We have worked with our City and County economic development departments for a few years now. Our experience has been that they often get it - or at least they realize the potential without quite knowing what to do with it. Or, they've been told by consultants that we're the hot thing without quite knowing what to do about us. This has resulted in users of our space speaking at conferences, sitting on panels, and working with local universities and economic development groups on issues of entrepreneurship and a more mobile lifestyle.
However, the bigger economic development models of recruit/retain/panic are very slow to change. So while our few blocks of downtown has suddenly become the hot area for growing tech companies and a nightlife, economic development is still focused on the one or two big employers within our downtown core area. Our experience is that economic development professionals and attract/retain policy is rarely very progressive and the people in charge are not creative. If you have an idea of how they can help you, you'll be much more successful if you lay out a plan, direction, and (if applicable) funding sources. If you have an idea for a campaign that can help them attract 1-2 person businesses, then lay it all out for them. Do the work for them and they are more likely to embrace it and help you. If, as most people do, you enter the room and ask for help without offering solutions, it'll take a very long time to see change. What we've done is ensure that the powers that be are aware of who we are and what we offer. The result has been that our city and the organization responsible for attracting companies both send us potential clients. Some work out. Most don't. That said, we have a couple of very long term members that have come from these referrals. - Derek Young Suite133 On Feb 26, 2010, at 9:26 AM, Jeremy Neuner wrote: > Thanks Alex, I agree that some case studies would be important in validating > the potential. Mike Schinckel from Ignition Alley/Startup Atlanta contacted > me off-list and mentioned that he's had some conversations with some ED folks > who "get it". He posed a really interesting question: "have you identified > yourself as a new breed of economic development director by an identifiable > name or perspective (I'm thinking of "branding" here?)" I haven't (I no > longer work for the city) nor do I know anyone who has. But it's a really > good idea. We've had enough informal conversations to know that a range of > people (elected officials, ED professionals, commercial realtors, incubator > managers, service providers,and even a few stodgy VC's) are beginning to see > a teensy bit of the light. > > Like Alex, I'd like to hear more from those of you who have tried (both > successfully and not) to engage, broadly speaking, in the economic > development conversation. I've found that people are generally receptive to > the idea. But when the rubber meets the road, the programs and policy > infrastructure simply do not accommodate our needs as a coworking space, nor > the needs of the members that we serve. Alex's example of Comcast is a > really good case in point. > > Okay, hope to hear more from the list on this topic. And I'm looking forward > to meeting many of you at SXSW. > > Cheers, > Jeremy > http://nextspace.us/ > > On Fri, Feb 26, 2010 at 8:32 AM, Alex Hillman <[email protected]> > wrote: > Jeremy, > > Sounds like we've been having a lot of the same conversations! We've always > talked about IndyHall as a vehicle towards a bigger purpose, a slice of the > pie, the pie being "Making Philadelphia a better place to make a living doing > what you love". > > We've communicated with the city, as well as interacted with a number of ED > entities. Many of them had agendas similar to yours: giant business/job > attraction, minimal focus on retention, zero focus on small > business/individuals. > > We have laws in PA that actually "prohibit" the city from creating gradated > tax laws; everyone needs to be taxed the same. That is, of course, unless a > giant company like Comcast comes in bringing a few thousand jobs, and then > they get massive tax breaks from the city and the state. > > I've asked the Dept of Commerce "what kind of scale do we need to get an > exception like that?" and they don't have concrete answers. I agree > completely with Jeremy in the fact that there'd be a more stable tax base for > them if they focused on the same number in smaller, individuals that have > growth potential than a single company that could split town when their tax > abatement is over. > > It's hard to state the potential until we have some cases studied, so if > anyone else is doing work with their regions along these lines, I know I'd > love to hear more!! > > Thanks for bringing this up, and great article Jeremy! > > -Alex > > /ah > indyhall.org > coworking in philadelphia > > > On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 12:47 AM, Jeremy Neuner <[email protected]> > wrote: > Hi All, > > Greetings from rainy Santa Cruz, California. There's been a lot of good > discussion lately about coworking as an economic development tool, including > at the "state of coworking" meeting a couple of weeks ago in San Francisco. > This is a subject that's been at the heart of NextSpace. Before starting > NextSpace, I was the city's economic development manager and my co-founder, > Ryan Coonerty, was the mayor of Santa Cruz (he's still a sitting city council > member and will begin his second term as mayor in November). So we've always > thought of coworking as "economic development by other means." I'm eager to > hear more stories (both successes and failures) about how others in the > coworking community have engaged their local/regional governments, > particularly economic development officials. I think it would be really > interesting to hear from those of you outside the U.S. as well. > > Also, Ryan and I just had an article published in American City & County > Magazine about how local/regional governments aren't doing enough to attract > and retain small businesses. And by "small business" we mean the 1- and > 2-person companies that many coworking spaces cater to (aside: I was shocked > to learn that a company can have upwards of 500 employees and still be > considered a "small business" by the U.S. Small Business Administration). We > argue that municipalities should, for example, try to attract/retain 200 > one-person businesses rather than one 200-person company. Of course, we > mention coworking as a potential strategy! If you're interested, you can > take a look at the article here: http://bit.ly/awOJO4 > > Meanwhile, thanks for all that you collectively do to ensure the success of > "real" small businesses.....! > > Cheers, > Jeremy > http://nextspace.us/ > > > > -- > 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. > > > -- > 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. > > > -- > 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. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. 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