[Coworking] Coworking & Economic Development

Hi All, Greetings from rainy Santa Cruz, California. There's been a lot of good discussion lately about coworking as an economic development tool, including at the "state of coworking" meeting a couple of weeks ago in San Francisco. This is a subject that's been at the heart of NextSpace. Before

Re: [Coworking] Coworking & Economic Development

Jeremy, Sounds like we've been having a lot of the same conversations! We've always talked about IndyHall as a vehicle towards a bigger purpose, a slice of the pie, the pie being "Making Philadelphia a better place to make a living doing what you love". We've communicated with the city, as well a

Re: [Coworking] Coworking & Economic Development

Thanks Alex, I agree that some case studies would be important in validating the potential. Mike Schinckel from Ignition Alley/Startup Atlanta contacted me off-list and mentioned that he's had some conversations with some ED folks who "get it". He posed a really interesting question: "have you i

Re: [Coworking] Coworking & Economic Development

It's also worth pointing out that the city of Philadelphia just announced some new pilot tax programs: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20100216_Nutter_unveils_tax_incentives_for_some_businesses.html

Re: [Coworking] Coworking & Economic Development

Check out the work of prof. Saras Sarasvathy on "Effectuation." It's the first academic description I've seen of what really happens in coworking; replaces colloquialisms like 'accelerated serendipity' with a full blown theory for incremental risk taking and exposure to like-minded stakeholders. S

Re: [Coworking] Coworking & Economic Development

We have worked with our City and County economic development departments for a few years now. Our experience has been that they often get it - or at least they realize the potential without quite knowing what to do with it. Or, they've been told by consultants that we're the hot thing without qu

Re: [Coworking] Coworking & Economic Development

I think this is great advice, and very much in line with the experiences we've had. The attitude of "we're gonna do this, with or without you, but we'd love for you to be involved" has allowed us to stay quick, agile, and progressive without burning bridges or discouraging interaction from the city

Re: [Coworking] Coworking & Economic Development

While I understand the pattern that Derek is outlining, I think there are some significantly interesting things happening. There is evidence that Economic Development groups and Chambers are starting to look beyond recruitment. This is one of the messages that is part of the Economic Development Bo

Re: [Coworking] Coworking & Economic Development

On Mon, Mar 1, 2010 at 9:24 AM, John Sechrest wrote: > So while Derek is identifying a real experience, I believe there is > significant evidence that now is the time to have the conversations with > your Economic Development folks and to have conversations with your Chambers > of Commerce. If the

Re: [Coworking] Coworking & Economic Development

> > The trick is to have real economic impact. Stop thinking of your space as > subletting office space to freelancers and two person companies. Instead > have the vision to change your city and be a piece of infrastructure for the > type of people that are employable for jobs most cities want to

Re: [Coworking] Coworking & Economic Development

HELL YEAH YEAH. On Sun, Mar 7, 2010 at 11:20 PM, Alex Hillman wrote: > The trick is to have real economic impact. Stop thinking of your space as >> subletting office space to freelancers and two person companies. Instead >> have the vision to change your city and be a piece of infrastructure fo