I completely agree with that approach. Since I moved from an area where coworking was common term, one of biggest turning points for me was when I dropped it from the initial description of the spaces I wanted to create. I discovered it is a word easy to visual and, in a way, trivialise, if you are unfamiliar with the concept. Like you mentioned, I had a lot more people "get it" when I shifted to talking specifically about the type of environment and community and how it solved the home- and cafe-based problems people are very familiar with rather than implying it with lingo.
Something else that I think was helpful to me was to not focus on what the members of the space were doing (such as "it is great for developers and web designers"). However true that may be, the problem you run into is it starts to pidgeon-hole coworking in the mind of the person you are talking, which (especially in areas where it is unknown) limits your potential reach/exposure. You may want to only have developers in your space, but you want everyone talking about it. DAniel founder, LakeworkSpaces cleveland, oh On Tuesday, February 5, 2013 1:40:38 PM UTC-5, Alex Hillman wrote: > > In spite of being in the 5th largest cities in the country, I know this > problem all too well. Be it from our early days when NOBODY knew what > coworking was, to daily interactions with reporters who want to make it out > to be anything except for what it is. > > So, if I only have a sentence or two, I default to "Indy Hall is for > anyone who can work from anywhere, but would prefer not to be alone. Some > people come here just to work, but most people come here to be around other > people *while* they work." > > If I've got a *little *more time, instead of explaining what coworking > is, I explain the problems that people who love coworking tend to feel & > experience. > > I start with question(s): > > 1) Do you, or have you ever, worked from home or by yourself? > 2) What didn't you like about that? > > Then, describe how coworking solves that. It's a bit "choose your own > adventure", but people really, really connect with it when it's about * > them* instead of about *us*. > > -Alex > > -- > /ah > indyhall.org > coworking in philadelphia > > On Feb 5, 2013, at 1:12 PM, Daniel Dudley > <dan...@ddudleydesign.com<javascript:>> > wrote: > > For the last six months I have been working to get a coworking space off > the ground in the Cleveland Metro area. Though the market definitely exists > (and is growing) as more people in the tech space come to the area and then > number of teleworkers in general continue to rise, my main roadblock has > been and continues to be one of simple education - when explained > "coworking" resonates with almost everyone I meet, but too often I don't > have the time to talk about its varied and subtle nuances beyond, "No, I > promise you it is not Regis." It is often said the midwest is five years > behind the coasts and that is really true in this case. > > Anyway, I tried a lot of different approaches and have had a modicum of > success with some (and some blatant failures with others) and would love to > share what I've learned if people are interested. more importantly though, > I would be really interested to hear about experiences others have had with > bridging the awareness divide, especially in cities that have had a history > of decay (often due to the decline of manufacturing) but are not trying to > reposition themselves going forward. > > DAniel > founder, LakeworkSpaces > cleveland, oh > > -- > Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Coworking" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to coworking+...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > > > -- Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
