Hello everyone. This is my first post so I hope i'm directing it in the correct place.
I'll start off by saying that my name is Arron Lorenz, and I live and work in Davenport, Iowa. I'm active in technology, I own a wireless networking/general tech company, I'm an owner in an RV park, and and working on launching a web design oriented branch. Recently I've been a lot more interested in the Coworking as a concept and as a tool for our 5 city community of about 300,000 to help retain local self starters. I've been blogging about it, and am really hoping that in the future I can help make it a reality. As for what brought me here today. I read about this downfall on Alex's blog, and two things really hit me from it. The first is that it seems to me that keeping the community out of the management loop would be a poor decision not reflecting a coworking philosophy. The second is that I hope to learn something from this downfall. From what I've read so far this facility had a fairly high level of initial debt that fell onto a single investor. That investor then attempted to carry that financial burden alone for too long. I'm not advocating community control as I believe the buck has to stop somewhere, but too some extent the facility needs to rely on it's Coworkers as much as the Coworkers rely on the facility. To quote Susan "People support what they help to create." For me it's not even just helping support what they create but for what they live. It was a bit saddening to read the last couple of paragraphs. Things like "Work Home", "remove personal items", "empty rented lockers", "mail forwarding", and "Close down membership." are just some words at the end of an e-mail but in reality some people just got fired, evicted, relocated, displaced or whatever you'd choose to call it. It's hard to understand any justification for keeping this secret. It would seem to me that if I were a Coworker in this facility I would do anything I could to help keep my workplace alive. One of the biggest topics of conversation around my professional group in regards to Coworking is being able to facilitate a regular, professional work space. Where someone whom otherwise would be working from home, and a PO box can have a real stable office environment. Not finding out you'll need a new place to work from in a week, and finding out there is nothing you can do about it has to be the worst. I would be very interested to hear about what the next step is for the Coworkers who are looking for a new home. Regards, Arron my blog: http://www.arronlorenz.com On Aug 20, 7:20 pm, Alex Hillman <[email protected]> wrote: > This is really, really sad news. I only visited workspace for the first time > in this past year, but it's always been an inspiration from a space > design/utilization standpoint for me. I met with Dane while I was there in > February, and have the utmost respect for him, his approach, and his > involvement over the years. > I can echo that we've continued to grow despite (or thanks to) the > recession. Great things are happening for many of our members, and we seem > to be coming out of a slight summer "lull" of activity and our office has > been teaming with people for the last 2 weeks. > > We, and transitively, the entire scene, has seen a rejuvenation underway for > the fall. Barcamp planning is underway. New event ideas are springing up > every day. Peoples' businesses are taking off. Things are *good* right now. > > Now, the hard discussion. I hope nobody thinks that I'm crass in bringing > this up so quickly, but I kept quiet after the last significant space > closing hoping that someone else would bring up these issues, and they were > not approached. This is where things get hard for coworking. Bad things will > happen. My heart hopes that no bad things happen to anyone that any of us > know, but it's inevitable, and healthy. > > My thesis is that in order for coworking to be truly mainstream, it needs to > fulfill both successes and failures. Like, massive successes. > And colossal fuck ups. Coworking will *never* find its way into business > textbooks until both sides of the scale have been tipped. We need case > studies from both ends of the spectrum to study the longevity of this > business concept, this movement, and this way of life. > > What strikes me as a valuable lesson with the Workspace closing comes from > the e-mail they sent to their members: > > http://www.techvibes.com/blog/vancouvers-workspace-to-close-doors-thi... > > The new owner mentions that they took on workspace's pre-existing debt as a > public service, and I have to imagine that even making it just past break > even while sustaining any amount of debt is bad for the spirits of the > management team, which trickles down to the membership. > > This reinforces why we believe so strongly in bootstrapping. *Spend money > like you don't have any.* One of my favorite lessons/stories from Geoff is > how he runs his businesses as if there was a recession all the time, so when > there actually is a recession, it's business as usual. > > *Taking on debt as a public service is a bad move. *You're not helping > anyone in the long run. There's an immense value in remaining introspective > and purposeful with your coworking space. There is no value in a space > that's packed full of amenities, but accrues more debt than members. > > Furthermore, I think it's interesting that Workspace kept the problem from > its' members. I won't speculate why because that's unproductive, but it > certainly makes me think how I would approach things if we were in hot water > for any amount of time. > > In recent months we've seen the fall of two longstanding coworking spaces: > Cubespace, and now Workspace. Both were large spaces, with significant > communities that called them home over a long period of time. Cubespace let > their community know that there was a problem, but only after it seemed too > late. The community's response was positive and supportive, but wouldn't > support as more than a band-aide. Workspace shocked its members with an > abrupt notice. Ripping of the band-aide, to continue the metaphor. > > I'm frankly not sure which I prefer, and while I hope that I'm never in the > position to make the hard decision that those space owners made, I hope we > can all learn from the things they've done during their time open. > > I hope that we can have this discussion out in the open, candidly and > intelligently, and all turn this disappointing news into something we all > can reflect on. > > -Alex > > -- > ----- > -- > ----- > Alex Hillman > im always developing something > digital: [email protected] > helpful:www.unstick.me > visual:www.dangerouslyawesome.com > local:www.indyhall.org > > > > On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 6:39 PM, Chad <[email protected]> wrote: > > > We're finding the "recession" has only heightened the need for low > > cost office solutions. The biggest need is promotion and education. > > Once the single worker understands the opportunities to start over > > outside their home they will come. We're just getting going and > > hoping to also tap into the City's initiative to invest in the > > creative class.` Loking forward to hosting a JELLY this month and a > > grand opening in the Fall along with a artist install. We're starting > > small - creating the need and then grow with the ever increasing demand. > > > Chad > >www.thecreativespace.ca > > Barrie Ontario, Canada > > > On 20-Aug-09, at 6:20 PM, Sasha V wrote: > > > > I'm very saddened by the news that Workspace, an early adopter of > > > coworking, is closing its doors this week. Their blog gives some > > > explanation on the situation before the new owner took the place over > > > last year and what happened with the recession since then. > > > > Any thoughts out there? Any positive "screw the economy" news out > > > there?? > > > > Sasha Vasilyuk > > > Sandbox Suites > > >www.sandboxsuites.com > > > @SandboxSuites --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
