We just started up, and we haven't seen much in the way of demand, although our Grand Opening is this Thursday evening, so I expect we'll be hearing from people wanting to use our space in various ways.
Our closed conference room is 12 x 16, and can comfortably hold 12. We got a very nice old heirloom walnut parquet table at a garage sale for $50 (they needed to clear out all their old stuff, as the house had sold). You can see pictures of our place at uptimechico.ning.com Our space is all ad hoc; no desk residents as such. More like a health club than shared office space. For a basic business membership ($99/month), members can have up to five hours of reserved conference room time. Additional hours are $10 per hour. If no one is using it, members can convene meetings without reserving it, and without deducting from their 5 hour allowance. Hours are not carried over to the next month. We also can configure our main open area into a presentation theater capable of seating 50 or so. I can also be configured as a "hollow square" (think board of directors meeting). In fact, we're hosting the BoD meeting of the local economic development planning organization the morning of our grand opening. We do have four resident desks in our main offices (across the courtyard from Uptime), as well, and one of those members teaches a class in the Uptime presentation theater on Saturday mornings. Our priority will always be our members and their comfort and convenience. They understand, though, that we will be presenting content on some evenings, and to plan on that. Even so, we have a couple of small (6'x6') privacy rooms for phone calls or 1-on-1 meetings, and a member could use one of those when there is an event going on. We wondered whether those would even be used, but took a chance and built them in. Turns out they are very popular. People like to make calls without disturbing others (and without being overheard). We bought two big flat panel displays. They're 42" 1080p LCDs, and we have them standing on a couple of very large speaker cabinets on wheels, so moving them around is pretty easy. We have one set up in the conference room, and the other in position for presentation theater use. We can also wheel the conf room screen around so that the presenters can see their slides/content. We also have a projector and screen for when we go mobile. That said, we just produced a big conference a couple weeks ago and took the flat panels to use as confidence monitors, as well. The LCDs are pretty light, and look great. We got them at Costco for $700 each. We're going to use the Calendar tool on Google Apps so people can see when the conference and privacy rooms are available, and they'll reserve them via phone or email (or in person, of course) with the reception staff. --Ax On Nov 4, 11:49 am, "Matthew Wettergreen" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Paul, > > Tony makes some great points about noise reduction which depending on the > materials of your walls and floor can be a problem. Situations which require > discussion aloud are perfect for a conference room setting but some spaces > just don't have that ability. > > We were able to secure a donated conference table from a company called > Icestone (http://www.icestone.biz/) and a local metal working shop in > Houston created legs for us (http://mergestudios.com). IceStone is extremely > happy with the table and it's great marketing for them to have a functional > showroom of sorts in a coworking space. In case anyone else would like to > contact them, their rep is Guthrie Jones ([EMAIL PROTECTED]). > > We have been getting a large number of requests for use of the conference > room from our tenants and the community. The model that we're currently > trying out is that Tenants and Coworkers may use the space as long as > needed, reserved in advance with a google calendar specific to the > conference room. Non-paying community members may rent out the conference > room for $25/hour. > > Flat screens are nice but you might want to focus on portability and > finances by instead having a projector and a portable screen for events that > may not need to take place in the conference room. > > Matthew > > On Tue, Nov 4, 2008 at 11:45 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>wrote: > > > > > > > All, > > > Looking for some feedback. Since we opened we have been flooded with > > requests for use of our conference room. As we are a small space, the > > conference room is one of the primary gathering areas. Yes we have a > > few private offices and 1 office with multiple desks, and the lounge, > > but the conference room is the big area. > > > I have no problems renting out the space on weekends/evening as member > > useage will be low then....but I'm looking for feedback from those of > > you with only 1 conference room like we have. How have you managed > > it? > > > I'm guessing that this is a good problem to have, that being more > > interest then space. There is space available behind us, and we're > > considering taking that over which would allow us the ability to have > > a "dedicated" conference room. > > > So.... if you only have one conference room how have you manged it? > > If you have more than one conference room have you seen a significant > > ROI on it? What kind of rate are you charging to non-members for use > > of the conference room? > > > And lastly those of you that have Direct TV or something similar and a > > Flat screen is it good or bad? Does it provide a good vibe, or bad? > > Response from your members, etc.... > > > Thanks so much! > > > Paul > > -- > Matthew Wettergreen > coFounder - Caroline Collectivehttp://carolinecollective.cc > > cell: 713.825.4613 > email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > twitter: organ_printerhttp://matthewwettergreen.com > -- --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
