bandwagon — which is kind of best described as a dry January for the tech obsessed. The organization says it is united by a common mission — “our commitment to attention liberation.”
Wagar and Hollinbeck are also encouraging a GeekWire reporter to join the movement.
So far, no takers.
Note: I actually tried a digital detox for one day back in 2013. Not sure I am ready for 35 days, 13 years later.
Part of the Seattle skyline as seen from the waterfront. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
For the first time in several years, there are indications that the worst may be over for the Seattle region’s battered office market — and artificial intelligence companies appear to be playing a leading role.
The regional office market (spanning Seattle, Bellevue and the surrounding Eastside) posted positive net absorption during the second quarter, meaning companies occupied more office space than they vacated, according to a new report from commercial real estate firm JLL. It’s a notable shift after years of downsizing driven by remote work, layoffs and corporate cost-cutting.
Technology companies accounted for 42.5% of all leasing activity during the quarter, easily outpacing every other industry. JLL said AI-related leasing is on track for a strong year as companies establish engineering hubs in the Seattle region to tap its deep talent pool while taking advantage of office costs that remain well below San Francisco and New York.
In fact, leasing by AI companies has accounted for 21.6% of activity in the Seattle and Eastside year to date, and now the entire AI footprint in the region is 855,000 square feet. That’s double the amount in 2024, according to JLL.
The Seattle-area office market turned a corner in 2026, with companies filling more space than they emptied for the first time in four years, as indicated by the positive net absorption for the quarter. (JLL Graphic)
The quarter’s largest deals reflected that trend.
Databricks signed a 142,000-square-foot lease at Four106 in downtown Bellevue, the biggest office transaction of the quarter.
DocuSign committed to 116,000 square feet at Seattle’s JPMorgan Chase Center.
Pokémon moved into The Eight office tower in Bellevue, taking 369,800 square feet of space.
The Pokémon deal helped push the region to 372,000 square feet of positive net absorption for the quarter — reversing a run of quarters in which tenants gave back more space than they took.
The numbers offer an encouraging change after years of gloomy office market reports, but they hardly signal a full recovery. Regional vacancy remains elevated at 23.9%, while overall availability sits at 25%.
Companies continue to consolidate space, landlords are still offering concessions, and asking rents remain under pressure as tenants retain significant negotiating leverage, JLL said in the report
Still, there are indications the market’s fundamentals are improving.
Availability has now declined for two consecutive quarters and has fallen from a peak of 26.5% a year ago. At the same time, JLL reports there is currently no new speculative office construction under way — buildings started without tenants committed — meaning even modest growth in demand could have a greater impact on occupancy than in previous years.
Rather than signaling a broad-based office comeback, the latest leasing data suggests a more nuanced story: AI companies and other fast-growing technology firms are helping stabilize a market that had spent years moving in the opposite direction.
The report reinforces a trend GeekWire has been tracking over the past year as AI companies expand their presence across the Seattle region. Alongside Microsoft and Amazon, companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Armada and Anduril have been building engineering teams in the area, drawn by one of the country’s deepest concentrations of AI and cloud computing talent.
Whether that momentum continues will depend on how quickly AI hiring expands and whether more companies decide they need additional space for a new generation of engineers. But after several years defined by shrinking footprints and empty offices, the second quarter offered the first meaningful indication that Seattle’s office market may finally be finding its footing.
Scenes from this week’s founder open house on the deck at GeekWire HQ in Seattle, where we also recorded this week’s podcast. Thanks to Delta Air Lines, Prime Team Partners, WTIA and ALLtech for sponsoring the event. (Photos by Kurt Schlosser and John Cook)
On this week’s show, we’re on the GeekWire deck for our annual founder open house, where we dig into Microsoft’s latest round of layoffs — including a major Xbox shakeup — and the surprising rise of hardware companies on the GeekWire 200.
Then we sit down with four guests to talk about how AI is reshaping how they build:
Jana Schuster of StackIQ, whose AI-native platform helps companies find redundancy in their software spending — like Rocket Money, but for business — with a small team.
Boaz Ashkenazy of Shift AI, who’s setting up always-on agents and rethinking how we interact with AI tools.
Finally, this week’s GeekWire Trivia Challenge: how a longtime T-Mobile executive got his start in the wireless business, and the star-studded history of T-Mobile celebrity endorsers.
Anthropic’s booth at AWS re:Invent in 2025. Its new Seattle lease puts it just up the street from Amazon. (GeekWire File Photo)
Anthropic is embarking on a major expansion in Seattle, underscoring how artificial intelligence companies are emerging as one of the few bright spots in the region’s office market.
The maker of the Claude AI model recently finalized a lease at Dexter Yard North in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood, capping months of speculation about the company’s expansion plans in the region.
Terms of the deal were not publicly disclosed, but CoStar News reports that the company leased 113,000 square feet of space across multiple floors in the north tower at 700 Dexter Avenue North. CoStar called it one of the largest office deals of the year so far in Seattle.
The expansion would significantly increase Anthropic’s footprint in Seattle, where the San Francisco-based company established an engineering office in 2024 as it recruited talent from the region’s deep pool of AI researchers and software engineers.
It would also place Anthropic next door to Amazon. The companies in April expanded their existing partnership: Amazon committed to invest up to $25 billion in Anthropic, which simultaneously made a $100 billion-plus spending commitment to AWS over 10 years.
The following month, Anthropic announced $65 billion in funding at a $965 billion valuation, thought to be the last venture round before an initial public offering later this year.
On Thursday, Anthropic released Claude Sonnet 5, which the company says “can make plans, use tools like browsers and terminals, and run autonomously at a level that, just a few months ago, required larger and more expensive models.”
Anthropic’s Seattle lease provides hope that demand from AI companies could help revive parts of Seattle’s office market after several years of elevated vacancy driven by remote work and tech industry cutbacks. Seattle’s office vacancy rate inched up to 28% during the first quarter, the highest in the region.
Other AI firms, including OpenAI and Databricks, have also expanded their Seattle-area office footprints in recent months. In those instances, the companies chose to grow in nearby Bellevue.
Dexter Yard, a two-building office and life sciences campus developed by BioMed Realty, opened in 2022 and was designed to accommodate both technology and biotech tenants. The north tower contains approximately 163,000 square feet of office and lab space.
Anthropic has a number of open engineering roles spread across Seattle, New York and San Francisco. The company says it expects all staff to be in one of their offices at least 25% of the time.
A spokesperson for Anthropic acknowledged the new lease, but did not respond to requests for additional comment.
Gov. Bob Ferguson announcing the new Economic Development Council. (Washington Office of Financial Management Photo)
Gov. Bob Ferguson last week recruited top executives from Microsoft, Amazon, T-Mobile, Boeing and other major employers to help shape Washington state’s economic strategy, launching a new advisory council as concerns mount that the state is becoming less competitive for business.
The 26-member Governor’s Economic Development Council is the first such governor-led economic advisory body in roughly two decades, reviving an approach last used under former Gov. Christine Gregoire in 2006. The group includes leaders from technology, aerospace, organized labor, higher education, tribal governments, ports and economic development organizations who will advise the governor on policies aimed at strengthening Washington’s economy. (See full list below).
One missing ingredient: No members from Washington’s venture capital or startup ecosystem are on the council, even though they are often considered the bench strength of a growing economy.
The announcement comes as executives, startup founders and business organizations have increasingly warned that higher taxes, rising costs, permitting delays and an uncertain regulatory environment are making Washington a more difficult place to build and grow companies. Ferguson recently signed the so-called “millionaires tax” — a proposed 9.9% tax applied to taxable, personal annual income that exceeds $1 million.
Some of the region’s wealthiest and most prominent entrepreneurs — including Zillow and Expedia co-founder Rich Barton; Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz — have publicly announced moves out of Washington state in recent years.
Starbucks also recently announced a major expansion in Nashville, and Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte of earlier this month announced that Sedro Wooley, Wash.-based Janicki Industries chose Great Falls for the site of an $800 million manufacturing center expected to create 1,000 jobs.
“Washington is our home, and that is not changing,” said John Janicki, president of Janicki Industries, in a press release. “Our footprint in Washington has continued to grow but is slowing due to ever-increasing regulations and lack of business understanding at an executive and legislative level.”
Meanwhile, a recent survey from the Association of Washington Business found that 24% of businesses are considering a relocation out of the state, up from 17 percent in the prior quarter.
Washington’s economic climate was also one of the reasons why GeekWire recently traveled to Cleveland, where we explored how the Midwestern city was positioning itself for a changing economy, and the lessons that Washington could learn from it.
“We cannot take our strength for granted,” Ferguson said in announcing the council. “I’m launching a historic convening of top leaders from around Washington state to help guide the next chapter of economic prosperity for our state.”
The council will help develop Washington’s long-term economic strategy, identify opportunities to create family-wage jobs, evaluate the state’s competitiveness against other states and global markets, recommend ways to attract new employers and review regulatory barriers that may be slowing economic growth. The group will meet quarterly and submit recommendations to the governor.
The council’s creation comes after months of growing unease within Washington’s technology and business community.
GeekWire has reportedextensively on criticism surrounding this year’s tax package, which raised business taxes on many employers and expanded the sales tax to additional services, including advertising. Business groups warned the measures could discourage investment and expansion in Washington, while lawmakers argued the revenue was necessary to close a multibillion-dollar budget gap and preserve essential public services.
The broader economic backdrop remains mixed. Washington continues to rank among the nation’s strongest state economies and remains home to global leaders in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, aerospace and life sciences. At the same time, employers are navigating higher borrowing costs, federal policy uncertainty, trade tensions and intensifying competition from states aggressively courting new investment.
As one example, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine recently encouraged people and businesses from places like Washington to consider Ohio.
“Come work in Ohio,” DeWine noted after a question from GeekWire about advice he’d provide to Washington. “You will not find a better place, better people, quality of life. Cost of living is low compared to the two coasts.”
In the press release announcing Janicki Industries’ Montana expansion, Gianforte was a bit more blunt.
“The Treasure State is proud to attract job creators like Janicki that choose to expand from high-tax, high-regulation blue states to take advantage of our unmatched quality of life, lower taxes, and strong workforce,” he said. “I look forward to seeing the impact of this significant investment.”
Ferguson has sought to make economic development a central priority during his first year in office. His administration has highlighted efforts to speed permitting across state agencies, increase housing production and invest in sectors including quantum computing, advanced manufacturing and clean energy.
However, some have argued that the governor’s efforts come a bit too late, and are only be instituted in response to criticism. Gov. Ferguson shot back at that contention in the press conference last week, saying he doesn’t worry about critics and he’s interested in “solving problems.”
“I didn’t wake up last week and think about forming this council,” he said. “To be clear, as I mentioned in my talking points, this was an effort we really started last year and was an outgrowth of having conversations with many of the folks behind me and many other people across the state.”
Whether the new council ultimately leads to meaningful policy changes remains to be seen. But its creation sends a signal that Ferguson intends to place economic competitiveness — and closer engagement with Washington’s business community — near the center of his administration.
Amazon Chief Global Affairs and Legal Officer David Zapolsky, a member of the newly created council, called the formation of the group an “important step.”
“When the public and private sectors align around shared goals, communities benefit,” he said.
Governor’s Economic Development Council members:
Michael Cade — Incoming Board Chair, Washington Economic Development Association; Executive Director, Thurston County Economic Development Council
Dr. Betsy Cantwell — President, Washington State University
Leonard Forsman — Chairman, Suquamish Tribe
Denny Heck — Washington State Lieutenant Governor
Kris Johnson — President, Association of Washington Business
Trevor Johnson — CEO, Blackwood Homes
Dr. Robert Jones — President, University of Washington
Mike Katz — Chief Business & Product Officer, T-Mobile
Mary Kipp — President & CEO, Puget Sound Energy
Heather Kurtenbach — Executive Secretary, Washington State Building & Construction Trades Council
Dr. Thomas J. Lynch Jr. — President & Director, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center
Julianna Marler — CEO, Port of Vancouver
West Mathison — President & CEO, Stemilt Growers
Stephen Metruck — Executive Director, Port of Seattle
Denise Moriguchi — President & CEO, Uwajimaya
Stephanie Pope — President & CEO, Boeing Commercial Airplanes
Heather Rosentrater — President & CEO, Avista
Michael Senske — Chairman & CEO, Pearson Packaging Systems
April Sims — President, Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO
Brad Smith — Vice Chair and President, Microsoft
Rachel Smith — President, Washington Roundtable
Bill Sterud — Chairman, Puyallup Tribe
Shane Tackett — President and Chief Financial Officer, Alaska Airlines
Monique Valenzuela — Executive Director, Ventures
Dr. Rebekah Woods — President, Columbia Basin College
David Zapolsky — Chief Global Affairs & Legal Officer, Amazon
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