It sounds to me like your tenants came to rent a cheap office, not to participate in a community. This is hard to combat after the fact, but it's also a very common issue when a Coworking space is opened before a community is built.
Also, odds are that if you're thinking of them as tenants, that they're thinking of themselves as tenants as well. Why does that matter? Well, a tenant mindset is transactional. That's why I rent my apartment, because I don't want to deal with the details of the apartment, I just want to pay money and have a place for my stuff and to sleep. On the other side of the spectrum are members. Membership comes with an expectation of participation. You have to set it early, though. You can't spring it on people, they need to want to participate from the onset (and often you need to show them what that means, very intentionally, early on). Before I make suggestions about what you can do now, an important question about your "tenants". Do you have mostly teams/companies, mostly individuals/freelancers/solo premiers, or some other mix? -Alex -- /ah indyhall.org betterwork.co On Thu, Oct 24, 2013 at 9:31 AM, Kate Catlin <k...@grandcircus.co> wrote: > Hey Coworking group - > First of all, thanks for being awesome! > I'm the Community Manager of a new coworking space called Grand Circus > (grandcircus.co) in the heart of downtown Detroit. We've got floor to > ceiling windows, the perfect proximity to coffee shops and cafes, and we're > now one of seven "Google for Entrepreneurs" Tech Hubs in North America > (http://www.google.com/entrepreneurs/initiatives/na-tech-hubs.html)! If > you're interested in a tour, shoot an email t us on the website. > We've opened our doors about a month ago, and we're just now feeling close > to full with our coworking tenants. Unfortunately, while I've tried to > create some connections one-on-one between people, they seem reluctant to > truly socialize. I think this social component is what coworking is all > about. We've had a potluck to reasonable success and another one planned > for Halloween. > Any suggestions from you all on events or coworker-of-the-week or something > to increase collaboration in your space without forcing it? > -- > 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. -- 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.
