Re: [Coworking] New to group - Coworking Management and New Business Ventures

[Mark van Keulen]

Let's do it!

I'm sure there's space (in the corner of a pub somewhere) to put some UK
folks together. We might be a little backward (so far) when it comes to
coworking but if nothing else we're a curious bunch and keen to learn.

We are however "british" which means that some of us will be reserved,
cautious and downright suspicious of other people telling us how things
"could" be done but screw those people, this is the new age!



On 12 October 2017 at 21:18, Tony Bacigalupo 
wrote:

> Awesome Mark!
>
> Perhaps we can get a gathering of UK coworking people going at Coworking
> Europe. Seems like a lot of folks are popping up from various corners, and
> the opportunities for collaboration abound!
>
> Tony
>
>
> On Wed, Oct 4, 2017 at 3:00 AM, Sabrina 
> wrote:
>
>> Hi Mark,
>> I started a coworking space in Plymouth England  - another city that
>> didn't have a coworking space, nor more than a few people who knew what it
>> was. I spent over a year, almost two, running pop-up coworking days
>> (jellies) to introduce the concept to people, went to every networking and
>> meetup group I could find, and eventually - after joining with another
>> person - felt confident that we could get a space and make it work. It was
>> a hard slog, but the space is now running reasonably well, (although I have
>> now moved on to other things, and still enjoy working there!). Mostly
>> though, the space has been a catalyst for bringing together like-passioned
>> people for various community efforts that have been great for the City. We
>> collaborate with the City Council, the University, and the Arts College,
>> not to mention all the digital professionals and creatives. It truly has
>> become a community hub.
>>
>> Happy to share more of my experiences separately and listen to your
>> ideas. You are right to look to this group for ideas and feedback - it is a
>> fantastic group, and a genuine positive spirit which is a joy to find these
>> days!
>>
>> I'll ping you off line to continue the discussion,
>>
>> All best,
>>
>> Sabrina
>>
>>
>> On Tuesday, October 3, 2017 at 4:49:40 PM UTC+1, Mark wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi Tony - that really does seem like a good solution doesn't it?!
>>>
>>> Sadly, after 7 years together my business partner and I have stopped
>>> seeing eye to eye on a number of details - one of which is around where the
>>> company is located, so alas, moving my existing company isn't on the
>>> table... :( in fact, it's got to the point where me staying at my existing
>>> company isn't really on the table!
>>>
>>> I think coworking will become a new venture for me, one that I'm very
>>> excited to be a part of, and to begin with I like the idea of being able to
>>> focus on building a community and a space, without the distractions of
>>> running an agency at the same time and in time, I hope to explore other
>>> options.
>>>
>>> No doubt I will be frequenting this forum on countless occasions in the
>>> months and years to come - it certainly seems like an amazing resource and
>>> the feeling of community among operators is unlike anything I've come
>>> across in any industry!
>>>
>>>
>>> Mark
>>>
>>> On Sunday, 1 October 2017 20:30:14 UTC+1, Tony Bacigalupo wrote:

 Welcome to the movement, Mark!

 Have you considered getting a larger space that your current agency
 could be the anchor tenant of?

 There is a ton of precedent for agencies that create "hybrid" spaces
 that are part company office, part community space. Each side of the
 business helps to support the other.

 It's one of the few sustainable models I've found for coworking on a
 smaller scale!

 Tony
 *---*
 *New Work Cities  - I help people build better coworking
 spaces for a living, and I love it.*


 On Sun, Oct 1, 2017 at 2:28 PM, Mark  wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> I'm new to the group and currently looking at opening a coworking
> space in Leicester, UK.
>
> One of the reasons why I'm interested in building a community is to
> make connections with developers and other contacts as potential
> collaborators in the various entrepreneurial ideas that I have.
>
> Currently I run a traditional design agency which is predominantly
> print based and because we're based in a "standard" office at an out of
> town office park the opportunities to meet new people and make new 
> contacts
> are limited, particularly in the web/app development arena.
>
> As I'm looking at moving on and doing something different in the not
> too distant future, coworking looks like a really good fit for me
> personally and also professionally, and I was wondering if any other
> coworking managers/hosts have any experiences of working with people who
> operate in their spaces?
>
> Thanks in advance for any feedback!
>
> Mark
>
> --
> You received this message because you a

Re: [Coworking] New to group - Coworking Management and New Business Ventures

[Tony Bacigalupo]

Awesome Mark!

Perhaps we can get a gathering of UK coworking people going at Coworking
Europe. Seems like a lot of folks are popping up from various corners, and
the opportunities for collaboration abound!

Tony


On Wed, Oct 4, 2017 at 3:00 AM, Sabrina  wrote:

> Hi Mark,
> I started a coworking space in Plymouth England  - another city that
> didn't have a coworking space, nor more than a few people who knew what it
> was. I spent over a year, almost two, running pop-up coworking days
> (jellies) to introduce the concept to people, went to every networking and
> meetup group I could find, and eventually - after joining with another
> person - felt confident that we could get a space and make it work. It was
> a hard slog, but the space is now running reasonably well, (although I have
> now moved on to other things, and still enjoy working there!). Mostly
> though, the space has been a catalyst for bringing together like-passioned
> people for various community efforts that have been great for the City. We
> collaborate with the City Council, the University, and the Arts College,
> not to mention all the digital professionals and creatives. It truly has
> become a community hub.
>
> Happy to share more of my experiences separately and listen to your ideas.
> You are right to look to this group for ideas and feedback - it is a
> fantastic group, and a genuine positive spirit which is a joy to find these
> days!
>
> I'll ping you off line to continue the discussion,
>
> All best,
>
> Sabrina
>
>
> On Tuesday, October 3, 2017 at 4:49:40 PM UTC+1, Mark wrote:
>>
>> Hi Tony - that really does seem like a good solution doesn't it?!
>>
>> Sadly, after 7 years together my business partner and I have stopped
>> seeing eye to eye on a number of details - one of which is around where the
>> company is located, so alas, moving my existing company isn't on the
>> table... :( in fact, it's got to the point where me staying at my existing
>> company isn't really on the table!
>>
>> I think coworking will become a new venture for me, one that I'm very
>> excited to be a part of, and to begin with I like the idea of being able to
>> focus on building a community and a space, without the distractions of
>> running an agency at the same time and in time, I hope to explore other
>> options.
>>
>> No doubt I will be frequenting this forum on countless occasions in the
>> months and years to come - it certainly seems like an amazing resource and
>> the feeling of community among operators is unlike anything I've come
>> across in any industry!
>>
>>
>> Mark
>>
>> On Sunday, 1 October 2017 20:30:14 UTC+1, Tony Bacigalupo wrote:
>>>
>>> Welcome to the movement, Mark!
>>>
>>> Have you considered getting a larger space that your current agency
>>> could be the anchor tenant of?
>>>
>>> There is a ton of precedent for agencies that create "hybrid" spaces
>>> that are part company office, part community space. Each side of the
>>> business helps to support the other.
>>>
>>> It's one of the few sustainable models I've found for coworking on a
>>> smaller scale!
>>>
>>> Tony
>>> *---*
>>> *New Work Cities  - I help people build better coworking
>>> spaces for a living, and I love it.*
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sun, Oct 1, 2017 at 2:28 PM, Mark  wrote:
>>>
 Hi all,

 I'm new to the group and currently looking at opening a coworking space
 in Leicester, UK.

 One of the reasons why I'm interested in building a community is to
 make connections with developers and other contacts as potential
 collaborators in the various entrepreneurial ideas that I have.

 Currently I run a traditional design agency which is predominantly
 print based and because we're based in a "standard" office at an out of
 town office park the opportunities to meet new people and make new contacts
 are limited, particularly in the web/app development arena.

 As I'm looking at moving on and doing something different in the not
 too distant future, coworking looks like a really good fit for me
 personally and also professionally, and I was wondering if any other
 coworking managers/hosts have any experiences of working with people who
 operate in their spaces?

 Thanks in advance for any feedback!

 Mark

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>>>
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Re: [Coworking] Community vs Corporate Setup in Coworking

[Mark]

Thanks Tony - that's a really interesting point about WeWork.

The couple I visited in London definitely had that "service first" feel 
when you walked in. In truth I have no idea if communities existed in the 
ones I went to, but I can tell you that the independent ones all felt 
different - the minute you walked in the door. Some were polished, others 
less so, but they definitely had that community-not-corporate vibe.

Ultimately I'm not looking to set the world alight in terms of launching 
another corporate WeWork clone - the more I read and learn about the 
coworking community, the more I feel like I just want to create "my" own 
little space for a community which will ultimately become the community's 
space once it's up and running. Obviously there's a financial aspect to all 
of this - I can't exist on no income - but I would rather struggle and be 
happy than sell out and end up with just another space full of tenants who 
expect a lot from their service provider. Easily said at this early stage I 
know - I've no doubt there are examples of others who have had the same 
ideals and thought the same, then gone on to fail! 







On Thursday, 12 October 2017 19:50:53 UTC+1, Tony Bacigalupo wrote:
>
> Mark, 
>
> Welcome to the party!
>
> It can be a bit tricky to understand the nuances of these two camps as you 
> define them. We're all still getting a handle on it ourselves!
>
> Here's another way of looking at it:
>
> *1. You can organize a coworking community without ever having a 
> business. *
>
> Go on Meetup, start a group, meet at a cafe. Hooray, you're coworking, 
> without any money involved!
>
>
> *2. You can build a workspace without doing coworking.*
>
> There's a whole industry of serviced offices that has been around for a 
> while. Raise some money, get a space, rent bits of that space out to 
> companies for a margin. 
>
> There's lots of established competition in this world, and it's entirely 
> transactional. No emotional relationship between the space and the 
> customer. If you want to step into that arena, godspeed!
>
>
> *3. You can build a workspace with coworking in mind. *
>
> Coworking exists regardless of office space; physical workspaces just 
> happen to be a handy delivery vehicle. 
>
> Many in the business center industry are scrambling to change their spaces 
> to catch the trend. Many of them think they can get away with offering open 
> plan memberships and fancy decor, but that misses the point.
>
> *The point here is that lots of people don't need workspace, but they do 
> need each other. *
>
> If you can build something that facilitates real connections between 
> people, then you can do something really exciting and fun and impactful. 
>
> Even WeWork knows this—they try very hard to build community. But they are 
> always going to be hamstrung by the fact that their approach is one of 
> being a provider to consumers, and it's hard to get consumers to care about 
> you or the other consumers. 
>
> You, by contrast, are a human, with hopes and dreams. 
>
> If you find others who share those hopes and dreams in your city, and you 
> invite them to conspire with you to build something that can help lots of 
> other people find the belonging and support they need, you just might be on 
> your way to starting something that will bring both profit and fulfillment.
>
> Tony
> *---*
> *New Work Cities  *
>
>
> On Thu, Oct 12, 2017 at 10:56 AM, Alex Linsker  > wrote:
>
>> Figure out your main "why", then market that. If it is "money and 
>> status", or "community of like-minded people" or "community of people doing 
>> a variety of work", those seem to be the big areas of "coworking". And then 
>> make your place embody that fully. The others can happen in the same place 
>> over time, but they are 3 different ways to start from what I've seen.
>>
>> -Alex Linsker, Collective Agency, Portland Oregon
>>
>> --
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>> "Coworking" group.
>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an 
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>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
>>
>
>

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[Coworking] Re: Community vs Corporate Setup in Coworking

[Mark]

Thanks Alex - I'm really just in the process of learning what kind of 
communities exist in my city - immersing myself in clubs, meetups, get 
togethers etc. but it will be really interesting to approach the next set 
of interactions with this in the back of my mind. 

It's interesting that the "education" of local people needs to happen - 
there are a few die-hard "we don't need no space, we work anywhere" guys 
and girls but I think the idea of setting out a clear vision for a space 
will mean the wider community "get it" much faster.

Thanks again for your feedback - as a newbie I'm soaking up as much 
information as I can and finding the community is really helpful and open 
with providing it! 

All the best

Mark 




On Thursday, 12 October 2017 18:56:59 UTC+1, Alex Linsker wrote:
>
> Figure out your main "why", then market that. If it is "money and status", 
> or "community of like-minded people" or "community of people doing a 
> variety of work", those seem to be the big areas of "coworking". And then 
> make your place embody that fully. The others can happen in the same place 
> over time, but they are 3 different ways to start from what I've seen.
>
> -Alex Linsker, Collective Agency, Portland Oregon
>

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[Coworking] Re: Community vs Corporate Setup in Coworking

[Mark]

Thanks Barbara - very interesting insight. 

I'll be sure to catch your presentation and to have a chat with Jess & Jay! 



On Thursday, 12 October 2017 17:43:52 UTC+1, Barbara Sprenger wrote:
>
> Hi Mark,
> I'm not sure this is an either/or question. We've found that if you're 
> doing smaller spaces (under 10,000 s.f.) in smaller cities and towns, we 
> build a non-homogenous community based on location as well as interest 
> groups. If you go with community first, you're too dependent on that 
> initial group. That said, we start with meetups and community connections 
> as soon as we decide on a location. I guess I'm trying to say that you're 
> safest if you do both!
>
> On Tuesday, October 3, 2017 at 8:49:50 AM UTC-7, Mark wrote:
>>
>> Hi all, 
>>
>> As someone who is relatively new to the world of coworking (I only 
>> realised it existed about 6 months ago!) I was curious to hear people's 
>> views on community vs corporate coworking spaces.
>>
>> As someone who is looking to setup a coworking space there appear to be 
>> two distinct views as far as I can see.
>>
>> One side - community - seems to come from the side of most commonly 
>> associated with the original view of coworking - start a community first, 
>> figure out what they want and then create a space to suit the community.
>>
>> The other side - corporate - looks like it takes the view, create some 
>> amazing spaces and "they will come". I'm thinking specifically about WeWork 
>> and the other companies that are like them. For example, I could be wrong, 
>> but I'm not sure that WeWork necessarily invest massive amounts of 
>> resources in creating a community in an area before they launch a new space?
>>
>> Is this simply a question of things moving on or is there evidence to 
>> suggest that the community method is preferable and therefore more 
>> sustainable?
>>
>> My hunch would be that there are more "community" minded people in this 
>> forum which might make things a little biased bit I'd be interested to hear 
>> regardless.
>>
>> I'm in the process of looking at launching a dedicated coworking space in 
>> a city in the UK that doesn't have any spaces yet, and so (again) my hunch 
>> would be that community first is the way to go in order to quantify the 
>> demand.
>>
>> Thanks again! 
>>
>> Mark 
>>
>

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Re: [Coworking] Community vs Corporate Setup in Coworking

[Tony Bacigalupo]

Mark,

Welcome to the party!

It can be a bit tricky to understand the nuances of these two camps as you
define them. We're all still getting a handle on it ourselves!

Here's another way of looking at it:

*1. You can organize a coworking community without ever having a business. *

Go on Meetup, start a group, meet at a cafe. Hooray, you're coworking,
without any money involved!


*2. You can build a workspace without doing coworking.*

There's a whole industry of serviced offices that has been around for a
while. Raise some money, get a space, rent bits of that space out to
companies for a margin.

There's lots of established competition in this world, and it's entirely
transactional. No emotional relationship between the space and the
customer. If you want to step into that arena, godspeed!


*3. You can build a workspace with coworking in mind. *

Coworking exists regardless of office space; physical workspaces just
happen to be a handy delivery vehicle.

Many in the business center industry are scrambling to change their spaces
to catch the trend. Many of them think they can get away with offering open
plan memberships and fancy decor, but that misses the point.

*The point here is that lots of people don't need workspace, but they do
need each other. *

If you can build something that facilitates real connections between
people, then you can do something really exciting and fun and impactful.

Even WeWork knows this—they try very hard to build community. But they are
always going to be hamstrung by the fact that their approach is one of
being a provider to consumers, and it's hard to get consumers to care about
you or the other consumers.

You, by contrast, are a human, with hopes and dreams.

If you find others who share those hopes and dreams in your city, and you
invite them to conspire with you to build something that can help lots of
other people find the belonging and support they need, you just might be on
your way to starting something that will bring both profit and fulfillment.

Tony
*---*
*New Work Cities  *


On Thu, Oct 12, 2017 at 10:56 AM, Alex Linsker 
wrote:

> Figure out your main "why", then market that. If it is "money and status",
> or "community of like-minded people" or "community of people doing a
> variety of work", those seem to be the big areas of "coworking". And then
> make your place embody that fully. The others can happen in the same place
> over time, but they are 3 different ways to start from what I've seen.
>
> -Alex Linsker, Collective Agency, Portland Oregon
>
> --
> 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.
>

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[Coworking] Community vs Corporate Setup in Coworking

[Alex Linsker]

Figure out your main "why", then market that. If it is "money and status", or 
"community of like-minded people" or "community of people doing a variety of 
work", those seem to be the big areas of "coworking". And then make your place 
embody that fully. The others can happen in the same place over time, but they 
are 3 different ways to start from what I've seen.

-Alex Linsker, Collective Agency, Portland Oregon

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[Coworking] Re: Community vs Corporate Setup in Coworking

[Barbara Sprenger]

Hi Mark,
I'm not sure this is an either/or question. We've found that if you're 
doing smaller spaces (under 10,000 s.f.) in smaller cities and towns, we 
build a non-homogenous community based on location as well as interest 
groups. If you go with community first, you're too dependent on that 
initial group. That said, we start with meetups and community connections 
as soon as we decide on a location. I guess I'm trying to say that you're 
safest if you do both!

On Tuesday, October 3, 2017 at 8:49:50 AM UTC-7, Mark wrote:
>
> Hi all, 
>
> As someone who is relatively new to the world of coworking (I only 
> realised it existed about 6 months ago!) I was curious to hear people's 
> views on community vs corporate coworking spaces.
>
> As someone who is looking to setup a coworking space there appear to be 
> two distinct views as far as I can see.
>
> One side - community - seems to come from the side of most commonly 
> associated with the original view of coworking - start a community first, 
> figure out what they want and then create a space to suit the community.
>
> The other side - corporate - looks like it takes the view, create some 
> amazing spaces and "they will come". I'm thinking specifically about WeWork 
> and the other companies that are like them. For example, I could be wrong, 
> but I'm not sure that WeWork necessarily invest massive amounts of 
> resources in creating a community in an area before they launch a new space?
>
> Is this simply a question of things moving on or is there evidence to 
> suggest that the community method is preferable and therefore more 
> sustainable?
>
> My hunch would be that there are more "community" minded people in this 
> forum which might make things a little biased bit I'd be interested to hear 
> regardless.
>
> I'm in the process of looking at launching a dedicated coworking space in 
> a city in the UK that doesn't have any spaces yet, and so (again) my hunch 
> would be that community first is the way to go in order to quantify the 
> demand.
>
> Thanks again! 
>
> Mark 
>

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[Coworking] Re: Cobot + Squarespace

[Barbara Sprenger]

Hi Alanna and Kyle, I can't speak directly about Cobot, but Satellite 
Deskworks (our product) has a super simple public facing calendar function 
to let members and non-members book reservations right from your website 
(Squarespace or any other.) Also integrates directly with all the 
aggregators like Liquidspace. If you want to see it, we can take this 
offline.

Barbara

On Sunday, October 1, 2017 at 8:44:49 AM UTC-7, ala...@vibecoworks.com 
wrote:
>
> Hi all, 
>
> I'd love to chat with someone who is using both Cobot and Squarespace, 
> particularly about how you've integrated the Cobot bookings calendar into 
> your website. 
>
> Any takers?
>
> Thanks, 
>
> Alanna
>

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