This is great stuff in your slideshare. Thanks for sharing! On Thursday, April 2, 2015 at 8:48:42 AM UTC-5, Alex Hillman wrote: > > Yeah, big +1 to that. > > We have done some research into the reasons people join and stay, and > location/proximity are consistently WAY lower on the top 10 list than > anybody expects. > > That data (and more) can be found in this synthesis: > http://www.slideshare.net/mobile/alexknowshtml/quantifying-community-how-we-measure-success-in-a-coworking-space > > I also had a couple of academic researchers on my podcast recently who > found that things like "proximity" are far less indicators of people > choosing coworking, since the people who choose it generally have workspace > alternatives that are closer than the one they end up joining and paying > for. > > Location matters, but it matters a lot less than you might think if you're > actually solving a problem for people. > > -Alex > > > On Thursday, April 2, 2015, Andy Soell <[email protected] <javascript:>> > wrote: > >> I know this isn't exactly what you're asking, but Alex's post reminded me >> of one of the most interesting and unexpected things I've found since we >> opened our space nearly 3 years ago. I expected that we would have around >> 80% of our members coming from the immediate neighborhood, but I've found >> that people are more than willing to commute if the place they're commuting >> to is a place they enjoy working. I just took a quick scan of our member >> roster and less than a quarter of our members live in what I would consider >> the neighborhood of either of our spaces. Several of those 25% are in the >> neighborhood because they've specifically moved here after joining us, >> which is even more incredible. >> >> So yeah, it's not necessarily about proximity as much as what you're >> offering and the kind of community you're cultivating. >> >> On Wednesday, April 1, 2015 at 9:44:02 PM UTC-4, Alex Hillman wrote: >>> >>> How many people are in a radius doesn't really matter, if none of those >>> people care about or need Coworking. >>> >>> We did something counterintuitive when we began: we put Indy Hall in a >>> place where NONE of our community members already were. We chose a >>> neighborhood that was easily accessible my public transit (something >>> important to our community), but all of our early members lived in 3 main >>> parts of the city and we chose to open in an area that was relatively >>> central to all 3. If we had picked any one of those three parts, the >>> other 2/3rds of our community would've felt more disconnected. >>> >>> Bur I say relative because that's important. There is ALWAYS someone who >>> will say that you're too far away. In our case, that can be as "far away" >>> as 4 subway stops. It depends on what people are used to. >>> >>> All of this stems from answering a bigger question and asking: who are >>> your members? Not a demographic, or people you hope to reach...but who are >>> the ACTUAL people that you CAN reach. Where are they, and where do they >>> already go? Do they cross neighborhoods? How do they get there? What kind >>> of work do they do? Can they work from anywhere? Do they have the power to >>> choose where they work? Do they like the way they work, or is there a >>> problem or set of problems? >>> >>> I'm a HUGE supporter of doing pop-up Coworking (aka Jelly, >>> workatjelly.com) for a while before selecting any space because it's >>> the ideal way of seeing who actually shows up, and where, and most >>> importantly WHY. Is it because they need a place to work? Or...is it >>> because they're lonely at home and cafes are awkward to be a professional. >>> >>> And you can find all of that our before ever wasting time on finding the >>> "perfect" location (which doesn't exist, that's a fantasy) and without >>> spending a dollar, unsure if you'll ever see that dollar again. >>> >>> -Alex >>> >>> ------------------ >>> *The #1 mistake in community building is doing it by yourself.* >>> Join the list: http://coworkingweekly.com >>> Listen to the podcast: http://listen.coworkingweekly.com >>> >>> >>> On Wednesday, April 1, 2015, Cassidy <[email protected]> >>> wrote: >>> >>>> What metrics do you all gauge to decide whether a location will work? >>>> Like, >>>> - at least 100,000 people in a 5 mile radius >>>> - at least 100,000 small businesses in a 5 mile radius >>>> etc. >>>> >>>> Thanks! >>>> >>>> Cassidy >>>> >>>> -- >>>> Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com >>>> --- >>>> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google >>>> Groups "Coworking" group. >>>> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send >>>> an email to [email protected]. >>>> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >>>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> >>> ------------------ >>> *The #1 mistake in community building is doing it by yourself.* >>> Join the list: http://coworkingweekly.com >>> Listen to the podcast: http://dangerouslyawesome.com/podcast >>> >>> -- >> Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com >> --- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "Coworking" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to [email protected]. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. >> > > > -- > > ------------------ > *The #1 mistake in community building is doing it by yourself.* > Join the list: http://coworkingweekly.com > Listen to the podcast: http://dangerouslyawesome.com/podcast > >
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