Toni, Awesome approach. IndyHall started just the same - it was easy for me to find people like me: designers, developers, web workers. But we kept our message broad: we're here to make Philadelphia a better place for anyone who can work from anywhere.
Things really picked up steam once people from different industries started showing up. Now it's easier for me to tell what industries are not there (yet) than the ones who are, and it's our members who tell us all the time how much they love that part of the experience. -Alex /ah indyhall.org coworking in philadelphia On Sun, Mar 18, 2012 at 4:37 PM, OC Houston <[email protected]>wrote: > Great insight! I am a licensed real estate agent and had planned to > start my own firm targeting new agents specifically because training > is lacking in that area. Then, I realized that while I want to focus > on training and mentoring I don't necessarily need a brokerage for > that, and having one would actually limit my reach to only MY agents. > > We've taken Alex's advice regarding building a community before > "cutting the ribbon" so we're starting with what we know. I know there > is a need for training for new real estate agents. But, that training > must include basic business principles which is common to most start- > ups, entrepreneurs and small business owners. I figure if we start > were we are we can grow from there. I just don't want to get "stuck" > in a place that will inhibit innovation and creativity. > > So, we may be able to start by targeting real estate agents and/or > graphic artists (my husband's field) as long as we continue to focus > on diversifying the community. > > Toni > > On Mar 18, 2:13 pm, "[email protected]" > <[email protected]> wrote: > > While it depends on your definition of industry, based on our > > definition there are a lot of industry specific coworking facilities. > > In SF area alone examples include The Hub (social entrepreneurs), > > Writers Grotto (writers and media), Mission*Social (social > > entrepreneurs), Biocurious (biosciences) and many others. > > > > Also, many of the coworking spaces in the SF area are effectively tech > > industry spaces. It's just the nature of the bay area. And > > obviously, there are many vertical spaces elsewhere in the US and > > world. The rapid growth of collaborative kitchens across the US is > > another example. > > > > We see these spaces as industry mini-clusters. Industrial clusters > > are groups of similar or related firms in a defined geographic area > > that share common markets, technologies and worker skill needs, and > > which are often linked by buyer-seller relationships. Firms and > > workers in industry clusters benefit from the advantages that a shared > > base of sophisticated, industry specific knowledge brings. > > > > Silicon Valley in technology, New York in financial services and > > Detroit in automobiles are famous examples of large clusters. But > > small industrial clusters are also common. We think many of the > > vertically oriented coworking spaces exhibit many of the same benefits > > as industrial clusters. > > > > We've done a lot of work looking at coworking spaces that serve social > > entrepreneurs (we're hoping to get a paper out on this soon). We've > > found that social entrepreneurs in spaces catering to social firms > > collaborate more and report higher levels of business networking than > > social entrepreneurs that are members of other types of coworking > > spaces. We think this is due to the cluster effect. > > Having said that, we agree with Alex that diversity of skills, > > backgrounds, views and opinions are important. Clusters achieve this > > by having a mix of participants from across the industry supply and > > demand chains. Large clusters also benefit from the diverse nature of > > most broad industries. > > > > Coworking facilities achieve this by having people from different > > professions (designers, programmers, lawyers, etc.) and different > > skill sets. This brings strong weak tie benefits (yet another paper > > we're trying to finish). > > > > But we also think vertical coworking spaces could, at least in some > > cases, add additional value by bringing together people that are > > diverse by profession/skill set, but serve the same broad industry. > > > > Obviously, little work has been done on this topic. A lot more needs > > to be done before drawing strong conclusions. > > > > Steve > > > > On Mar 16, 1:11 pm, OC Houston <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > Does anyone have an industry specific coworking space? Or, does that > > > defeat the purpose of the concept? > > > > > Toni > > -- > 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.
