Thanks Will! So far I've been very happy with the response and even though we only soft-launched ticket sales at the end of the week a bunch of them sold - and many to people whose names I don't recognize which has me PUMPED!
And I would love an intro to that author - thank you so much. :) -Alex On Monday, February 15, 2016, Will Bennis, Locus Workspace < [email protected]> wrote: > 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] > <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','coworking%[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.
