Great reply, Tony, and I agree about the name. I want to work at the FunkBunk.
- Eric Marden . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://ericmarden.com On Jun 14, 2009, at 1:06 PM, Tony Bacigalupo wrote: > > Sam, > > Welcome! > > You can do many things, but the best thing you can do is get personal. > > When they walk in, greet them by name. Give them a handshake or a high > five. > > Ask them what they're working on. Pay attention. Look for ways to > help. > > Introduce them to new people or people working on similar stuff, or, > if they're new, introduce them to everyone (within reason). > > Invite them (and everyone within earshot) to lunch or drinks after > work. > > If and when they discover that they just found a business partner, or > got introduced to a potential investor, or finally got to spend a > workday with someone other than their potted plant in their apartment, > they'll be hooked. You job is to facilitate all of that. > > While amenities are important, the primary service you are providing > is access to a community of cool people. It's the ingredient that > fundametally distinguishes coworking spaces from office rental > establishments, so the better you execute on that, the more unique and > effective you will be. > > The challenge is that this tends to be a time-consuming task, and > since most space owners also have secondary occupations, this can be a > significant distraction from your own work. I know several space > owners who avoid their own spaces for fear of constant distraction > because they need to focus on a deadline. Balancing your > responsibilities is a constant challenge early on. > > The best way to mitigate this (and, consequently, to enable healthy > scaling) is to empower your members and potentially part time > employees to play this role of social facilitator as well. The more > the community can be self-sustaining, the better. > > Also, I love your name. The name alone should go a long way in > attracting like-minded people :-) > > Tony > ------------ > New Work City: http://nwcny.com > I'm Outta Here! How coworking is making the office obsolete: > http://imouttaherethebook.com > Personal: http://tonybacigalupo.com > > > > > > On Jun 14, 2009, at 5:58 AM, FunkBunk <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >> Hi all >> >> This is my first post on here - so first off - hello everybody! You >> have a fantastic group here and it has been so valuable to us. Wish I >> had come across it sooner. >> >> My name is Sam Cranwell and I set up a coworking space in the UK 11 >> months ago called FunkBunk (http://www.funkbunk.com). FunkBunk is >> based in rural Buckinghamshire, just 35mins train ride from London. >> Our open plan studio is part of converted World War 2 Airforce Base, >> with 15 seats for permanent and hot-desk workers. Plans to double the >> size of our space this year. >> >> With the current economic climate here it has been a tricky year to >> get things up and running but we have made it through. To help things >> along we have upped our marketing effort to attract more drop-in >> style >> hot-desk renters. >> >> My question to the group is: What to do you do to make your residents >> feel special? >> >> We want people to come back again and again, so we want to make them >> feel warm and fuzzy about FunkBunk. We don't have a huge budget so we >> are looking for simple ways to make our residents feel welcome, so >> they will spread the word and re-book a desk many times over. >> >> From welcome notes and gifts to the ambiance in the room - what do >> you >> all do? >> >> Look forward to the response! >> >> Thanks all >> >> >> Sam and all at FunkBunk >> >>> > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
