Hello Darrin (& Group): I apologize for barging into this thread -- but I noticed some of Darrin's comments are similar to my setting/s in Arizona.
I am the Director of the Western Arizona Economic Development District (WAEDD) for La Paz, Mohave, and Yuma counties. Full disclosure: I am currently EDA funded for the planning and development of my District's projects under our current CEDS document -- so there is some "heavy lift" for getting this project rolling. I also have several years under my belt with the Small Business Development Center network in Arizona as a business analyst/counselor. I am forging a Rural Enterprise Accelerator Program (REAP) and the Coworking concept is one of the important silos in this REAP project. REAP is a fancy title for the business incubator 1.0 model. Currently, I am recruiting champions in the community to lay the groundwork for Coworking in several (very) rural communities in a district that encompasses 23,502 square miles. I have been lurking in the Coworking discussions for 2 years now -- and it is time to move this concept to reality. The first stop is to marshal all of my business "one-stop"-type resources (local, state, and regional) into a virtual business incubator model and then move next into the actual catalyst stage of Coworking. I am confident of my ability to engage community stakeholders and champions to re-purpose property locations to support Coworking. For Darrin: I would like to share experiences as you grow the "EntreprenOrrville Center for Business Innovation". For Danielle: My wife just returned from Burlington (one week) with her girl friend who grew up in the area (Rutland) and she is really happy with that area of the world. Good luck! Cheers! Alan Pruitt http://www.waeddblog.info http://www.waedd.info http://ceds.waedd.info http://www.awcsbdcblog.com On Jul 24, 5:59 am, Darrin Wasniewski <darrin.wasniew...@gmail.com> wrote: > Danielle, > Thanks for asking, I wasn't sure how much to include in my first post/ > introduction. I am the executive director of Main Street Orrville, a > group focused on downtown revitalization. I came across a mention of > Oklahoma City CoCo in a blog post by Becky McCray of the Small Biz > Survival blog. I forwarded the post to a few people whom I thought may > find the concept interesting and from there the idea was born to get > coworking started here in Orrville. > > We approached a bank that has unused space on the second floor of its > building downtown and they loved the concept. So now we are working on > a business plan for them to review and with any luck- sign off on. We > plan to start our coworking as a program under our EntreprenOrrville > Center for Business Innovation. > > We're just in the very beginning stages of development, but are > looking forward to a fun journey. > > Darrin > > On Jul 24, 2:04 am, WHERE MMM <where...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > Hi there Darrin, > > > Nice to have you in the group. > > What made you think about starting a coworking site and what industry > > background do you hail from? > > > Danielle > > > WHERE: Meet, Mix, Mogul > > Silverlake, Los Angeles/ CA (USA) > > > On Thu, Jul 23, 2009 at 7:51 PM, Darrin Wasniewski < > > > darrin.wasniew...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > Hello- just wanted to take a minute to introduce myself. We are > > > exploring starting a coworking collaborative in Orrville, OH (small > > > rural city about 1/2 hour southwest of Akron, OH.) I'm glad to have > > > been directed to this site, its looking like a great resource so far. > > > I'm sure I'll be full of questions later as we progress further in our > > > endeavor. > > > > d --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
