Can you elaborate how creating a space first could hurt you?
Jerome ______________ BLANKSPACES "work FOR yourself, not BY yourself" www.blankspaces.com 5405 Wilshire Blvd (2 blocks west of La Brea) Los Angeles, CA 90036 1450 2nd Street (@ Broadway) Santa Monica, CA 90401 323.330.9505 (office) On Mar 3, 2011, at 3:21 PM, Derek Neighbors wrote: > Jonathan, > > It seems you are focused on the wrong things if you want to engage with > Economic Development professionals. I will be at the coworking unconference > in Austin and would be willing to talk with people about this. Gangplank has > significant partnership with it's city and in process of launching additional > sites as partners with other cities. Alex/Jerome I think your assertions are > on the right track, but I can promise that you don't have to create a > traditional coworking space in order to get the attention of the ED in your > city. In fact, doing so probably hurts you more than it helps you. > > -- > Derek Neighbors > Gangplank > > > On Thu, Mar 3, 2011 at 2:10 PM, Jerome Chang <[email protected]> wrote: > Look everyone. I know that some of you are very ambitious and creative to > convince, say, an EDC to invest in coworking. But to provide industry-wide > metrics for traditional-minded views is tough when this "industry" has just > begun. Besides, the data is going to be all over the place. There hasn't > been any "formula" for ramp-up, square footage effectiveness, composition of > memberships (full-time vs. part-time, etc.)...Every facility is going to be > different, and even if similar, probably hasn't been around long enough to > provide any meaningful metric. > > The only way to get meaningful metrics is for some academic grant or some > philanthropic benefactor to finance the resources to gather such fragmented > and very early data. > > So like Alex has recommended many times over, just focus on your facility, > your community and use your common sense to adjust as req'd. > > > Jerome > ______________ > BLANKSPACES > "work FOR yourself, not BY yourself" > > www.blankspaces.com > 5405 Wilshire Blvd (2 blocks west of La Brea) > Los Angeles, CA 90036 > > 1450 2nd Street (@ Broadway) > Santa Monica, CA 90401 > > 323.330.9505 (office) > > On Mar 3, 2011, at 12:32 PM, Alex Hillman wrote: > >> But to answer your question - To what end? To the end of getting funding, >> tax breaks, etc from cities to promote the growth of coworking. >> >> Maybe it's just a philosophical difference but we've intentionally gone the >> OTHER direction, building things in a way that doesn't require or need the >> city for growth. In fact, most of our interactions with the city (and >> they're happening regularly) involve a conversation that goes something >> like, "We love what you guys are doing, and more importantly, that you're >> not doing it with your hand out." To us, NOT needing them is just as >> important as helping them. Needing them in order to help them isn't really >> helping them in the long term. >> >> Some of the questions I've been asked: >> - How many sqft does a space need to be successful? >> - How quickly does membership typically grow? >> - How many members can be supported per sqft? >> - How many "jobs" and "businesses" are generally created and over what >> period of time? >> >> I get these too. 3-5 times a week. Just because they ask a question doesn't >> mean answering that question is the right answer. >> >> http://dangerouslyawesome.com/2010/11/where-jobs-come-from/ >> >> Giving them answers that satiate them is nice and all, but there's SO much >> more value in pushing them to rethink the questions they're asking. When >> folks from these organizations (private or public sector) want to understand >> coworking better, I give them the same answer that I give members interested >> in coworking: just show up. >> >> -Alex >> >> /ah >> indyhall.org >> coworking in philadelphia >> >> >> On Thu, Mar 3, 2011 at 3:04 PM, Jonathan Yankovich >> <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> > Jonathan said: >> > > for local/regional/state/national groups interested in coworking, to >> > > support >> > > the cause and show people the real value using numbers as opposed to the >> > > more ephemeral attributes that we're talking about here. >> >> Alex said: >> >> > To what end? *Sounds* great but most governments and coworking space >> > owners/operators/founders won't have a clue what to do with these "metrics" >> > other than throw them at the EDCs and, well, I've already written about >> > that: >> > http://dangerouslyawesome.com/2010/12/on-economic-development-centers-and-coworking/ >> >> I think its more about communicating the value of this new model to >> the people who hold the purse strings in communities when it comes >> to. In Madison, our city economic development champion "gets" >> coworking and sees it as the future, but recognizes that few of the >> people who are generally involved with economic development decisions >> and about how to spend government money really understand it the way >> we do. >> >> Some of the questions I've been asked: >> >> - How many sqft does a space need to be successful? >> - How quickly does membership typically grow? >> - How many members can be supported per sqft? >> - How many "jobs" and "businesses" are generally created and over what >> period of time? >> >> Answering these kinds of questions will give "EDC's" information that >> they can understand in the context they're used to. These folks are >> used to things like business plan contests (not coworking), >> "incubators" (not coworking), and tax subsidies for small businesses >> (not coworking). If we want them to understand the value of >> coworking, we have to present information about it in a way that they >> can "get". I was hoping that by gathering metrics we could do this, >> but based on feedback from many people on this list, it sounds like a >> problem that we perhaps shouldn't even try to solve ... for now. >> >> But to answer your question - To what end? To the end of getting >> funding, tax breaks, etc from cities to promote the growth of >> coworking. >> >> _jonathan yankovich >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Coworking" group. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected]. >> 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. >> To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. >> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to >> [email protected]. >> 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. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > 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. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > 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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