Thanks for putting this together, Alex. Sounds like a great idea for an event.
A potential speaker (the author of the below NY Times article)? *But also just a nice article about ways of productive collaboration and the future of work:* What Hollywood Can Teach Us About the Future of Work <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/10/magazine/what-hollywood-can-teach-us-about-the-future-of-work.html> I loosely know the author, so happy to make an introduction if you think he'd be a great speaker for the conference. Best, Will On Wednesday, February 10, 2016 at 3:38:51 PM UTC+1, Alex Hillman wrote: > > What's up gang. > > For those of you I haven't met yet - my name is Alex. :) I've been a part > of this group since mid-2006. I started a coworking community in > Philadelphia in 2006. > > *Like many of you, I live and breathe coworking and business in general.* > I absolutely LOVE this shit. It's hard to not talk about all day long, with > anyone who will listen, right? I think that's a big part of why we love our > conferences so much (and more on that a little bit later in this email) and > why this email list is so amazing. > > But for the people I'm closest to...well sometimes I get the sense they're > sick of hearing about coworking. *You know what I mean?* > > One of the ways I've been working through this is by finding and focusing > on other things that I can immerse myself in, and one of the other things I > love is the food and wine.So I'm taking some classes to up my game in the > world of wine. > > I've been learning a lot about how wine is made, but also the wine > business, and during this weekend's class I added a few non-wine things to > my notebook because...you guessed it, I found some correlation to > coworking. Whoops. > > One of those notes was about the idea of "Collective Action > <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_action>." > > Essentially, the wine industry looks a lot like coworking at its best in > that individual wineries aren't in competition with each other, even when > they're directly next to each other on the shelf. *The most successful > wineries know they're in competition with beer and liquor. *So to > succeed, many wineries often band together to bolster regions, and > *styles*, of wine. Sound familiar? :) > > But Collective Action cuts two ways - in the best examples a region bands > together to deliver the *best possible product* and build an amazing > collective reputation. The example in wine class was New Zealand Sauvignon > Blanc, which in the US is on *basically* every restaurant wine list > thanks to their collective action. > > But there was an alter-example that struck me. When the South African wine > industry was trying to "bounce back" in the US market post-apartheid, their > collective action was more focused on courting wine importers with insanely > low costs...but most of the wine they shipped out was extremely low > quality. As you might imagine, this created a backlash. > > *"South African wine is overrated - this stuff is terrible."* Creating an > entire generation of potential wine buyers who would buy almost anything > else before they bought a South African wine. > > Now, wine and coworking are different kinds and scales of market. B2C is > much more fickle than B2B. Wine has generations of tradition and expertise > behind it - we're about to cross our first decade as a community of > practitioners and most of our community is less than 2 years into the game. > > *But I'm thinking about what we can do now and how I can do what I've > always done...just more of it, and with more people. * > > We're pretty good at welcoming new people to show them what we've learned > so far, but since we don't have generations of coworking to learn from, I'm > thinking about how we can bring more voices from outside of the coworking > "industry" to shed light on the things we really need to understand. > > *So for the last couple of months I've been reaching out to friends and > colleagues around the world to help put together a new kind of event. * > > Instead of only hearing about coworking spaces (we already have > conferences doing a great job of that), I want to hear about other kinds of > businesses and organizations and industries that we can learn from. I want > to hear from *members* of coworking spaces, and have them share the > spotlight with us for a change. > > *I want to create an an opportunity for us to really mature as an > industry, by looking to learn outside of our own excitement.* Because > let's be honest...that excitement isn't going away. > > *We're a truly international community.* > > Coworking has led me to visit 6 out of 7 continents on this planet. For > that, I'm beyond thankful to anyone who has extended an invite or > coordinated a workshop with me. > > And I love going to coworking conferences. If it weren't for this > community, I wouldn't be going to Bali in 2 weeks for the Coworking > Unconference Asia. I wouldn't have been able to meet so many of you. > Coworking means I can step off an airplane in almost any city on the planet > and find people I might want to spend time with, just by typing "coworking > cityname" into Google. > > Meanwhile, a lot of people can't travel. For lots of reasons: costs of > time and money, international visa restrictions and complications, > personal/professional schedules... > > *I know a lot of those people are on this list alone. And even more of > them write me every day. I want to create something that they can > participate in. * > > *So we're trying out something new – an ONLINE conference about Work and > Collaboration – on April 21st. * > > *And we're calling it the People At Work Summit > <http://peopleatworksummit.com>.* > > We started by going back to basics and thinking about what the best (and > worst) elements of an in-person conference are, and how we could create > them online. Flip the script entirely. > > We didn't want to strap a collection of webinars together and call it a > "conference," because watching a live stream of an in-person event feels > like an afterthought at best, or totally awkward and isolating at worst. > And most of all *we know that the best part of a conference is > interacting with other attendees*, learning from each other. > > And since this is a truly global thing, *we're doing it around the clock*. > *24 hours in a row. Starting at noon Eastern on the 21st.* We're > programming every time zone with amazing people to learn from, plus > "hallway time" and "happy hour." I've personally never seen an event quite > like this - and until recently, I don't think technology was good enough to > make it worth trying. > > With that said, an online event is NOT a replacement for in-person > conferences. That's not the goal here at all. If we do this right, People > At Work will help more people get to the point where attending an in-person > conference is within reach. > > *Which is also why this event has access as a priority.* > > Even once you take travel costs out of the equation, money is tricky > thing. Our economy is global, but it's not always equitable. > > One of the biggest lessons I've learned from giving away SO much of what > I've learned is that it can make a difference in places that I never > imagined. Seeing my work help complete strangers in remote places is > basically my ultimate drug. > > So in addition to removing the travel costs from the equation, we're also > offering scholarships. *For every 10 attendees who sign up, we're giving > one away seat for free to a scholarship applicant. *I've already gotten > emails from people in small towns in India and Africa (and here in the US, > too) who are PUMPED to finally have something they can participate in. > > *Obviously, there's not much event without you.* > > I'll be the first to admit that this is an experiment. We're still working > on the schedule (which means we're looking for speaker nominations > <http://peopleatwork.com/nominate>, especially outside of North America). > We're working with all of our confirmed speakers to make sure that every > minute of their time sharing is actionable. You can also meet some of those > speakers in episodes 16, 17, and 18 of our podcast > <http://listen.coworkingweekly.com>. > > *But without this community, it doesn't matter who we get to speak. * > > *Later this week we're going to release the first batch of tickets.* "Early > adopters" are going to help us shape this conference in a big way, > especially over the next month. > > So add yourself to our announcement list > <http://peopleatworksummit.com/#page-join-our-mailing-list> if you want > to grab one of the early adopter seats. :) > > And if I think about "Collective Action" in terms of our community and our > industry, we're already at the inflection point that people have been > saying is *coming* *soon*. More people are looking for coworking - and > what they can learn from it about the future of work - than ever before. > > *What is going to happen to coworking in 2016 and beyond?* > > Nobody knows, because we haven't created it yet. Let's do it together on > April 21st. > > -Alex > > ------------------ > *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.
