> > We have recently opened and have been doing some events to get a bit of > exposure. Now that we have more fixed desk members it is becoming a > little tricky. However we do have the benefit of being a fully open plan > office. So we can move desks and book shelves to made computers etc > relatively safe and out of the the way. However I believe that there > will come a point when we can no longer host large events.
I've learned something fairly counterintuitive about events & coworking: it's weird but while smaller events may have less individuals attend but if it's the right kind of event, smaller events are often MUCH better for membership building (and supporting your existing community). Large events can be good for creating noise/buzz, but they tend to convert *very* poorly to membership (I've heard this over and over and over in basically every market). Smaller, more intimate events (lunch and learns, show & tells, roundtable discussions, etc) are much better for building bonds that make people see the value beyond the space...and as a result often convert much better. There are some people who do events really, really well. Many of them will tell you that they essentially run it an entirely separate business. Increasingly I'm hearing from people who are deciding to decouple their coworking businesses from their events businesses because events are so disruptive to members who want to work. I am also getting requests for a better price for taking multiple fixed > desks. This is super common, but we don't do it and I generally recommend against it. If all you were doing was renting desks you can theoretically get "economies of scale" and having one person come in wanting to pay a larger $$ can be attractive, but the flip side of that is... a) there's more liability (if they leave they all leave at once, and you have to work a lot harder to replace that revenue) but also b) it's actually *more work* to help people on teams connect with people outside of their teams. I often joke with the handful of teams we have as members...really, we should be charging them MORE per head (and truthfully, we might at some point). It's not that teams are bad - it's that their needs are fundamentally different from individuals. Kudos to you for seeing that so early on :) And some teams are much better at this than others, so we do quite a bit of work early in the relationship to get a sense of why they want to be here. Our most consistent successes with teams are when they actually grow from within the community (start as 1-2 people, then add people over time and even hire from within the community) vs the people who come in a 3+ people. I talk a bit more about why that dynamic is different (and what we do about it) in this interview from CUAsia back in Feb <https://mltrk.io/link/https%3A%2F%2Fdangerouslyawesome.com%2F2018%2F03%2Fcu-asia-2018-scaling-community-burnout-and-leading-from-within%2F/Ij4rT1Dqvbov4mA9KUfb> . -Alex ------------------ *The #1 mistake in community building is doing it by yourself.* Better Coworkers: http://indyhall.org Weekly Coworking Tips: http://coworkingweekly.com My Audiobook: https://theindyhallway.com/ten On Wed, Mar 28, 2018 at 10:25 AM, Max Humphreys <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi Julie, > > We have recently opened and have been doing some events to get a bit of > exposure. Now that we have more fixed desk members it is becoming a > little tricky. However we do have the benefit of being a fully open plan > office. So we can move desks and book shelves to made computers etc > relatively safe and out of the the way. However I believe that there > will come a point when we can no longer host large events. > > How long have you been open? I would be interested to know how fixed you > were with your price plans in the initial stages. I have made a few custom > packages but now I am more reluctant to do so. I am also getting requests > for a better price for taking multiple fixed desks. I believe the demand > is here so I am doing my best to keep to my fixed desk rate and hold out > for members more willing to pay the going rate. We are nearly breaking > even as we have not staff to pay, so their isn't too much pressure and I am > also keen to build a diverse community of members rather than have a space > full of teams. (our space can seat around 30 members at desks + more on at > break out areas if required) Always good to hear another point of view. > > On Friday, March 16, 2018 at 2:40:10 PM UTC, Julia Ferguson wrote: >> >> Anyone out there also use their coworking space for events and, if so, >> are there dedicated desks with equipment on them in that space? Do you >> attempt to secure the equipment on the dedicated desks in some way? >> >> Julia Ferguson >> Cowork Frederick >> > -- > 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. > -- 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.
