Re: Setting coworking centre in Vilnius - any do's and dont's?

Thanks Alex!

you've put together quite a resource on your site for optential
coworking operators - I liked the idea of one day trial period as
well.

do you tend to overbook the space - I mean ernt more places than
actually you have at a given moment, considering that the users are
not there every day 100 %?

did you also consider to rent space for students or other people that
would come only at 6 pm onwrds and have two "shifts"?

thanks

Mindaugas

On 30 Lie, 00:54, Alex Hillman <dangerouslyawes... <at> gmail.com> wrote:
> Mindaugas, welcome!
>
> Myself and my partner at Indy Hall have a video published at the bottom of
> our FAQ page that answers a lot of your questions:
>
> http://indyhall.org/coworking-faqs/
>
> Our blog's FAQ has a lot of answers on it as well:http://www.indyhall.org/blog/category/faqs/
>
> I hope these resources are helpful!
>
> -Alex

preferential treatment of some members

do you consider some of the coworkers more valuable than others in
terms of attracting and keeping members?

do I need to give someone preferential treatment and lower or free
lease because of the potential snow ball effect he or she can create?

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Re: Re: Setting coworking centre in Vilnius - any do's and dont's?

Re: preferential treatment of some members

Re: preferential treatment of some members

Alex,

Thanks for your advice. I have been struggling with this same dilemma
on brainstorming ways to grow. If a space has a lot of extra capacity
how would you feel about a double incentive to help make the current
members recruit individuals? I was thinking about a referral program
where the new member gets the equivalent of one week free for their
first month and the current member that recruited the individual will
also get a one week equivalent discount.

I understand the greatest way to grow is build a strong community and
provide a space for people to congregate and collaborate. But with the
extra capacity it wouldn't be a cost to the company to add these
incentives for a month or two, and would encourage individuals to
recruit people they know. I believe this would help build a community
with the current members since they ask individuals they are familiar
with, and may be the right financial incentive for them to try
something new. I think the financial incentive might be the nudge for
an individual to try a new concept that they might be otherwise wary
of.

Craig

On Aug 1, 2:40 pm, Alex Hillman <dangerouslyawes... <at> gmail.com> wrote:
> Nepotism and it's cousin favoritism are a bit of a slippery slope, and one
> we've worked carefully to avoid as part of the business relationship with
> our members. I typically think of this in terms of Indy Hall getting in the
> middle of the recruitment/hiring pipeline more than membership growth,
> though. It's very easy to become a sherpa for companies looking for talent
> at your coworking space. the thing to watch out for, though is always
> sending them to favorites. It's not only risky for you, but it's damaging to
> the overall ecosystem because non-favorites will become resentful. This is a
> very common dynamic of typical (corporate) office leadership and something
> I've thought a lot about how we can re-engineer with the blank canvas that
> is Indy Hall.
>
> *But back to your question: *
> If you're going to reward anything, I'd reward the development of *trust*.
> You're likely to find that there are certain people in your community that
> will be noisiest just to get a better rate. Others will work hard to build
> yours - and other members - trust. That's worth rewarding, because it leads
> to stable relationships, which leads to work exchange and collaboration, and
> long term success of community members and the space they inhabit.
>
> As for how you reward...again, I'm hesitant to give *anyone a discount. Not
> because I'm greedy (or because we run a low margin business), but because I
> simply don't believe that financial motivators are good motivators. They're
> extrinsic, which means that if they're taken away, the behavior they are
> motivating is likely to go away. I'm much more interested in activating
> intrinsic motivators - like supporting their passion projects, helping them
> make connections, and simply helping them become a part of the bigger story
> - has been a much more sustainable and valuable motivator for everyone
> involved.*
>
> **-Alex
>
> /ah
> indyhall.org
> coworking in philadelphia
>
>
>
> On Sun, Aug 1, 2010 at 1:01 PM, Mindaugas <mindaugas.da... <at> gmail.com> wrote:
> > do you consider some of the coworkers more valuable than others in
> > terms of attracting and keeping members?
>
> > do I need to give someone preferential treatment and lower or free
> > lease because of the potential snow ball effect he or she can create?
>
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
> > "Coworking" group.
> > To post to this group, send email to coworking <at> googlegroups.com.
> > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
> > coworking+unsubscribe <at> googlegroups.com<coworking%2Bunsubscribe <at> googlegroups .com>
> > .
> > For more options, visit this group at
> >http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.

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Re: Re: preferential treatment of some members

If a member recruits someone, I give the current member the equiv new 
member sign up option for free.

They can get up to a month free.

Mike

On 8/1/2010 11:59 AM, Craig Baute wrote:
> Alex,
>
> Thanks for your advice. I have been struggling with this same dilemma
> on brainstorming ways to grow. If a space has a lot of extra capacity
> how would you feel about a double incentive to help make the current
> members recruit individuals? I was thinking about a referral program
> where the new member gets the equivalent of one week free for their
> first month and the current member that recruited the individual will
> also get a one week equivalent discount.
>
> I understand the greatest way to grow is build a strong community and
> provide a space for people to congregate and collaborate. But with the
> extra capacity it wouldn't be a cost to the company to add these
> incentives for a month or two, and would encourage individuals to
> recruit people they know. I believe this would help build a community
> with the current members since they ask individuals they are familiar
> with, and may be the right financial incentive for them to try
> something new. I think the financial incentive might be the nudge for
> an individual to try a new concept that they might be otherwise wary
> of.
>
> Craig
>
>
> On Aug 1, 2:40 pm, Alex Hillman<dangerouslyawes... <at> gmail.com>  wrote:
>    
>> Nepotism and it's cousin favoritism are a bit of a slippery slope, and one
>> we've worked carefully to avoid as part of the business relationship with
>> our members. I typically think of this in terms of Indy Hall getting in the
>> middle of the recruitment/hiring pipeline more than membership growth,
>> though. It's very easy to become a sherpa for companies looking for talent
>> at your coworking space. the thing to watch out for, though is always
>> sending them to favorites. It's not only risky for you, but it's damaging to
>> the overall ecosystem because non-favorites will become resentful. This is a
>> very common dynamic of typical (corporate) office leadership and something
>> I've thought a lot about how we can re-engineer with the blank canvas that
>> is Indy Hall.
>>
>> *But back to your question: *
>> If you're going to reward anything, I'd reward the development of *trust*.
>> You're likely to find that there are certain people in your community that
>> will be noisiest just to get a better rate. Others will work hard to build
>> yours - and other members - trust. That's worth rewarding, because it leads
>> to stable relationships, which leads to work exchange and collaboration, and
>> long term success of community members and the space they inhabit.
>>
>> As for how you reward...again, I'm hesitant to give *anyone a discount. Not
>> because I'm greedy (or because we run a low margin business), but because I
>> simply don't believe that financial motivators are good motivators. They're
>> extrinsic, which means that if they're taken away, the behavior they are
>> motivating is likely to go away. I'm much more interested in activating
>> intrinsic motivators - like supporting their passion projects, helping them
>> make connections, and simply helping them become a part of the bigger story
>> - has been a much more sustainable and valuable motivator for everyone
>> involved.*
>>
>> **-Alex
>>
>> /ah
>> indyhall.org
>> coworking in philadelphia
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Aug 1, 2010 at 1:01 PM, Mindaugas<mindaugas.da... <at> gmail.com>  wrote:
>>      
>>> do you consider some of the coworkers more valuable than others in
>>> terms of attracting and keeping members?
>>>        
>>      
>>> do I need to give someone preferential treatment and lower or free
>>> lease because of the potential snow ball effect he or she can create?
>>>        
>>      
>>> --
>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
>>> "Coworking" group.
>>> To post to this group, send email to coworking <at> googlegroups.com.
>>> To unsubscribe from this group, send email to
>>> coworking+unsubscribe <at> googlegroups.com<coworking%2Bunsubscribe <at> googlegroups .com>
>>> .
>>> For more options, visit this group at
>>> http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.
>>>        
>    

-- 
Mike Pihlman
AltamontCowork
95 W. 11th Street, Suite 205
Tracy, CA 95376
Phone: 209-757-8862
Web: AltamontCowork.com
Twitter:  <at> AltamontCowork

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Migrate coworking wiki to Google Sites?

  Is there any interest in migrating the coworking wiki at

     http://coworking.pbworks.com/

to a different wiki engine, such as Drupal or Google Sites?

I've had RSS feeds on http://coworking.pbworks.com/ for a while now, and 
I get lots of duplicate content.  It also seems like there is fairly 
constant wiki vandalism that we spend time cleaning up.  This seems 
silly in this day and age - Maybe we should be using a more spam-proof 
platform, and perhaps one that allows more embedding of social tools?

I just did a quick search and it looks like spam is still pretty 
pervasive.  Here's an example:

http://img.skitch.com/20100801-xihyeew4w7d7mb97mh165i2tka.png

Any thoughts?

-Jonathan Yankovich

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Marketing Tips

An earlier response on this board provided discern about how it was
tough to build a community for your coworking space.    As I have
built OurSpace, LLC, I can concur about the elbow grease that I have
applied to building a strong community.   It's been quite the journey,
and I will share some things, that I learned a long the way:

1.  Kindness is the best policy!  I have meant jerks along the way,
and sometimes I have been a bit short with people, however I have
learned that killing a person with kindness is the best policy.
2.  Bars and coffee houses are a great place to meet coworkers.
Enough said.
3.  Festivals and art galleries are another great place to meet the
cool people in your town.
4.  Find your niche.  Recently, I collaborated with a director of an
area art museum of to put on a seminar entitled "How to Survive as a
Creative in Northeast Indiana."   In the audience was a young man, who
was a film maker, who was gasping with the issue of how to survive in
Ft. Wayne, and use his creative talents.  As I have heard from a few
other film makers in this area, I decided it was time to take some
leadership.  Thus, I organized a group who will be meeting in my
conference room this week for the 1st time.
5.  Don't forget social media - twitter, blog, facebook, meetup, etc.
6.  Collaborate, collaborate and then collaborate some more.  From
local government officials to economic advisors to religious leaders
(make sure they can leave their religious tone at the door) to
nonprofit personnel to  small business individuals, there are a number
of individuals who want to help independents succeed, all you have to
do is ask.

Jodi Dean, Founder
OurSpace, LLC
Your Space to Be Creative
825 S. Barr Street
Fort Wayne, IN
www.ourspacefw.com

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Re: preferential treatment of some members

This is an issue that I am grapling with as well!  As I am trying to
build quickly, due to a few issues with the building (great space just
cramped)!  That being said, I rely upon trustful, meaningful
relationships with my coworkers; for those who I trust, I can refer
them to friends who are hiring independents for projects, collaborate
with them on events and so forth.    With that being said, I am
looking at providing a small discount (3-5%), or a free month to
individuals who bring others in.   I want to keep it independent, but
I don't get a larger community soon, I am not sure if I can sustain
OurSpace.

Jodi Dean, Founder
OurSpace, LLC
Your Space to Be Creative
825 S. Barr Street
Fort Wayne, IN
www.ourspacefw.com

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Re: optimum hours?

Hi! At CO+HOOTS we have regular hours of 10-7. We've only just opened
earlier this month and have found that there has been a lot of
questions about opening in the evenings. These are the people that
work full-time but want to do something more collaborative after the
daily grind is done.

Ask your community what they want for hours. CO+HOOTS is open 10-7,
but I can say we get a lot more busy in the afternoons. We're going to
start doing one-day-a-week night shifts by a full member who wants to
manage that. Also, on the table situation, we are setup with large
"drop-in" pods that seat 4 and a few individual desks for full-time
members. I think we will play with making an even larger pod. People
do gravitate towards that group table. Even mixing up the arrangement
every once and a while has gotten a good response.

Hope that helps!

Kindest Regards,
Jenny Poon

CO+HOOTS, creative coworking for Phoenix
http://www.incohoots.com
 <at> cohootsphx

On Jul 26, 9:41 am, Cotec <alchemyofhe... <at> gmail.com> wrote:
> I just started a coworking space in seattle and had a question on the
> best hours. Someone I am working with beleives we should open at 8am.
> I personaly don't won't to get moving until 10am. I was wondering what
> other spaces have seen in tbe past.
>
> When do you find the peak "coming in" time is?
>
> Also another question is table set up. I personally want to make one
> large table for people to work at with some side space in case people
> want to be more private. Are there any spaces with just a large shared
> table? And what do you think about that?
>
> Thanks everyone,
> Isaac

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