[Coworking] New member
Greetings- I am new to the coworking movement and wanted to say hello to everyone. For the past 20 years, I have worked as a senior manager for a large manufacturing company. My expertise is in business analytics and organizational development. The economic downturn has resulted in 20,000+ jobs being eliminated in my company, and my job was eventually impacted. No worries. This has provided me the opportunity to pursue an area that I am very passionate about--creating collaborative work environments. I stumbled upon the coworking movement while doing research on Remote Work Centers. I love the idea of coworking, and am interested in opening studios in Alabama and the Florida panhandle (Pensacola and Ft. Walton Beach). Currently, I am putting together a business plan to open a coworking studio within the next couple of months. When I go out and talk to people, I am finding there is a lot of educating that needs to be done on the concept of coworking. Most people associate coworking with executive suites. No surprise here. So, my immediate need is to educate people and to create some groundswell around the concept. Any advice you can provide in this area would be helpful. TJ --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[Coworking] Re: New member
TJ, The economic downturn has resulted in 20,000+ jobs being eliminated in my company, and my job was eventually impacted. No worries. This has provided me the opportunity to pursue an area that I am very passionate about--creating collaborative work environments. Eff yeah!! That's the spirit! Welcome to the group, friend! We're here to help :-) Best, Tony Bacigalupo - New Work City - Coworking NYC style. Phone: (888) 823-3494 Email: 3...@nwcny.com Web: http://nwcny.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/nwc On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 8:45 AM, tj.mur...@zoho.com wrote: Greetings- I am new to the coworking movement and wanted to say hello to everyone. For the past 20 years, I have worked as a senior manager for a large manufacturing company. My expertise is in business analytics and organizational development. The economic downturn has resulted in 20,000+ jobs being eliminated in my company, and my job was eventually impacted. No worries. This has provided me the opportunity to pursue an area that I am very passionate about--creating collaborative work environments. I stumbled upon the coworking movement while doing research on Remote Work Centers. I love the idea of coworking, and am interested in opening studios in Alabama and the Florida panhandle (Pensacola and Ft. Walton Beach). Currently, I am putting together a business plan to open a coworking studio within the next couple of months. When I go out and talk to people, I am finding there is a lot of educating that needs to be done on the concept of coworking. Most people associate coworking with executive suites. No surprise here. So, my immediate need is to educate people and to create some groundswell around the concept. Any advice you can provide in this area would be helpful. TJ --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[Coworking] Keeping people coming through the door
So it's been almost two weeks since our launch. Buzz was good, and we had a great turn out. Since then, everything has pretty well fallen off. I don't know what I need to do to keep people coming back through the door. I've been hitting the pavement and getting our name out there - even finding out that people already knew about us. I just don't seem to know what to do to get them in. Our events have gone over well, everything about the reception has been positive. But day after day I spend sitting over here in an empty space. Anybody have any thoughts? Matthew --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[Coworking] Re: Keeping people coming through the door
A couple quick thoughts: 1. Ask the people who should be coming in why they're not. See if you can isolate one or two specific sticking points that are keeping people away, so you can go about addressing them. 2. Experiment. Try themed days. Cookie Fridays. Happy hours. Ask people what they would do if they were in charge for a day. 3. Give give give. Is there a Meetup group in your town that might be stuck meeting in a Panera Bread that would really like a real space to meet? Are there dozens of Meetup groups like that? Go to their events, make friends, and offer to help. Coworking spaces can be a fantastic free (or cheap) resource for groups looking for an appropriate place to gather. Give give give. Build your Whuffie :-) 4. Empower people to help. The advantage of being new is that people who are interested in what you're doing can take some ownership over it by helping to build it. If you find people who really dig what you're doing, but maybe can't afford to pay to come work, see how you can empower them to work with you and maybe spot them some free space in exchange. Just some thoughts... best of luck! Tony - New Work City - Coworking NYC style. Phone: (888) 823-3494 Email: 3...@nwcny.com Web: http://nwcny.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/nwc On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 10:57 AM, Matt Titsworth paladi...@gmail.com wrote: So it's been almost two weeks since our launch. Buzz was good, and we had a great turn out. Since then, everything has pretty well fallen off. I don't know what I need to do to keep people coming back through the door. I've been hitting the pavement and getting our name out there - even finding out that people already knew about us. I just don't seem to know what to do to get them in. Our events have gone over well, everything about the reception has been positive. But day after day I spend sitting over here in an empty space. Anybody have any thoughts? Matthew --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
RES: [Coworking] Re: Keeping people coming through the door
Matthew 1. Try to contact as many blogs as you can, lots of people that visit blogs are probable to come to coworking spaces. 2. Twitter is very good to advertise a last minute promotion for instance. The best post on a blog gives one free week. 3. We are promoting workshops, it is a good source of revenue and brings us more cowork idea spreaders. Lots of luck, Daniel Zierz Fiker PTO DE CONTATO | (11) 3063. 2049 www.ptodecontato.com.br http://www.ptodecontato.com.br/ _ De: coworking@googlegroups.com [mailto:cowork...@googlegroups.com] Em nome de Tony Bacigalupo Enviada em: terça-feira, 2 de junho de 2009 12:06 Para: coworking@googlegroups.com Assunto: [Coworking] Re: Keeping people coming through the door A couple quick thoughts: 1. Ask the people who should be coming in why they're not. See if you can isolate one or two specific sticking points that are keeping people away, so you can go about addressing them. 2. Experiment. Try themed days. Cookie Fridays. Happy hours. Ask people what they would do if they were in charge for a day. 3. Give give give. Is there a Meetup group in your town that might be stuck meeting in a Panera Bread that would really like a real space to meet? Are there dozens of Meetup groups like that? Go to their events, make friends, and offer to help. Coworking spaces can be a fantastic free (or cheap) resource for groups looking for an appropriate place to gather. Give give give. Build your Whuffie :-) 4. Empower people to help. The advantage of being new is that people who are interested in what you're doing can take some ownership over it by helping to build it. If you find people who really dig what you're doing, but maybe can't afford to pay to come work, see how you can empower them to work with you and maybe spot them some free space in exchange. Just some thoughts... best of luck! Tony - New Work City - Coworking NYC style. Phone: (888) 823-3494 Email: mailto:3...@nwcny.com 3...@nwcny.com Web:http://nwcny.com http://nwcny.com Twitter:http://twitter.com/nwc http://twitter.com/nwc On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 10:57 AM, Matt Titsworth paladi...@gmail.com wrote: So it's been almost two weeks since our launch. Buzz was good, and we had a great turn out. Since then, everything has pretty well fallen off. I don't know what I need to do to keep people coming back through the door. I've been hitting the pavement and getting our name out there - even finding out that people already knew about us. I just don't seem to know what to do to get them in. Our events have gone over well, everything about the reception has been positive. But day after day I spend sitting over here in an empty space. Anybody have any thoughts? Matthew --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[Coworking] Re: Keeping people coming through the door
Rituals. Rituals. Rituals. Consistency is critical for building up the mass, and humans are habitual creatures. If you can come up with a way (Tony had some great suggestions) to get people in the mindset of today's Tuesday, it's coworking day!, you win. Better yet, give them a reason to bring others, and tell others about their coworking day. Have you also done research on your price point? If the value proposition isn't well balanced (cost for the day = the benefit of the day), you're going to lose repeat visitors and ultimately, member conversion. Are you in an ideal location? Location is hard to change once you've already started a space, but our friends in Miami learned the hard way the problems with a poorly selected location. You need to find out where people are already hanging out, and become a part of what they are doing. -Alex, IndyHall -- - -- - Alex Hillman im always developing something digital: a...@weknowhtml.com helpful: www.unstick.me visual: www.dangerouslyawesome.com local: www.indyhall.org On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 11:24 AM, Daniel Fiker fiker...@hotmail.com wrote: Matthew 1. Try to contact as many blogs as you can, lots of people that visit blogs are probable to come to coworking spaces. 2. Twitter is very good to advertise a last minute promotion for instance. The best post on a blog gives one free week. 3. We are promoting workshops, it is a good source of revenue and brings us more cowork idea spreaders. Lots of luck, *Daniel Zierz Fiker* * ** PTO DE CONTATO | *(11) 3063. 2049 www.ptodecontato.com.br -- *De:* coworking@googlegroups.com [mailto:cowork...@googlegroups.com] *Em nome de *Tony Bacigalupo *Enviada em:* terça-feira, 2 de junho de 2009 12:06 *Para:* coworking@googlegroups.com *Assunto:* [Coworking] Re: Keeping people coming through the door A couple quick thoughts: 1. Ask the people who should be coming in why they're not. See if you can isolate one or two specific sticking points that are keeping people away, so you can go about addressing them. 2. Experiment. Try themed days. Cookie Fridays. Happy hours. Ask people what they would do if they were in charge for a day. 3. Give give give. Is there a Meetup group in your town that might be stuck meeting in a Panera Bread that would really like a real space to meet? Are there dozens of Meetup groups like that? Go to their events, make friends, and offer to help. Coworking spaces can be a fantastic free (or cheap) resource for groups looking for an appropriate place to gather. Give give give. Build your Whuffie :-) 4. Empower people to help. The advantage of being new is that people who are interested in what you're doing can take some ownership over it by helping to build it. If you find people who really dig what you're doing, but maybe can't afford to pay to come work, see how you can empower them to work with you and maybe spot them some free space in exchange. Just some thoughts... best of luck! Tony - New Work City - Coworking NYC style. Phone: (888) 823-3494 Email: 3...@nwcny.com Web: http://nwcny.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/nwc On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 10:57 AM, Matt Titsworth paladi...@gmail.comwrote: So it's been almost two weeks since our launch. Buzz was good, and we had a great turn out. Since then, everything has pretty well fallen off. I don't know what I need to do to keep people coming back through the door. I've been hitting the pavement and getting our name out there - even finding out that people already knew about us. I just don't seem to know what to do to get them in. Our events have gone over well, everything about the reception has been positive. But day after day I spend sitting over here in an empty space. Anybody have any thoughts? Matthew --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[Coworking] Re: Keeping people coming through the door
Ah...I opened May 1 and I mostly sit empty doing my blogs. I have a 6th grader I'm tutoring, her Dad works for that hour a couple times a week. BUT, the good newsI had TWO calls yesterday out of the blue. One will start using the place next week, and the other said he would be using it as well (we will see..). So maybe all it takes is timereading some of the comments here and watching some of the videos...we are not alone. The concept is great, I know out here in commuter heaven, it is also very new. I am networking and a lot of the business folks out here are really helping spread the word. Mike Matt Titsworth wrote: So it's been almost two weeks since our launch. Buzz was good, and we had a great turn out. Since then, everything has pretty well fallen off. I don't know what I need to do to keep people coming back through the door. I've been hitting the pavement and getting our name out there - even finding out that people already knew about us. I just don't seem to know what to do to get them in. Our events have gone over well, everything about the reception has been positive. But day after day I spend sitting over here in an empty space. Anybody have any thoughts? Matthew -- Mike Pihlman TracyVirtualOffice A Coworking Community 95 W. 11th Street, Suite 203 Tracy, CA 95376 Mobile: 209-608-4340 Web: TracyVirtualOffice.com ooVoo: tracyvirtualoffice Twitter: @TracyVirtOffice --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[Coworking] Re: Keeping people coming through the door
I've updated our IndyHall 201 series with a post about this topic: http://www.indyhall.org/blog/category/indyhall-201/ If you haven't already watched, Geoff and I talk a lot about these topics in our FAQ videos as well: http://www.indyhall.org/blog/category/movies/ -Alex, IndyHall -- - -- - Alex Hillman im always developing something digital: a...@weknowhtml.com helpful: www.unstick.me visual: www.dangerouslyawesome.com local: www.indyhall.org On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 11:46 AM, Mike Pihlman m...@telbitconsulting.comwrote: Ah...I opened May 1 and I mostly sit empty doing my blogs. I have a 6th grader I'm tutoring, her Dad works for that hour a couple times a week. BUT, the good newsI had TWO calls yesterday out of the blue. One will start using the place next week, and the other said he would be using it as well (we will see..). So maybe all it takes is timereading some of the comments here and watching some of the videos...we are not alone. The concept is great, I know out here in commuter heaven, it is also very new. I am networking and a lot of the business folks out here are really helping spread the word. Mike Matt Titsworth wrote: So it's been almost two weeks since our launch. Buzz was good, and we had a great turn out. Since then, everything has pretty well fallen off. I don't know what I need to do to keep people coming back through the door. I've been hitting the pavement and getting our name out there - even finding out that people already knew about us. I just don't seem to know what to do to get them in. Our events have gone over well, everything about the reception has been positive. But day after day I spend sitting over here in an empty space. Anybody have any thoughts? Matthew -- Mike Pihlman TracyVirtualOffice A Coworking Community 95 W. 11th Street, Suite 203 Tracy, CA 95376 Mobile: 209-608-4340 Web: TracyVirtualOffice.com ooVoo: tracyvirtualoffice Twitter: @TracyVirtOffice --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[Coworking] Re: Keeping people coming through the door
Thanks for the thoughts Tony, Daniel, and Alex. I realize this is probably a pretty common topic to come up around here, and I can imagine that after a while it can get frustrating. I wasn't entirely sure whether I should send the email or not, but given coworking's collaborative and community nature I thought it would be better to admit to what is probably a consistent problem (even for those well established places) and get some help than to remain stoic and let the problem continue without new eyes. Tony, here are some replies to the points you've made, not as rebuttals, but to hopefully help provide explanation. 1. This is a great idea, and I'm working on that email now to go out to our mailing list. I had had such a thought but was reluctant because to me it seemed as if asking the question could be taken as a sign of weakness, and that approaching people in such a direct manner might be alienating. Given that I'm already in a lack of people, that would be bad. Then again, it's not like it can hurt anything. 2. The Hour had already been talked about internally, but your impetus has helped me move up the ball. 3. As far as meetings go, we've already got a couple of meetings planned for the next month. The python user group is meeting here on the 13th, and there's a Flex group here in dallas I met members from this past weekend working a table at the Big (D)esign Conference here in Dallas that I'm trying to get in contact with, and we've got a couple of groups we've started on our own that are meeting here in this next month as well. The thing I'm having trouble is that there are more groups I've talked to, and plenty of people who want to use us as a free space for meetings, but after that initial Hey, this would be a great idea they go silent. Before hitting this I checked out the coworking wiki page CoworkingIssues because I figured that there would be some common info there (also so that I could RTFM before spamming the group). Daniel, I've been in contact with some blogs, but definitely I need to get it out there more. I twitter pretty consistently through out the day on it. Whether I am effective or not remains to be seen though. I've been trying to promote others and what not. It's frustrating because I know that it's my job to get out there and build relationships and network, and as such I've been pushing hard to help promote not only my space, but the events and what not around here, but the reciprocation has not been exactly what I would like it to be. Maybe I should be more hard nosed about that? Matthew --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[Coworking] Re: Keeping people coming through the door
Alex, Thanks for the vid and blog. That is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. Wish I'd have found it ahead of time so as to keep from presenting the same problem here over and over again. I'm going to go sit down and run through these things, then if the list doesn't mind, share them back here for some feedback. Tara, It was less a matter of that than it was having a whole bunch of extra space. The company I work for which owns Company|Dallas has had this space sitting vacant for a year, sucking away money in rent and utilities. We tried again and again to get it leased out, but with the impending economic downturn, nothing ever came through. About two months ago we had the idea to turn it into a coworking space. I guess though, you might be able to say that, as we didn't make sure to go ahead and get commitments ahead of time. Part of it is also a problem that I think Dallas faces is that it is so spread out. I've been all over just the Dallas area (And Dallas is only half of the larger DFW area) and while I've met TONS of people who would be interested, a big stop gap seems to be that it would be out of the way and inconvenient (Tony, I think this gets to one of your points mentioned). This is not just something that I face, but that the other folks trying to get coworking started here have as well. I guess then that tells me that I need to hump it less all over Dallas, and get more centralized to the things going on really locally. As far as getting people invested love-wise, the two resident members we do have are getting there, if not so already. I guess another thing for me to do is talk with them and get their input, let them take some ownership to make the space better and whatnot. Thanks once again everybody for the thoughts on these things. Matthew On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 10:54 AM, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: I've updated our IndyHall 201 series with a post about this topic: http://www.indyhall.org/blog/category/indyhall-201/ If you haven't already watched, Geoff and I talk a lot about these topics in our FAQ videos as well: http://www.indyhall.org/blog/category/movies/ -Alex, IndyHall -- - -- - Alex Hillman im always developing something digital: a...@weknowhtml.com helpful: www.unstick.me visual: www.dangerouslyawesome.com local: www.indyhall.org On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 11:46 AM, Mike Pihlman m...@telbitconsulting.com wrote: Ah...I opened May 1 and I mostly sit empty doing my blogs. I have a 6th grader I'm tutoring, her Dad works for that hour a couple times a week. BUT, the good newsI had TWO calls yesterday out of the blue. One will start using the place next week, and the other said he would be using it as well (we will see..). So maybe all it takes is timereading some of the comments here and watching some of the videos...we are not alone. The concept is great, I know out here in commuter heaven, it is also very new. I am networking and a lot of the business folks out here are really helping spread the word. Mike Matt Titsworth wrote: So it's been almost two weeks since our launch. Buzz was good, and we had a great turn out. Since then, everything has pretty well fallen off. I don't know what I need to do to keep people coming back through the door. I've been hitting the pavement and getting our name out there - even finding out that people already knew about us. I just don't seem to know what to do to get them in. Our events have gone over well, everything about the reception has been positive. But day after day I spend sitting over here in an empty space. Anybody have any thoughts? Matthew -- Mike Pihlman TracyVirtualOffice A Coworking Community 95 W. 11th Street, Suite 203 Tracy, CA 95376 Mobile: 209-608-4340 Web: TracyVirtualOffice.com ooVoo: tracyvirtualoffice Twitter: @TracyVirtOffice --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[Coworking] Re: Keeping people coming through the door
I thought it would be better to admit to what is probably a consistent problem (even for those well established places) and get some help than to remain stoic and let the problem continue without new eyes. +1 agreed. it seemed as if asking the question could be taken as a sign of weakness, and that approaching people in such a direct manner might be alienating. Given that I'm already in a lack of people, that would be bad. Then again, it's not like it can hurt anything. Weakness = human = something people can connect with. Obviously you don't want to seem too needy; one thing you have to do as the leader of your space is to engage people well. You will have to find ways to get people psyched to help without it seeming like a charity case. Coworking naturally gets people fired up. Rely on that! Cubicles suck. Working in Starbucks sucks. Talking to your cat sucks. There must be something better! The thing I'm having trouble is that there are more groups I've talked to, and plenty of people who want to use us as a free space for meetings, but after that initial Hey, this would be a great idea they go silent. If they need the space, they need the space. When someone does host an event at your space, don't be shy about telling people about your space and encouraging people to join. At this stage, your goals are actually pretty narrow: one person. One person who will totally get what you're doing and is insanely excited about it. That's all you're looking for right now, but to find them you have to really get to know people one at a time. When you find that one person, get them on board however appropriate. Then go from there. I've been pushing hard to help promote not only my space, but the events and what not around here, but the reciprocation has not been exactly what I would like it to be. Maybe I should be more hard nosed about that? I vote no on that. This is the tricky part about building your social capital... you make lots of deposits without necessarily being able to withdraw for a long time, and you can't necessarily force it. Just keep at it, and keep genuinely going good for people. It will come back around. T Matthew --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[Coworking] Re: Keeping people coming through the door
Matthew, I would also submit that population density and potential population near your space have a lot to do with participation and growth. Our experience in Baltimore has been that we have a consistent population that shows up regularly. Baltimore City has about 637,000 people, and the surrounding counties add another 1.3M people, for a total of about 2M in the immediate metro area. Philadelphia, by contrast, has about 1.45M people in the city alone, and its metropolitan area might be considered to be 3-6M people. New York, of course, is both huge and dense, and has had a good experience also. So, while I do think your low population density in Dallas is likely an issue, I think you need to look at that as a factor to take into consideration than as a reason why it can't work. As Alex and Tony have said, figure out who your constituency is and then figure out how to love them. If they have special needs and/or intrinsic motivators, find them and hammer on them. Things may go slower for you there because of low population density, etc, but that's not an excuse not to start on your growth trajectory. I like to imagine that we are on the same path as IndyHall and NWC here at Beehive Baltimore, with the realization that a) it's a different growth curve, due to the uniqueness of our location and population, b) we got started later. That all said I feel that we are 100% on track and what's most important is that we be the best space we can be for *Baltimore* and not necessarily try to replicate exact strategies that others have used elsewhere. The New York Times recently published an article by Steven Strogatz that discusses city sizes and densities, and what effects variations in these numbers mean for a variety of internal design factors -- I found it fascinating: http://judson.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/math-and-the-city/ Best, Dave -- Dave Troy blog: www.davetroy.com (@davetroy) community: www.beehivebaltimore.org (@bhivebmore) investing: www.baltimoreangels.org (@baltimoreangels) events: @barcampbmore, @socialdevcamp projects: www.twittervision.com, www.flickrvision.com Partner, Roundhouse Technologies On Jun 2, 12:18 pm, Tony Bacigalupo tonybacigal...@gmail.com wrote: I thought it would be better to admit to what is probably a consistent problem (even for those well established places) and get some help than to remain stoic and let the problem continue without new eyes. +1 agreed. it seemed as if asking the question could be taken as a sign of weakness, and that approaching people in such a direct manner might be alienating. Given that I'm already in a lack of people, that would be bad. Then again, it's not like it can hurt anything. Weakness = human = something people can connect with. Obviously you don't want to seem too needy; one thing you have to do as the leader of your space is to engage people well. You will have to find ways to get people psyched to help without it seeming like a charity case. Coworking naturally gets people fired up. Rely on that! Cubicles suck. Working in Starbucks sucks. Talking to your cat sucks. There must be something better! The thing I'm having trouble is that there are more groups I've talked to, and plenty of people who want to use us as a free space for meetings, but after that initial Hey, this would be a great idea they go silent. If they need the space, they need the space. When someone does host an event at your space, don't be shy about telling people about your space and encouraging people to join. At this stage, your goals are actually pretty narrow: one person. One person who will totally get what you're doing and is insanely excited about it. That's all you're looking for right now, but to find them you have to really get to know people one at a time. When you find that one person, get them on board however appropriate. Then go from there. I've been pushing hard to help promote not only my space, but the events and what not around here, but the reciprocation has not been exactly what I would like it to be. Maybe I should be more hard nosed about that? I vote no on that. This is the tricky part about building your social capital... you make lots of deposits without necessarily being able to withdraw for a long time, and you can't necessarily force it. Just keep at it, and keep genuinely going good for people. It will come back around. T Matthew --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[Coworking] Re: Keeping people coming through the door
Matt, This has been said before, but there's no harm in saying it again, and again... People need to feel like your space is more than the sum of its collective parts. Shared desk and coworking look very similar if you take all the people away. We had a big around the world Epic Office Party at CoLab, and it really helped public perception. Everyone on the floor, building tenants, private suites, and the general population all took it upon themselves to create something for the party, and it really showed all those in attendance that there was a strong community on the 6th floor. http://colaborlando.com/events/337/get-to-know-colab-at-orlandos-epic-office-party/ http://colaborlando.com/events/353/epic-office-party-recap/ Free Fridays have also driven attendance through the roof (one day a week), and it's helping with conversions. It doesn't even have to be free, just try to get a huge group coming one day a week, by whatever means will work. We had a year of one-day-a-week coworking in a coffee shop before our space came into its own, and it got people in the mindset of getting out of the house. We also have a once-monthly happy hour across the street. It's been 2 1/2 years in the exact same place, CoLab just happens to be across the street. With that event, the same time and place is very very important to getting good attendance. Sometimes an event doesn't need to be anything more than social. No demos, no talks, just hanging out. Some members of the community (myself included) are starting to hold lunch-and-learn at the space, to try and get attendance during the day. This also tends to bring in people who may never need the space, because they have an office, but they can see CoLab at its peak. (most lunch and learns also happen on Free Friday). I'll repeat Tony here: Empower people to help. We had nothing of note until we felt like we had the control. Our building's owner had hired someone do do the job that we do now, and we didn't feel empowered. As soon as it was on our backs to make it all happen, we got organized and made the space awesome. As Alex said, experiment with the price. This is a crummy year for adding new monthly expenses. I am trying to make some pricing changes with my personal business to keep up with the economy. CoLab is doing something similar. When the seats fill up, think about raising the price. Peace, Ryan Price Orlando, FL @liberatr On Jun 2, 2009, at 12:31 PM, Dave Troy wrote: Matthew, I would also submit that population density and potential population near your space have a lot to do with participation and growth. Our experience in Baltimore has been that we have a consistent population that shows up regularly. Baltimore City has about 637,000 people, and the surrounding counties add another 1.3M people, for a total of about 2M in the immediate metro area. Philadelphia, by contrast, has about 1.45M people in the city alone, and its metropolitan area might be considered to be 3-6M people. New York, of course, is both huge and dense, and has had a good experience also. So, while I do think your low population density in Dallas is likely an issue, I think you need to look at that as a factor to take into consideration than as a reason why it can't work. As Alex and Tony have said, figure out who your constituency is and then figure out how to love them. If they have special needs and/or intrinsic motivators, find them and hammer on them. Things may go slower for you there because of low population density, etc, but that's not an excuse not to start on your growth trajectory. I like to imagine that we are on the same path as IndyHall and NWC here at Beehive Baltimore, with the realization that a) it's a different growth curve, due to the uniqueness of our location and population, b) we got started later. That all said I feel that we are 100% on track and what's most important is that we be the best space we can be for *Baltimore* and not necessarily try to replicate exact strategies that others have used elsewhere. The New York Times recently published an article by Steven Strogatz that discusses city sizes and densities, and what effects variations in these numbers mean for a variety of internal design factors -- I found it fascinating: http://judson.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/math-and-the-city/ Best, Dave -- Dave Troy blog: www.davetroy.com (@davetroy) community: www.beehivebaltimore.org (@bhivebmore) investing: www.baltimoreangels.org (@baltimoreangels) events: @barcampbmore, @socialdevcamp projects: www.twittervision.com, www.flickrvision.com Partner, Roundhouse Technologies On Jun 2, 12:18 pm, Tony Bacigalupo tonybacigal...@gmail.com wrote: I thought it would be better to admit to what is probably a consistent problem (even for those well established places) and get some help than to remain stoic and let
[Coworking] Re: Keeping people coming through the door
Hi Matt. I used to live in Dallas. You're pretty near that large DART and bus station at the NE corner of Arapaho and 75 - have you seen any benefit to that proximity? L.A. is just as spread out as Dallas, although definitely more dense in more areas to the point that parking is an issue, unlike Dallas. There have been great comments on this topic already, so I'll keep mine brief: have you tried to enlist your friends/colleagues to camp out there for free? Sometimes, crowds bring in more crowds, then siphon off the freebies and replace with paying residents. Jerome __ BLANKSPACES work wide open www.blankspaces.com 5405 Wilshire Blvd (2 blocks west of La Brea) Los Angeles, CA 90036 323.330.9505 (office) On Jun 2, 2009, at 9:12 AM, Matt Titsworth wrote: Alex, Thanks for the vid and blog. That is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. Wish I'd have found it ahead of time so as to keep from presenting the same problem here over and over again. I'm going to go sit down and run through these things, then if the list doesn't mind, share them back here for some feedback. Tara, It was less a matter of that than it was having a whole bunch of extra space. The company I work for which owns Company|Dallas has had this space sitting vacant for a year, sucking away money in rent and utilities. We tried again and again to get it leased out, but with the impending economic downturn, nothing ever came through. About two months ago we had the idea to turn it into a coworking space. I guess though, you might be able to say that, as we didn't make sure to go ahead and get commitments ahead of time. Part of it is also a problem that I think Dallas faces is that it is so spread out. I've been all over just the Dallas area (And Dallas is only half of the larger DFW area) and while I've met TONS of people who would be interested, a big stop gap seems to be that it would be out of the way and inconvenient (Tony, I think this gets to one of your points mentioned). This is not just something that I face, but that the other folks trying to get coworking started here have as well. I guess then that tells me that I need to hump it less all over Dallas, and get more centralized to the things going on really locally. As far as getting people invested love-wise, the two resident members we do have are getting there, if not so already. I guess another thing for me to do is talk with them and get their input, let them take some ownership to make the space better and whatnot. Thanks once again everybody for the thoughts on these things. Matthew On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 10:54 AM, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: I've updated our IndyHall 201 series with a post about this topic: http://www.indyhall.org/blog/category/indyhall-201/ If you haven't already watched, Geoff and I talk a lot about these topics in our FAQ videos as well: http://www.indyhall.org/blog/category/movies/ -Alex, IndyHall -- - -- - Alex Hillman im always developing something digital: a...@weknowhtml.com helpful: www.unstick.me visual: www.dangerouslyawesome.com local: www.indyhall.org On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 11:46 AM, Mike Pihlman m...@telbitconsulting.com wrote: Ah...I opened May 1 and I mostly sit empty doing my blogs. I have a 6th grader I'm tutoring, her Dad works for that hour a couple times a week. BUT, the good newsI had TWO calls yesterday out of the blue. One will start using the place next week, and the other said he would be using it as well (we will see..). So maybe all it takes is timereading some of the comments here and watching some of the videos...we are not alone. The concept is great, I know out here in commuter heaven, it is also very new. I am networking and a lot of the business folks out here are really helping spread the word. Mike Matt Titsworth wrote: So it's been almost two weeks since our launch. Buzz was good, and we had a great turn out. Since then, everything has pretty well fallen off. I don't know what I need to do to keep people coming back through the door. I've been hitting the pavement and getting our name out there - even finding out that people already knew about us. I just don't seem to know what to do to get them in. Our events have gone over well, everything about the reception has been positive. But day after day I spend sitting over here in an empty space. Anybody have any thoughts? Matthew -- Mike Pihlman TracyVirtualOffice A Coworking Community 95 W. 11th Street, Suite 203 Tracy, CA 95376 Mobile: 209-608-4340 Web: TracyVirtualOffice.com ooVoo: tracyvirtualoffice Twitter: @TracyVirtOffice --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com To
[Coworking] Re: Keeping people coming through the door
Alex: Definitely. Thanks for calling me out on it. Excuses never get you anywhere. Hearing from someone how Houston has tackled this problem would also be great. Rather than individually, I'm just going to adress the rest as a coherent message. Coworking is exceedingly new here in Dallas. There's a space that's been open for (I think) a year, but they have an exceedingly different model for coworking than we're trying to take. There is however another space which has just opened up at the beginning of april, another one set to open their doors in July(?) and yet another in the works. Each is located in an exceedingly different part of the area. I don't think there's less than ten miles between any of us. One of the things I've been trying to do with that is to get all of us talking and working together... I guess that's something you could call one of our regional idiosyncracies. Of those I've been in contact with, we've all been cross promoting back and forth pretty regularly, and while there is some friendly rivalry, there's been far more of the friendly than the rivalry. You're right that our population density is an important factor to be considered, which was the intent of my original statement, rather than to provide a reason why CoWorking can't work here. I firmly believe it's something which can be done, but a methodology of mine has always been to try to put as many of the factors faced on the table at the beginning so that they can be analysed and weighed. Still, I'll say thanks to Alex again because it's always tempting at that point to let the potential adversity provide you with reason to give up. According to what I just checked on Wikipedia, Dallas is the 9th largest city in the US, and we're the 4th largest metro area, but the population density for Dallas proper is about 1.2 that of Houston and 1/10th that of Philly. However, we're also apparently one of the top growing cities. The city itself is surrounded by highways and byways that are laid out fairly well and allow the population to be spread further out along the plains. We also lack alot of the public transit infrastructure enjoyed by other metropolitan areas. Even though there's light rail, generally speaking there's still a commute to it, and the further you get away from the heart of the city, the wider the bus routes seem to run. As such, yeah, we're pretty used to driving everywhere, and an hour-two commute over fifty miles is far from unheard of. Because of this though, people get very specific about the places they're willing to drive. Company|Dallas is actually located a bit of a ways north of what would be considered Dallas proper, and even further from the heart of Dallas. We are however located pretty close to some main thoroughfairs, and so something that immediately occurs to me is to court the commuter crowd. I used to make that hour commute both ways each day, and now I'm 3 minutes from my apartment on a bad day. As I said before, C|D is itself a start up created out of the parent software company that I work for. Because of that, population, and other things, our end goal is a bit different from that of IndyHall, NWC, or others. One advantage I see that we have is that backing which means that we're not going to lose the space. The rest of it though we've been operating out of our own pockets (which I feel requires a huge shout out to our CEO whose idea this whole thing was in the first place and who has poured more in than anyone) and so we've got a bit of a shoestring budget for the rest. I do think we've made the mistake of getting started too quickly though, but that backing also helps us balance that out. We may have officially launched, but rather than treating things as if we're live, perhaps a better way to approach this whole thing would be to treat ourselves as if we're still in a pseudo-CoWorkingCatalyst stage - build community, host jellies, and host meetings, rather than trying to directly recruit members at the moment. While I've been trying to focus on bringing people in to be members, given the response here I think rather I should focus on getting the space used for events. We've got some, but I should shift that gear into doing more of that. I should also get to the nitty of really incorporating our awesome husband-wife team who decided to jump on from the get go. Tony, I don't know if that's what you've meant, but these guys are great and have really been spending alot of their own time getting things going and trying to make this place as comfortable as possible. Also Tony, I want to say thanks again for the comment about not getting hard nosed. I get most of my ideas about how to deal with people, market and sell the space from my grandfather. He was a Dale Carnegie graduate and a terrific salesman, and he did it by being good and personable to people, going that extra mile to work to help other folks with what their needs were, and to promote and make sure that everyone succeeded because
[Coworking] Re: Keeping people coming through the door
Jerome, We've yet to see that come around, and I've thought about introducing something whereby if you can get to the dart station, maybe we'll come pick you up. I'm headed to a meeting about just these topics. And yeah, I'm also working on the friend angle. Thanks for the thoughts. Matthew On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 12:51 PM, Jerome Chang jer...@blankspaces.com wrote: Hi Matt. I used to live in Dallas. You're pretty near that large DART and bus station at the NE corner of Arapaho and 75 - have you seen any benefit to that proximity? L.A. is just as spread out as Dallas, although definitely more dense in more areas to the point that parking is an issue, unlike Dallas. There have been great comments on this topic already, so I'll keep mine brief: have you tried to enlist your friends/colleagues to camp out there for free? Sometimes, crowds bring in more crowds, then siphon off the freebies and replace with paying residents. Jerome __ BLANKSPACES work wide open www.blankspaces.com 5405 Wilshire Blvd (2 blocks west of La Brea) Los Angeles, CA 90036 323.330.9505 (office) On Jun 2, 2009, at 9:12 AM, Matt Titsworth wrote: Alex, Thanks for the vid and blog. That is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for. Wish I'd have found it ahead of time so as to keep from presenting the same problem here over and over again. I'm going to go sit down and run through these things, then if the list doesn't mind, share them back here for some feedback. Tara, It was less a matter of that than it was having a whole bunch of extra space. The company I work for which owns Company|Dallas has had this space sitting vacant for a year, sucking away money in rent and utilities. We tried again and again to get it leased out, but with the impending economic downturn, nothing ever came through. About two months ago we had the idea to turn it into a coworking space. I guess though, you might be able to say that, as we didn't make sure to go ahead and get commitments ahead of time. Part of it is also a problem that I think Dallas faces is that it is so spread out. I've been all over just the Dallas area (And Dallas is only half of the larger DFW area) and while I've met TONS of people who would be interested, a big stop gap seems to be that it would be out of the way and inconvenient (Tony, I think this gets to one of your points mentioned). This is not just something that I face, but that the other folks trying to get coworking started here have as well. I guess then that tells me that I need to hump it less all over Dallas, and get more centralized to the things going on really locally. As far as getting people invested love-wise, the two resident members we do have are getting there, if not so already. I guess another thing for me to do is talk with them and get their input, let them take some ownership to make the space better and whatnot. Thanks once again everybody for the thoughts on these things. Matthew On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 10:54 AM, Alex Hillman dangerouslyawes...@gmail.com wrote: I've updated our IndyHall 201 series with a post about this topic: http://www.indyhall.org/blog/category/indyhall-201/ If you haven't already watched, Geoff and I talk a lot about these topics in our FAQ videos as well: http://www.indyhall.org/blog/category/movies/ -Alex, IndyHall -- - -- - Alex Hillman im always developing something digital: a...@weknowhtml.com helpful: www.unstick.me visual: www.dangerouslyawesome.com local: www.indyhall.org On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 11:46 AM, Mike Pihlman m...@telbitconsulting.com wrote: Ah...I opened May 1 and I mostly sit empty doing my blogs. I have a 6th grader I'm tutoring, her Dad works for that hour a couple times a week. BUT, the good newsI had TWO calls yesterday out of the blue. One will start using the place next week, and the other said he would be using it as well (we will see..). So maybe all it takes is timereading some of the comments here and watching some of the videos...we are not alone. The concept is great, I know out here in commuter heaven, it is also very new. I am networking and a lot of the business folks out here are really helping spread the word. Mike Matt Titsworth wrote: So it's been almost two weeks since our launch. Buzz was good, and we had a great turn out. Since then, everything has pretty well fallen off. I don't know what I need to do to keep people coming back through the door. I've been hitting the pavement and getting our name out there - even finding out that people already knew about us. I just don't seem to know what to do to get them in. Our events have gone over well, everything about the reception has been positive. But day after day I spend sitting over here in an empty space. Anybody have any thoughts? Matthew -- Mike Pihlman TracyVirtualOffice A Coworking Community 95 W. 11th Street, Suite 203
[Coworking] Re: Keeping people coming through the door
As I said before, C|D is itself a start up created out of the parent software company that I work for. Because of that, population, and other things, our end goal is a bit different from that of IndyHall, NWC, or others. Chris Conrey from Gangplank, which was started in what seems to be a similar model/goal (the sugar daddy model), could weigh in and possibly help as well. They've had measurable success in attendance and being influential in their community, and while they run a different model than us, we all use a lot of the same tools and techniques. You can search for some of his posts in the group, or reach out personally. Last post of today, I promise. I've got a zillion things to do before San Fran this weekend :) -Alex, IndyHall -- - -- - Alex Hillman im always developing something digital: a...@weknowhtml.com helpful: www.unstick.me visual: www.dangerouslyawesome.com local: www.indyhall.org On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 1:52 PM, Matt Titsworth paladi...@gmail.com wrote: As I said before, C|D is itself a start up created out of the parent software company that I work for. Because of that, population, and other things, our end goal is a bit different from that of IndyHall, NWC, or others. --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[Coworking] Thanks for this group - introduction
Hello everyone - I'm grateful to have found this group. I've been working at home since 2005 for a small virtual company in a small community in upstate New York. The community is the home of a liberal arts college and has an active arts center. I think a cowork space would be valued. I've been talking about exploring this for at least a year and finally decided to take some action. Step one is joining this group. I'm already learning after just 24 hours. Thanks. I look forward to discussing coworking with those of you who have already bushwacked a trail for the rest of us. Regards- Janet Clarey http://twitter.com/jclarey --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[Coworking] PDX Office space available for coworking
Hey folks, I work out of Office Nomads in Seattle, but the company I work for remotely is looking to get out of a lease we have on a space in Portland, OR. We think the space would be good for a group of four or five folks who are looking to cowork. I am not personally familiar with the space, but from what I understand, it's really open with good natural light and convenient to downtown and sits on a Max line. If you are looking for an office space that has lots of options and is already wired for T1, this could be the place for you. More information at http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/off/1200355359.html feel free to email me off list with questions, and I can get them to people who can answer them (if I can't). thanks, charlie --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[Coworking] Re: Keeping people coming through the door
:) I'd like Matthew Wettergreen to weigh in on how Houston has dealt with this issue, since it suffers from the same sprawl. Caroline Collective has done incredible things given the challenges they were presented. I've said it before to a number of times, rather than looking at your regional idiosyncrasies as weaknesses, look for strengths. Just some two cents along Alex's line of playing to your regions strength; I heard from a Texan once that one of the reasons they love coworking is it lets them save on having to run their AC all the time at home! This is a unique Texas thing; it gets really hot, so being able to be in a common space where folks help pay for AC is much cheaper than working from home and having your AC on all the time. I'm from McAllen Texas myself originally. - -- - Alex Hillman im always developing something digital: a...@weknowhtml.com helpful: www.unstick.me visual: www.dangerouslyawesome.com local: www.indyhall.org On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 12:12 PM, Matt Titsworth paladi...@gmail.com wrote: Part of it is also a problem that I think Dallas faces is that it is so spread out. --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[Coworking] Re: PDX Office space available for coworking
Also compare with Cubespace, if thinking Portland. They're quite different setups, so likely you'll not be indifferent, not saying which'd best suit your needs. Cubespace has been in the news lately, as either getting its act together or leaving US Bank with an upper floor headache. http://coffeeshopsnet.blogspot.com/2009/05/local-politics.html I'm thinking coworking means pilot small companies that know something of regional business needs, i.e. they interview in a selected area, say medical research, and then do some rough mockups or prototypes in coworking mode, showcasing various solutions. For example, I've been working at a hospital stuck in the antediluvian past with a non-SQL non-ACID compliant research database, knows that Access doesn't scale, so flirts with FOSS (free and open source) but doesn't know how to make intelligent business decisions when not dealing with huge enterprises (like GE, a competing vendor). If I could bring a client through, or even arrange for that to happen... Another project I want to recruit for is slanted towards female FOSS bosses, based on feedback from OSCON over what gets women engineers excited. Something socially responsible believe or not (guys are more gutless, don't care as much). This is our Coffee Shops Network, where you play church bingo for charitable causes like Greenpeace, except not bingo really, more challenging games, where skills matter. Not everyone wants to play games in a coffee shop, we know that, but a few game tables slaved to our back office is going to bring in some interesting pro bono clientele. Two business models, both in need of demo fleshing out in manga code (like pseudo-code, but it runs). Oh yeah, and a third model: take a look at your local Red Cross and see if its web site is up to date, always current with volunteer opportunities, babysitting trainings and so on. Ours (Oregon Trail Chapter) is way out of date, plus includes an entire ghost site, like an abandoned ruins, half there and half not. These kinds of NGO / nonprofit disasters are usually bad advertising for some well-meaning trust or foundation, thinking its paying for community good will, whereas actually it's paying for trash. Red Cross isn't to blame necessarily. Our CTO was very responsive to getting something going with the Cubespace geeks, but I get that everyone feels paralyzed at the moment, wants to cowork, but isn't sure what to cowork about. These are ideas. Kirby On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 4:24 PM, Charlie cmons...@gmail.com wrote: Hey folks, I work out of Office Nomads in Seattle, but the company I work for remotely is looking to get out of a lease we have on a space in Portland, OR. We think the space would be good for a group of four or five folks who are looking to cowork. I am not personally familiar with the space, but from what I understand, it's really open with good natural light and convenient to downtown and sits on a Max line. If you are looking for an office space that has lots of options and is already wired for T1, this could be the place for you. More information at http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/off/1200355359.html feel free to email me off list with questions, and I can get them to people who can answer them (if I can't). thanks, charlie --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[Coworking] Re: New member
TJ, Sounds like you are already on the right track. Talk to people about what they need. You will find the people who are interested in a collaborative environment and then get them excited about co-working. It Rocks! -Felicity Founder CubesCrayons SF Potrero Hill - Coworking only Space (childcare available downstairs) Silicon Valley - Coworking and Coplaying On Jun 2, 7:47 am, Tony Bacigalupo tonybacigal...@gmail.com wrote: TJ, The economic downturn has resulted in 20,000+ jobs being eliminated in my company, and my job was eventually impacted. No worries. This has provided me the opportunity to pursue an area that I am very passionate about--creating collaborative work environments. Eff yeah!! That's the spirit! Welcome to the group, friend! We're here to help :-) Best, Tony Bacigalupo - New Work City - Coworking NYC style. Phone: (888) 823-3494 Email: 3...@nwcny.com Web: http://nwcny.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/nwc On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 8:45 AM, tj.mur...@zoho.com wrote: Greetings- I am new to the coworking movement and wanted to say hello to everyone. For the past 20 years, I have worked as a senior manager for a large manufacturing company. My expertise is in business analytics and organizational development. The economic downturn has resulted in 20,000+ jobs being eliminated in my company, and my job was eventually impacted. No worries. This has provided me the opportunity to pursue an area that I am very passionate about--creating collaborative work environments. I stumbled upon the coworking movement while doing research on Remote Work Centers. I love the idea of coworking, and am interested in opening studios in Alabama and the Florida panhandle (Pensacola and Ft. Walton Beach). Currently, I am putting together a business plan to open a coworking studio within the next couple of months. When I go out and talk to people, I am finding there is a lot of educating that needs to be done on the concept of coworking. Most people associate coworking with executive suites. No surprise here. So, my immediate need is to educate people and to create some groundswell around the concept. Any advice you can provide in this area would be helpful. TJ --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
[Coworking] Re: Keeping people coming through the door
Agree with Tony...trying things out to get people in...lots of good events, fun ideas like take your laptop out for a day, simple free days to happy hours, collaboration opportunities, pink slip parties, workshops, and mixers to great speakers. Put them on every events calendar in your area. Our events appear every week in the free daily newspaper and we get great views from that. Invited bloggers to come in and talk about your space. Good luck. -Felicity Founder CubesCrayons www.cubesandcrayons.com SF Potrero Hill - Coworking only Space (childcare available downstairs) Silicon Valley - Coworking and Coplaying On Jun 2, 8:06 am, Tony Bacigalupo tonybacigal...@gmail.com wrote: A couple quick thoughts: 1. Ask the people who should be coming in why they're not. See if you can isolate one or two specific sticking points that are keeping people away, so you can go about addressing them. 2. Experiment. Try themed days. Cookie Fridays. Happy hours. Ask people what they would do if they were in charge for a day. 3. Give give give. Is there a Meetup group in your town that might be stuck meeting in a Panera Bread that would really like a real space to meet? Are there dozens of Meetup groups like that? Go to their events, make friends, and offer to help. Coworking spaces can be a fantastic free (or cheap) resource for groups looking for an appropriate place to gather. Give give give. Build your Whuffie :-) 4. Empower people to help. The advantage of being new is that people who are interested in what you're doing can take some ownership over it by helping to build it. If you find people who really dig what you're doing, but maybe can't afford to pay to come work, see how you can empower them to work with you and maybe spot them some free space in exchange. Just some thoughts... best of luck! Tony - New Work City - Coworking NYC style. Phone: (888) 823-3494 Email: 3...@nwcny.com Web: http://nwcny.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/nwc On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 10:57 AM, Matt Titsworth paladi...@gmail.com wrote: So it's been almost two weeks since our launch. Buzz was good, and we had a great turn out. Since then, everything has pretty well fallen off. I don't know what I need to do to keep people coming back through the door. I've been hitting the pavement and getting our name out there - even finding out that people already knew about us. I just don't seem to know what to do to get them in. Our events have gone over well, everything about the reception has been positive. But day after day I spend sitting over here in an empty space. Anybody have any thoughts? Matthew --~--~-~--~~~---~--~~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Coworking group. To post to this group, send email to coworking@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to coworking+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~--~~~~--~~--~--~---
