Bill, I found that the idea of coworking needed to be spread to the community of likely people. I was lucky enough to be actively involved in the arts and web development communities in Brighton so it was quite easy to seed the idea as they tend to be a natural match for coworking.
We offer a variety of managed office and desk space too, but found that coworking is really a great fit for people who would traditionally be working at home or out of coffee shops so spent some time holding "unmeetings" in coffee shops to help find people. I started just placing an entry on upcoming.org and posting links to it on mailing lists used by freelancers, artists, designers and writers then seeing who turned up. This spread the word that there were other choices. I also combined this with offering what I termed "Open Coworking" days. I do this every Friday so people get used to the routine of it. I would also be very clear from the get go about the values you are have and the behaviours those values inform. It is very important for coworking to ensure that people have so common values such as; Respect the space and leave it as you find it. Give back the equivalent of what you take - whether that is coffee or help or even watering the plants or washing up. Collaborate, expect to support others and in return they help you. Spread the word to like minded people. Respect those around you and embrace differences - we get a wide variety of people from web devs to some pretty off the wall artists, writers, commedians and anything in between. Good luck. James William wrote: > I'm brand new to the whole idea of co-working but know this is just > what I need to be more inspired, motivated and encouraged. > > We need your help and your suggestions on what I gather is one of the > most important ingredients (from some of the things we read so far) in > making a coworking site successful. And that is like-minded highly > energized and fun loving focused folks looking to help and benefit > each other, the group and possibly the community. > > But where can one find such folks? > > After getting more and more discontented at the level of success of my > present career, new fresh ideas coming in from such a format as > coworking sounds like a God send. > > We have almost 1000 square feet of limited first floor space (with > room to expand with another 1000 s.f. 2nd floor space) with few office > furnishings, FiOS wireless & LAN internet, a nice full kitchen & full > bath, 7 large cubicles, 5 chair round table, small 8-10 occupant > conference room, storage areas, & small back office. > > Now the hard part from what I gather is filling it and sustaining it! > What say you guys? > Obviously I really do welcome all and any reply. Oh, yeh this will be > a bit of a stretch for me since this is the first time ever that I > posted to a blog or even a wiki Is there any hope at all? > > I never had to personally set up a website either. > > Signed - a bit technically challenged, > Bill --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
