Coworking: A Generational Thing?

I recently read a post about coworking being a generational thing for the millenials.  True, maybe?  But for those of you hanging out in the coworking places, is everyone a millenial?  Not even close.  The founders of most of these coworking sites are smart entrepreneurs who are beyond the millenial age, at least chronologically.  Just look at the photos from events at places such as IndyHall and Citizen Space and you notice that coworkers have embraced a common philosophy regardless of birth age.  At Cubes&Crayons, we have coworkers, coworkers with young kids, and coworkers whose kids have long out grown our space.

What occurred to me is that coworking is generational if you change your definition.  Coworking is about this “generation” of people altering the perception of “professional,” “work environment,” “colleague,” etc.  It is about hip people writing their own ticket for work.   Coworkers are skilled individuals who are prepared to be part of the global community.  They are interested in programs that are developing like PACTFund, where they can exchange their skills with other people’s skills.

And businesses need to be aware of and adapt to this changing workforce. I have been researching this avenue quite a bit and as much as “coworking” is hip and trendy, it is smart and necessary in our changing economy.  When software engineers end up doing business with colleagues halfway across the world, what’s to motivate them to come into a traditional office?  Isn’t it more interesting for them to be in a coworking space where they can meet people in all walks of life?  Businesses will be getting educated if they want to survive and stay competitive.  It is just a matter of time before this “generation” of coworkers changes the way businesses do business.

Coworking with a twist

Cubes&Crayons, my brain child, launched a little over a month ago and is essentially co-working with a twist. We offer a fantastic co-working environment – lots of different offices and places to work, a lounge, kitchen, library and conference room, flexibility in rates. We also have childcare on site and down the hall for those who need a place for the little ones while they work. You drop off your kid, walk 5 seconds to an office and are blissfully at work. And if you don’t have kids, no worries. You never have to see them if that isn’t your thing. The children don’t disrupt the work, co-workers get all the great benefits of co-working whether they are parents are not. It has been absolutely amazing to see people enjoying this vision. I have met great people online and in person and am loving the adventure of it all.

Our campus is in downtown Menlo Park, near Stanford University, which is great for work and to grab food or do a little shopping. We don’t have as many just straight co-workers i.e. sans little ones as I would like, but that takes time. I am still working on reaching that community in the Silicon Valley. I know they can’t possibly all be sitting up in SF. Where are all you rails software engineers and web 2.0 people? Come network…can’t wait to promote the business you create while hanging out at Cubes&Crayons. Comments always appreciated on this…

So, this is the first of what looks to be a long and heartfelt blog. My six month old daughter is snoring on my lap as I write this and I wonder what she will think of all this as she grows up. Will co-working be the norm and not the exception by the time she and her 2 1/2 year old sister are in the work world. I hope so. Only way to work in my opinion. Keep you posted on all…

la cantine, coworking paris is now open

the coworking areaas my round the world tour of coworking places is now drawing to a close, i had a great opportunity to follow up on the status of la cantine, the parisian version of coworking. the place is a true hybrid between conference/meeting space, offices, hot desking and café. if you get a chance check out my summer interview of christophe, photos of the space or the long winded day i spent in paris interviewing like mined brothers and sisters.

They’re Working on Their Own, Just Side by Side

They’re Working on Their Own, Just Side by Side

Yesterday, an article about coworking was published in printed version of The New York Times (written by Dan Fost).

Coworking sites are up and running from Argentina to Australia and many places in between, although a wiki site on coworking shows that most are in the United States. While some have grown-up-sounding names, most seem connected somewhere between the communalism of the 1960s and the whimsy of the dot-com days of the ’90s, like the Hive Cooperative in Denver, Office Nomads in Seattle, Nutopia Workspace in Lower Manhattan and Independents Hall in Philadelphia.

Click here to read the full article.

Umbrella Offices in South Brooklyn, it’s kinda like coworking

without using the word “coworking,” umbrella office‘s founder David Krieger states his goal is “to bring people together, host meaningful seminars, speakers, dinner parties and put some art on the walls.”

if you click on the Christopher Batchelder‘s profile you’ll see his goal to be “to create an innovative office-share that fosters committed, diligent and excellent work. It’s hard to stay at the top of your game as a small office and/or freelancer. We want the intensity of the communal environment to help take people to the next level!”

now doesn’t that sound familiar?

so if you’re in the south brooklyn / gowanus area, shoot either one of these two guys an email and see if they start interjecting our most favorite hyphenated/non-hypenated word.

Cowork Central is now Open

Cowork Central Logo

Now it’s official. I’m really proud to announce that the first and only latin-american coworking space is now open. We also launched our brand new website with photos’n stuff.

Thanks for the support and friendly advice to the guys at the coworking group and everyone who supported the project so far.

So if you travel to Buenos Aires, don’t forget to visit us 🙂

Fernando Maclen
Cowork Central | Buenos Aires , Argentina.

CooBric – New York Coworking finds another home!

Gramstand logoIn the past three months, we have seen a lot of great changes in the coworking community here in New York City – and CooBric is along for the ride. We have been fortunate to find another cafe-based home at Gramstand – where the tea is unique and the space is gorgeous.

With free wifi, a basement space that is nicely furnished with a conference table and lots of space for meetings and personal work space. You can learn all about the space on our blog – where Tony has put up a post with directions and other adjectives.

Come support coworking in New York by visiting Gramstand.

And, while cafe-surfing a great, the CooBric Comm team is working to find a permanent physical space for our team in the future – but we can use your help. Come and join our effort by signing up for the CooBric google group and send an email to one of the CooBric Comm team members with any leads. We thank you for your help!

Coworking in Argentina

CoWork CentralIt’s been an amazing month since I started calling myself a “Space Catalyst”.
I’m proud to announce the creation of a coworking space in Argentina, right in Buenos Aires city.

I’ve been very happy about the response in my local community. With all the freelancers I talked to, they are all telling me that they’ll love a coworking space in the area and they cannot wait until it’s open. Many of those are designers and programmers.

With these positive comments I started working on a brand, registering domains, doing some real state research and since yesterday I started an online survey for all those argentine freelancers (following the steps of Tara’s survey and the business plan from CubeSpace that was really helpful), with the help of some freelance friends that are helping me in areas involving: press, marketing, design advice, and diffusion mainly.

Although the survey is 100% Spanish, if you’ll like to take a look just point your browser to: http://www.cotrabajo.com.ar

So far, the survey is getting very positive results. The data collected will let us know several issues about the local freelance market, not only coworking-related stuff.

Also, we thought it would be a very positive thing to give something in return for the time spent in answering the questions. First, the participants can enter into a small contest to win several t-shirts with a design customized by each one of them, and second, to all those blogs that are linking to the survey’s homepage, we’re going to add all the links pointing back to them in order to send some traffic back.

I’ll keep up on the results of the survey and with the progress of the space, that I’m keen it will be the first of many in Latin America.

21 Sept. an invite to brooklyn coworking’s metamorphosed location

dear fellow NYC freelancer,

it’s been a while since we shared the wifi-hotspot-double-mocha-frappa-whatchamacallit, exchanged tips on client management, conference hangovers and discussed the virtues of Kurt Weill and Yochai Benkler’s Wealth of Networks. i’m sorry i haven’t been back to that coffee shop.

i have to let you in on secret. well, it isn’t really a secret, but one of those NYC underutilized facilities… last summer, beka and i banded together to create Brooklyn Coworking at Not An Alternative (NAA). we broke free from hourly coffee purchases and created a space for new york’s alternative working community – a cafe-like community and collaboration space for programmers, net-artists, online organizers and independents.

about a month ago, brooklyn coworking undertook a metamorphosis, tore down some walls and is no longer limited to a cozy café environment. if you attended Glowlab‘s Conflux, you’ve seen the spaciousness!

are you tired of complaining to your cat about broken code or a bad client?

wondering what is the next wave of social software?

looking for an invigorating environment to call an “office?”

if you are in NYC on friday, 21 september, join my best friends for williamsburg’s coworking open house and happy hour! i promise you an absolute delight!

you’ll find all the deets on Not An Alternative’s Blog.

XOXO from india,

noel hidalgo

photo courtesy of the NAA’s blog post…