Thanks very much Chad, The international news on Africa is well-known for its bias. This country deserves more positive publicity. Rwanda is developing so fast - think East Asian growth miracle speed (poverty fell by 12 percentage points in the last 5 years and real GDP growth has averaged above 7%) - and the business environment is improving really rapidly (I registered this business in 6 hours; Rwanda is considered by the World Bank to be the third-best business environment in Africa behind only Mauritius and South Africa and is the 8th easiest country in the world to start a business). The Office is hoping to become the innovative and creative and enabling physical environment that mirrors Rwanda's ambitious reforms and growth vision.
I agree with your comments, and we are definitely focusing on building the local community first. Our first 12 members are an excellent cross-section of small business owners and professionals in Rwanda - it's almost a complete entrepreneurial ecosystem already (a web designer, a creative museum outreach officer, a general construction manager, a graphic designer, a mobile app company, accounting firm, tech support company, and a financial literacy consultant). We're also already looking at ways to engage the wider community in Kigali. For example, during Global Entrepreneurship Week (mid-November) we are partnering with a local organization that has set up entrepreneurship clubs at highschools across Rwanda to have an open house at The Office to let select highschool students engage with our members and contacts and to broaden their horizons. But, is there much to be gained from joining international groups in terms of raising profiles, learning from experiences, and hosting coworkers from across the globe? Is Creativespace a member any of the international groups/lists, and has it had much benefit from joining them? Also, does the community here think it would be worthwhile for us to attend the Unconference in Austin next year? Cheers Jon p.s. Glad you like the view from the space - Kigali is a ridiculously beautiful city and we have a great view of its trees and hills from our balcony (and our roof terrace that we will turn into a funky cafe next summer!). *Join our community today on Facebook (www.facebook.com/TheOfficeRW) and Twitter (@TheOfficeRW)* On Monday, 29 October 2012 17:16:09 UTC+2, creativespace wrote: > > Hey Ron, > I'm sure there is good stuff happening over there all the time! The media > tends to feature one side. Bad news is good news for news. > SO nice to see some real good news coming out of Rwanda! Congrats! > > No harm in joining the list and networks, but your main market is your > local community. Best to spend the time working those relationships then > broadcasting on the global bulletin board. As it's been said many times in > this group; build the community first. > > Our biggest success are groups of little wins and losses that happen along > the way within our community and organically grow which provides greater > sustainability. > Hosting events around your focus market are great ways to get people into > the space. It's always the greatest "sell" to see and experience the space > and the community in it. Host a JELLY or IGNITE: Kigali, to get the > tech/media/geek crowd in or a meetup for journalists, etc. Your local > media should be jumping at this kind of news. Free press! > > Love the trees out front! Show some of the surrounding area on going - > location/ environment are key. > > That said - continue to use this international group - there are lots of > great people willing to share stories, ideas, cautions, etc. > > Peace! > > Chad > > > > > Chad > > > > Chad Ballantyne > 705.812.0689 > [email protected] <javascript:> > > > On 2012-10-29, at 10:47 AM, Jon Stever, The Office RW wrote: > > Hey everyone, > > The Office RW is a new coworking space in Kigali, Rwanda. > > We opened two weeks ago for 12 crash-testers, and will open officially in > December (www.TheOfficeRW.com). > > I've seen various groups (league of extraordinary co-working spaces, loose > cubes, deskwanted, goodcoworking, etc), and was wondering if we should be > trying to join or get listed on any of these sites/groups to help integrate > ourselves better into the global coworking community and movement? Is the > coworking un-conference something that many people would recommend us > travelling to attend? > > So far we've found the coworking wiki and this google group very useful > (our terms of use agreement, for example, borrows heavily). But, any other > thoughts on how we can reach our hands out to the international crowd for > sharing experiences would be really welcome! > > Cheerios > > Jon > > > > -- > Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com > > > > > -- Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com
