Right on. Great idea about telling anecdotes; I should try that. And really, the more tangible and human you can make your message, the better.
We're constantly trying to refine our message here at NWC, and it's especially important to give the right impression because we tend to get lumped in with the many office-rental type places in NYC. Having the basic office stuff is important, so you can stand up to a basic comparison, but it doesn't make sense to try to compete on those terms. It's much more compelling if you can get right to the real benefits. Examples: "We offer 24/7 365 T1 access with virtual mail secretary fax color photocopy and 250 free black and white copies per month!" Or: "Greg and Alex met at New Work City an hatched an idea for a Twitter- based game. They launched it this week!" (They really did: http://zeitheist.net) The differences are obvious and the people who respond will be ones who are in the right frame of mind for coworking. When someone walks into my space and starts asking me about virtual mail services and shared secretaries, I know we're off to a bad start. So the more you can shape the conversation around the people, the better. When you're just getting started, though, and you don't have a lot of people, the angle changes in favor of finding people who want to help create and cultivate that environment. This is why it's so important to have some momentum built up before opening. If you open on day one with no people, then you're not selling the main thing that makes coworking unique and awesome. It's a grocery store with no groceries. If you're already open and still short on people, treat it like you're still building it. Recruit people from the mindset that the store isn't yet stocked. The build-out's not complete until you've got fresh goods on the shelf :-) Enough out of me for a pre-8am email :-) Tony New Work City On Jun 4, 2009, at 2:22 AM, Eric Marden <[email protected]> wrote: >> 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. > > This is what's worked for us at Colab Orlando. > > We just keep telling people about coworking, and when they come in > we encourage them to join, mostly by telling them anecdotes about > the successes we've had there. I believe we're now up to about 17 > members. We had less than 10 a few months ago. > > Beyond that, we've encouraged the members to work together and this > is also working out splendidly. More than one team has formed and > are working on each other's projects. > > I guess what I'm getting at is that when you embody as well as > foster your unique culture the right people will find and join your > space. You don't just want bodies, you want members who resonate > with your space and its values. > > > - Eric Marden > . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . > http://ericmarden.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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
