I'd also point out that, anecdotally, I've seen spaces have to work much harder to fill coworking when they offer both options (private offices and open coworking layouts). The problem, I think, is that private offices are familiar, and people will gravitate towards the things that are most familiar to them.
Culturally, giving people a chance to even see a familiar option inhibits their ability to walk into a coworking space open minded...something that we've found helps get people acclimated to the "different" ways of working. Anything you can do to make the first moments of seeing your workspace be strikingly different, to elicit the "ok, I'm ready for anything today" feeling from your new prospectives will mean they are likely to get more out of their first day, and more likely to join as coworkers that contribute to the culture of the space that you're trying to engender. There's some chaos that comes with open spaces, and they aren't for everyone. We do turn people away who are looking for private offices. But we've also tried having private offices and the value their inhabitants added as contributing members of the coworking community were much lower than the average. >From a business perspective, since that is worth considering,...open floorplans also mean more flexibility and therefore opportunity for revenue. Offices have a fixed price, a market value that's hard to change in your members' eyes. Even if you're introducing all of the "warm fuzzies" of coworking, a desk is still only worth a certain amount. Whereas coworking space and open, flexible floorplans provide an opportunity for creating new price points. Flexible space means that optimizing for growth is much easier. And finally...while anchor members are important for establishing your revenue base, having flexible desk options means that so long as you can fill them, your revenue potential per flex desk is likely to be higher than your anchor desks! In our case, a flex desk has a maximum revenue potential of $300/month (our most expensive monthly plan). But a flex desk with a basic member at it every day is has a potential of $600, and a flex desk with a drop in at it every day has a potential of $1000. -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 4:38 AM, David Troy <davet...@gmail.com> wrote: > Yes, I need to put in a big vote for "open" here as well. Walls are > barriers to culture. To the extent that you want coworking to engender > common culture, you want it to be able to flow freely. > > We have two large rooms, and two small offices that hang off the one > largest room. Invariably people want to be in the large main room because > that's where the energy is. The folks in the two offices are constantly > poking their heads out to be a part of what's happening in the main area. > > The secondary room is more of an overflow room at this point and it only > gets used occasionally or for meetings. If it was used every day all the > time, it would invariably have a different cultural "feel" to it than the > main room. > > IndyHall, in its version 1.0, had two floors and Alex has remarked that the > main floor and the mezzanine folks had two different cultures; not vastly > different but enough to notice. > > That all said, Beehive Baltimore's space is something we took over as-is. > If we get the chance to design our own space, it'll be primarily open space > with perhaps a couple of meeting areas and possibly some tiny spaces > appropriate for phone calls. > > If you're doing nothing but private offices I think it devolves into being > executive suites pretty quickly, and that's a different thang. > > Dave > > -- > Dave Troy > Organizer > Beehive Baltimore > > On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 3:41 AM, jesse <je...@citizenspace.us> wrote: > >> Open. We've got 20 dedicated desks in a large open plan space. >> Probably self-selecting, but the folks here seem happy with it. Easier >> to start or join a conversation with neighbors, and lots of energy >> seeing other people excited and working on their projects. >> Occasionally we have bizarro moments where it seems like everyone is >> on a phone call with a client, but usually it paces out fine. >> >> The fact you would also have dedicated private space for meetings and >> private calls is valuable. >> >> Jesse >> >> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >> Jesse Taggert >> Citizen Space >> San Francisco, CA >> http://citizenspace.us >> @citizenspace >> >> >> On Feb 2, 1:43 pm, Mike Pihlman <m...@telbitconsulting.com> wrote: >> > OK, we have a chance (as our 1 year anniversary approaches) to move to >> > the office space next to ours. Ours has a nice open area maybe 12 x 12 >> > (The Patio). The rest of the space has a hallway with offices 5 of them >> > on either side, and storage. I took the doors down on the left side to >> > encourage openness, but, use the right side offices (with doors) for >> > cell phone use, private meetings, etc. See floorplan here: >> http://www.tracyvirtualoffice.com/cool-links/floorplan/ >> > >> > The next door space has three offices (the same as the old space on the >> > right) that can be used for meetings, cell phone etc, but the rest of >> > the space is wide open. The space looks and feels huge even though it >> > is "only" 200 sq ft larger. >> > >> > Our (mostly gut) feeling is that the open space would be better. But, I >> > was wondering if you had advice or thoughts? >> > >> > Thanks, Mike >> > >> > -- >> > Mike Pihlman >> > TracyVirtualOffice >> > "A Coworking Community" >> > 95 W. 11th Street, Suite 203 >> > Tracy, CA 95376 >> > Mobile: 209-608-4340 >> > Web: TracyVirtualOffice.com >> > Twitter: @TracyVirtOffice >> > Skype: tracyvirtualoffice1 >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Coworking" group. >> To post to this group, send email to cowork...@googlegroups.com. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<coworking%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> >> . >> For more options, visit this group at >> http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. >> >> > > > -- > Dave Troy > meet with me: http://bit.ly/davemtg > blog: www.davetroy.com (@davetroy) > community: www.beehivebaltimore.org (@bhivebmore) > investing: www.baltimoreangels.org (@baltimoreangels) > events: @TEDxMidAtlantic, @barcampbmore, @socialdevcamp > projects: www.twittervision.com, www.flickrvision.com > Partner, Roundhouse Technologies > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Coworking" group. > To post to this group, send email to cowork...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com<coworking%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> > . > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. 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