I agree Alex - we'll spoken. This has been our experience at SmartOffice, Flower Mound Texas.
Heidi On Feb 3, 8:41 am, Alex Hillman <[email protected]> wrote: > I'd also point out that, anecdotally, I've seen spaces have to work much > harder to fill coworking when they offer both options (private offices and > open coworking layouts). The problem, I think, is that private offices are > familiar, and people will gravitate towards the things that are most > familiar to them. > > Culturally, giving people a chance to even see a familiar option inhibits > their ability to walk into a coworking space open minded...something that > we've found helps get people acclimated to the "different" ways of working. > Anything you can do to make the first moments of seeing your workspace be > strikingly different, to elicit the "ok, I'm ready for anything today" > feeling from your new prospectives will mean they are likely to get more out > of their first day, and more likely to join as coworkers that contribute to > the culture of the space that you're trying to engender. > > There's some chaos that comes with open spaces, and they aren't for > everyone. We do turn people away who are looking for private offices. But > we've also tried having private offices and the value their inhabitants > added as contributing members of the coworking community were much lower > than the average. > > From a business perspective, since that is worth considering,...open > floorplans also mean more flexibility and therefore opportunity for revenue. > Offices have a fixed price, a market value that's hard to change in your > members' eyes. Even if you're introducing all of the "warm fuzzies" of > coworking, a desk is still only worth a certain amount. > > Whereas coworking space and open, flexible floorplans provide an opportunity > for creating new price points. Flexible space means that optimizing for > growth is much easier. And finally...while anchor members are important for > establishing your revenue base, having flexible desk options means that so > long as you can fill them, your revenue potential per flex desk is likely to > be higher than your anchor desks! In our case, a flex desk has a maximum > revenue potential of $300/month (our most expensive monthly plan). But a > flex desk with a basic member at it every day is has a potential of $600, > and a flex desk with a drop in at it every day has a potential of $1000. > > -Alex > > /ah > indyhall.org > coworking in philadelphia > > > > On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 4:38 AM, David Troy <[email protected]> wrote: > > Yes, I need to put in a big vote for "open" here as well. Walls are > > barriers to culture. To the extent that you want coworking to engender > > common culture, you want it to be able to flow freely. > > > We have two large rooms, and two small offices that hang off the one > > largest room. Invariably people want to be in the large main room because > > that's where the energy is. The folks in the two offices are constantly > > poking their heads out to be a part of what's happening in the main area. > > > The secondary room is more of an overflow room at this point and it only > > gets used occasionally or for meetings. If it was used every day all the > > time, it would invariably have a different cultural "feel" to it than the > > main room. > > > IndyHall, in its version 1.0, had two floors and Alex has remarked that the > > main floor and the mezzanine folks had two different cultures; not vastly > > different but enough to notice. > > > That all said, Beehive Baltimore's space is something we took over as-is. > > If we get the chance to design our own space, it'll be primarily open space > > with perhaps a couple of meeting areas and possibly some tiny spaces > > appropriate for phone calls. > > > If you're doing nothing but private offices I think it devolves into being > > executive suites pretty quickly, and that's a different thang. > > > Dave > > > -- > > Dave Troy > > Organizer > > Beehive Baltimore > > > On Wed, Feb 3, 2010 at 3:41 AM, jesse <[email protected]> wrote: > > >> Open. We've got 20 dedicated desks in a large open plan space. > >> Probably self-selecting, but the folks here seem happy with it. Easier > >> to start or join a conversation with neighbors, and lots of energy > >> seeing other people excited and working on their projects. > >> Occasionally we have bizarro moments where it seems like everyone is > >> on a phone call with a client, but usually it paces out fine. > > >> The fact you would also have dedicated private space for meetings and > >> private calls is valuable. > > >> Jesse > > >> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > >> Jesse Taggert > >> Citizen Space > >> San Francisco, CA > >>http://citizenspace.us > >> @citizenspace > > >> On Feb 2, 1:43 pm, Mike Pihlman <[email protected]> wrote: > >> > OK, we have a chance (as our 1 year anniversary approaches) to move to > >> > the office space next to ours. Ours has a nice open area maybe 12 x 12 > >> > (The Patio). The rest of the space has a hallway with offices 5 of them > >> > on either side, and storage. I took the doors down on the left side to > >> > encourage openness, but, use the right side offices (with doors) for > >> > cell phone use, private meetings, etc. See floorplan here: > >>http://www.tracyvirtualoffice.com/cool-links/floorplan/ > > >> > The next door space has three offices (the same as the old space on the > >> > right) that can be used for meetings, cell phone etc, but the rest of > >> > the space is wide open. The space looks and feels huge even though it > >> > is "only" 200 sq ft larger. > > >> > Our (mostly gut) feeling is that the open space would be better. But, I > >> > was wondering if you had advice or thoughts? > > >> > Thanks, Mike > > >> > -- > >> > Mike Pihlman > >> > TracyVirtualOffice > >> > "A Coworking Community" > >> > 95 W. 11th Street, Suite 203 > >> > Tracy, CA 95376 > >> > Mobile: 209-608-4340 > >> > Web: TracyVirtualOffice.com > >> > Twitter: @TracyVirtOffice > >> > Skype: tracyvirtualoffice1 > > >> -- > >> 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]<coworking%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> > >> . > >> For more options, visit this group at > >>http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en. > > > -- > > Dave Troy > > meet with me:http://bit.ly/davemtg > > blog:www.davetroy.com(@davetroy) > > community:www.beehivebaltimore.org(@bhivebmore) > > investing:www.baltimoreangels.org(@baltimoreangels) > > events: @TEDxMidAtlantic, @barcampbmore, @socialdevcamp > > projects:www.twittervision.com,www.flickrvision.com > > Partner, Roundhouse Technologies > > > -- > > 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]<coworking%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com> > > . > > For more options, visit this group at > >http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. 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