Thanks to everyone for their responses! I just bought my copy of the Coworking handbook, should arrive today! I am doing a weekly event now however I don't think it's consistent enough and I feel I have a lot of new people everytime but not a lot of repeats. I am jumping between different venues and probably should stick to one and have it more regularly. The repeats have been really awesome and want to work together and maybe I should focus on them and find out what gauges their interest rather than focusing so much on looking for more people. I re-read all your responses probably twice a day, I know I can build this. Thanks again!
On Friday, September 7, 2018 at 10:47:40 AM UTC-7, Alex Hillman wrote: > > I'm trying my best to figure out that my "onramps" are as accessible as >> possible but I feel that it isn't. Maybe it relies too much on when I can >> host an event and people might lose interest. I have a coworking meetup >> tonight at wework and hopefully if all goes well I can have someone host >> another sooner than next time I originally wanted to host (scheduling >> conflicts). >> > > Consistency is a LOT more important than how often. > > Doing small, low-impact gatherings (happy hours & pot luck dinners, demo > nights & casual coworking sessions) more often is ultimately more valuable > than big, complex events that have lots of dependencies (special event > spaces, speakers/presenters, etc). > > Deep connections are more valuable at this stage than a large audience. > > >> The connecting members is another one, maybe I should have people offer >> if they'd like to post their personal portfolio being we are mainly >> artists, I do sometimes get the "how can I keep in touch with everyone that >> came?" chat. >> > > That's a good sign! Give people a place to connect online in between > events. I strongly prefer email discussion lists over social media > platforms, but anything is better than nothing. Encouraging people to have > discussions that are productive and valuable, e.g. asking for > help/recommendations on how to solve a problem, or sharing/celebrating each > others' work. > > The continuity of online interaction between offline events is a HUGE part > of how we got started, and our online community is still larger than our > active day-to-day coworking by more than double. This episode has a bunch > of examples of how we use Slack > <https://listen.coworkingweekly.com/aa13cc87>, but they could easily be > applied to any platform and should inspire more that are relevant to you > and your community. > > I definitely think it's way too early to open a space and the >> funding/sponsors question is mainly for networking events I throw and >> hopefully I can generate interest from nearby companies/organizations >> (autodesk, adobe, wacom, ves society) to help with cost / promotion of the >> event, this being a digital artist networking event. Is this too much of a >> reach? haha. I been to successful events in NYC and LA where I've seen this >> happen, why not here?! >> > > It can never hurt to ask (and I know personally that Adobe is generally > interested in supporting local community efforts). My only advice here is > to make sure you don't get sucked into serving sponsors more than the > members. It's not hard to make an event that benefits a sponsor and the > community without it becoming an advertisement. It just means keeping your > members first, *always*, and showing sponsors how to "show up" in ways > they aren't always used to <https://listen.coworkingweekly.com/a7ab19d8>. > > -Alex > -- 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/d/optout.
