The coworking summit was very productive for me, if only because it permitted me to meet a few bright minds whom I had never encountered before, and managed to have one or two very high-level conversations that would have otherwise been impossible.
This was the result of Chris having instructed us to pair off after the video portion-- someone sought me out, we sat down, and had a conversation that made the whole trip worthwhile. I had a similar experience at the Coworking Meetup. In the case of both events, I had to leave early due to hard obligations, and was dying to stay in both cases because of the raw potential of the knowledge that was being shared among like-minded coworking leaders. For future events, there's no reason not to continue to aim for the same sorts of things that we do in our coworking spaces - facilitate conversations, collaboration, and serendipity. The pre-planned panel discussion at the Coworking Summit, for example, was what I'd consider to be the least productive part of the event-- and it was the most structured and planned part. I don't see that as a coincidence. There should be a healthy balance of structure and un-structure-- perhaps some frameworks, general guidlines, to help shape conversation-- and then lots of opportunity for people to have the kind of deep conversations we just can't have when we're all in our respective cities. So that's my insight on those events. Also, the Future of Coworking Panel was an atrocity and an insult, because the hand-picked set of people included people whose connection to and knowledge of the concept and movement were tangential at best and convoluted at worst. So my takeaway from that is that any future event should be careful not to impose the viewpoints of people who have no business speaking on the subject. Cheers, Tony --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- New Work City - Work with, not for. Web: http://nwcny.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/nwc Email: [email protected] Phone: (888) 823-3494 On Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 5:58 PM, Jay <[email protected]> wrote: > I was unable to go to this year's SXSW, and was hoping there'd be more > of a discussion online from the people that were able to attend the > Coworking Meetup or the Summit. Other than the summit video that was > posted, I was unable to find too much discussion in the group or > elsewhere. > > Would love to know from those who were able to attend: > - What did you think about the meetup or the summit? > - What was good and what can be improved for future coworking get > togethers? > - Which topics (either planned or unplanned) did you find most > interesting or useful? > - More importantly, any insights/lessons gained from meeting others > that run or work in other coworking spaces? > - Did any new ideas or future projects sprout from meeting with > others? > > Looking forward to reading some of your answers. Hopefully, it can be > useful to the other coworking events that some of you may already be > planning. > > Cheers, > > Jay > www.thenetworkhub.ca > twitter.com/jaycatalan > > -- > 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%[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.
