Sounds like a "traditional" alliance or org that services all
coworking facilities. Members pitch in a monthly/yearly amount to an
org that returns them benefits, etc.
______________
BLANKSPACES
"work wide open"
www.blankspaces.com
5405 Wilshire Blvd (2 blocks west of La Brea)
Los Angeles, CA 90036
323.330.9505 (office)
On Feb 7, 2010, at 7:44 AM, Mike Schinkel wrote:
Hi all,
The first thing I thought about when I saw this topic come through
was "Great, yet another expense on top of all the other expenses we
have."
As some of you know we operate Ignition Alley mostly as a service to
our local startup and freelance community and much less to generate
a profit. Attending a conference means probably $1000+ in travel
expenses and that is not attractive.
But then I thought "This need not be like commercial conferences, it
could be in run like coworking itself as a collaborative for the
benefit of those who participate and not as a way for someone to
make money." So at a very high level I'd like to propose the
following without having worked out all the details:
-- Create a coworking facility co-op
-- Each facility that wants to can participate in the co-op
-- The co-op runs the conference
-- Co-op members work to get sponsors
-- The co-op markets to economic development agencies, chambers of
commerce, and major corporations[1] for paid attendance
-- Co-op members get their cut of the profits which help them pay to
attend the event
Thoughts?
-Mike Schinkel
Ignition Alley Atlanta Coworking
http://ignitionalley.com
[1] Major corporations are starting to look to the coworking model
to be greener in facility use and to maximize worker/space density
to cut costs.
On Feb 3, 2010, at 10:30 PM, rachel young wrote:
I think an annual coworking conference is a great idea, something
dedicated to coworking, not tacked on to another event. Something
where we could focus on coworking and community issues, meet each
other, see one another's cities and spaces. I'm in!
There would have to be a lot of value to it in order to bring these
already busy and stretched folks our of their spaces for a few
days, though, something that could leverage our buying power for, I
dunno, office furniture or health care benefits or travel discounts
or something. Something where we can not only have those providers/
suppliers sponsor the event to offset costs, but to provide real
value that would be worth traveling for.
I've been involved in a few organisations that are spread across
multiple timezones or parts of the world, and they have decided on
location in similar fashions, which is basically that host cities
post their proposals and the community votes on where it should be,
perhaps one vote per coworking facility. We can build in assurance
that it won't always be in the same cities or parts of the country
all the time so that people in, say, the west coast don't alwyas
have to travel to the east coast. (ie, establish general zones and
ensure the annual event rotates between zones)
Anyway, I think it is certainly worth exploring, and being an event
planner I am all for it.
I put your suggested starting topics onto a wiki page (http://coworking.pbworks.com/Coworking-Conference
), which I think would be better to collaborate from there. I do
think that this would take some time to plan out properly (and give
folks some time to save up some money), so if you were thinking of
escaping the winter conditions in the next few months, then perhaps
sxswi is your better option for this year.
r.
--
rachel young
[email protected]
(416) 801-0196
Find us in person:
Camaraderie
102 Adelaide St E, 2nd Floor
Find us online:
camaraderie.ca/blog
twitter.com/camaraderie
Woodie Neiss <[email protected]> Jan 30 09:49AM -0500
Anyone want to get together for the first International Coworking
Community Annual Meeting in ummm let’s say a warm, sunny place like
Miami? Sort of a one day event where we could discuss best
practices, set some protocols for future coworking locations and
formally organize ourselves so that we can leverage our combined
power?
Suggested topics to discuss (feel free to edit/add to/delete/etc)
1) Keys to success
a. pricing
b. Serivices to offer
2) Managing the bottom line
a. Financing the start up
b. Negotiating lease agreements
c. Managing monthly expenses
3) Marketing & PR
a. Building awareness
b. How to generate more buzz
c. The power of meet-ups
d. Leveraging your chamber of commerce
4) Creative suggestions from some of our winning locations
5) How to formally organize ourselves into an International
organization
Perhaps we could all complete some surveys prior, and then present
the results at the meeting as well?
Regards,
Woodie
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