Hi all - just wanted to piggyback on Raines email...we're opening about the same time (actually October 1st) here in Charlottesville, and as many of us in or about to be in the coworking community agree, getting to know your users provides the best insight you can possibly gain. We held brown bag sessions, attended all of our local tech and marketing networking sessions and reached out to a small panel of trusted advisors (all of whom will be OpenSpace members as soon as we open). It was more of a "will you come if we build it?" over the typical "build iti and they will come."
I find it interesting and validating that you're using the hourly model as well. We went though many many many rounds of possible pricing scenarios and came up with a very similar hourly model. Most of users work and play equally during the day, so they're really only staying in one place for 2-4 hours. They didn't want to burn a day rate if they had to leave for an appointment or head home. Additionally, our feedback told us that there's a certain guilt involved with working in our local coffee shops...most are small locally owned shops (yes, we ONLY have 3 Starbucks in town)...so people feel like they have to purchase something every hour to justify their usage. We're currently at $10/hour on average (with a few adjustments in various levels of packages) I'm sure it doesn't work for every community, but we definitely think it will work for us. We're also doing after hours evens and meetings/conferences, which will off-set our coworking cost as we build our membership...will be interesting at some point to hear how the rest of you all are supporting this. It's been very hard to balance offering a professional meeting space with trying to support our local non- profits and networking groups. How do you charge a company by the hour or for a session, but give the space away to support the extracurricular activities of your potential users? Doesn't seem fair, but we don't want to lose potential users by catering to a corporate meeting model. Thinking out loud. Anyway, per Raines comment about hands-on experience...we'll be there very soon. In the meantime, this entire coworking community has been a hugely welcoming resource while we've been in the same planning phase. Nice to see another space opening and already experiencing success! Keep emails like this coming! In the meantime, check out www.oncoworking.com...a lot of us on here have been participating, and it's an excellent resource to see how things are happening in the coworking community! Nikki OpenSpace On Aug 19, 12:21 pm, [email protected] wrote: > Rainesn > > Awesome post. Thanks for sharing your insights. > > David > Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile > > -----Original Message----- > From: Raines Cohen <[email protected]> > > Date: Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:04:32 > To: <[email protected]> > Subject: [Coworking] Re: The Hub - Berkeley > > Yes, September 1 opening is what we're hearing as of last week. > I'm joining HUB Bay Area <http://bayarea.the-hub.net/> as a Founding member; > my wife and business partner Betsy Morris is planning to become a Charter > member, and work there some of the time, as part of The Brower > Center<http://www.browercenter.org/>in downtown Berkeley. > I was originally personally skeptical about the viability and * > coworkingishness* of "metered" hourly access vs. > anchors-as-desk-renters-by-the-month "traditional" (pioneer) coworking > community cooperative models, but my perspective changed as I: > > - got to know the people involved, their vision, and previous > projects/experience > - got hands-on experience with the challenges of space and > people/business relations management in our little "proto-coworking" > community in downtown Berkeley for the last year. While it's nice not to > have to pay hourly rent for our existing classroom space, we believe that > if > we're relying on hosting non-core-business outside events that gross less > than $100 for a night's work to offset our rent, we're doing it wrong. And > we didn't get a voice in selecting the tenants who joined after us, and had > incompatible growth and use patterns. > - saw the engaged communities growing around *Outside The Cube* (*aka > Cubes and Crayons*), *New Work City* and *Sandbox Suites*, centrally > managed/hourly metered access spaces > - got more details on the benefits of membership and pricing/spaces for > events; rather than paying equal shares of all the space and initial > capital > investment, paying for just what we use reduces our upfront and ongoing > costs. Because the building incorporates multiple levels of sharing, it can > get maximal value for spaces and resources. > - clarified our own business vision and plans, mapping out partnerships, > sorting out priorities - where can we add the greatest value? Where do we > want to be spending our time? Where do we get leverage through cooperation? > - realized the true power of coworking: instead of putting all our eggs > in one basket (*leasing a single space*), we could be a member here (*which > includes use of the SF space once it opens, and many across Europe, where > **The HUB network* <http://www.the-hub.net/>* started*), and focus on > building our community connections and business relationships so we can > partner on events elsewhere as necessary. > > Plus, it's a 5-minute nearly-flat bike ride from my house, a block from the > subway, across the street from the University of California campus, and > surrounded by an incredible variety of dining options, including one friends > are co-creating right in the building <http://terrainrestaurant.com/> that I > may invest in. In a building with showers and bike parking (*including > secure attended "valet" bike parking a block away*). And many event spaces, > from conference rooms to a theater. And in a new ultra-green building, full > of potential partners and clients <http://www.browercenter.org/tenants> in > related businesses, and another coworking-style space, the Sustainable > Enterprise Cluster, a *green business incubator* run by Dominican University > of California's (*formerly Dominican College, not related to the University > of California*) Green MBA <http://www.GreenMBA.com/> program, which includes > a branch of another longtime coworking-esque venture, the NextNow > Collaboratory <http://www.nextnow.org/>. > > Our current office has a bunch of private storage space, which we'll miss (*it > was a big relief getting our work materials out of the house - fortunately, > some alternatives have emerged*), and big bookshelves built in. But we > really don't need that in the same place that we work together with folks in > and hold meetings. > > Raines Cohen, Coworking Coach <http://www.CoworkingCoach.com/> > *Planning for Sustainable Communities* (*Berkeley, California*) > > On Wed, Aug 19, 2009 at 2:41 AM, David J. Kordsmeier <[email protected]>wrote: > > >http://www.bayarea.the-hub.net/public/ > > > Anyone have any scoop on when it will be operational? --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
