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, a new coworking space in Paris!

cantinephoto.jpg

We are happy to announce to you that La Cantine by Silicon Sentier is opened since 30 january 2008.

This is a networked collaborative workspace which facilitates conception and emergence of initiatives, new uses, products and services by accelerating ideas, creation and networked & open innovation.

Additionally, La Cantine is openned up to international networks (co-working, art-oriented platforms, alternative venues, competitive clusters, specialized research labs, colleges and universities).

Both a place of exchange and a technological showcase, La Cantine is open to professionals, tech enthusiasts and everyday users. Its 200 square meters dedicated to ascending innovation welcome all contributors to digital life.

3 fully-configurable, connected spaces, equipped with high-speed broadband:

– a Café space dedicated to meetups, information, exhibitions and project testing

– a collaborative space dedicated to project development

– a brainstorming and meeting space

At La Cantine you can

Think: meet at the Café any time of the day to exchange and get informed

Work: rent a collaborative workspace for short periods at affordable rates

Test: test products and services in development to get feedback from La Cantine’s community of users and creators.

Discuss: organize or take part in discussions and make your point at various innovative events involving a wide audience

This new collaborative space in Paris is open to all co-worker in the world.

Silicon Sentier, the Paris-based digital start-ups association, initiated the project.

Partners of La Cantine : the Ile-de-France region, Orange, the Fondation Internet Nouvelle Génération and the Cap Digital competitive cluster.

La Cantine is located in a covered passage between La Bourse and the Grands Boulevards.

151, rue Montmartre, 75002 Paris

12, Galerie Montmartre, Passage des Panoramas

Tel : +33 1 40 13 64 40

Photos, program and information on:

www.lacantine.org

To stay informed about La Cantine

[email protected]

Press contact

[email protected]

To submit an event

[email protected]

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.

SXSW MeetUp Reminder

Hey Y’all,This is a reminder that LaunchPad Coworking is hosting a MeetUp during SXSWi in March. It’s getting close. We’ve had a lot of RSVPs. Would love to see you there. Also, I’ll be interviewing people so I can post those interviews at our website, www.launchpadcoworking.com. So if you’re interested, please do come by and say hi and chat with me for a bit. Here are meetup details– feel free to email me with any questions: 

Coworking Meetup on March 7 at the fabulous Hotel San Jose in South Austin.

The party starts at 7 p.m. 

If you haven’t RSVPed yet, check us out at [LINK: http://freelance.meetup.com/65/]

Details:

Friday, Mar 7, 2008, 7:00 PM

Hotel San Jose

1316 S. Congress Austin

Austin, TX 78704

512.444.7322

 

LaunchPad Coworking in Austin Signs a Lease

Y’all– after looking at a number of options, we found the perfect place and signed a lease. LaunchPad Coworking opens this summer. Meanwhile, we were more than a little happy to release the following announcement:

Julie Gomoll
LaunchPad Coworking

[email protected]
press kit: http://launchpadcoworking.com/press

Released: AUSTIN, TEXAS, February 11, 2008

You’ve been asking — Is LaunchPad Coworking real? Where is it located? How can I find it? When can I start coworking in Austin already?

We are more than a little happy to announce that after months of searching and planning, we have inked a lease, and it’s in the perfect location.

Ladies and gentlemen, telecommuters and mobile workers, creatives and visionaries of all disciplines … Welcome to LaunchPad Coworking. One small step for knowledge workers, one giant leap for coworking in Austin.

LaunchPad Coworking will open this summer in Brazos Place, a fabulous multiuse building at 800 Brazos Street. More specifically: 30.27 longitude, –97.74 latitude. Put that in your geodata pipe and smoke it.

Why are we so happy with these digs?

• We’re in the heart of downtown Austin.
• We have 4200 square feet of space to play with. Plus a spacious mixed-use lobby.
• Murray Legge of LZT Architects is designing the space.
• We have great neighbors: Baby Greens and Anthony Nak.
• We’re right across from a UPS store.
• The Omni is within spitting distance.
• The Paramount Theater is around the corner.
• There’s tons of public parking, metered parking, and Brazos Place has valet parking.
• And of course: bike racks.
• We’re bringing fiber-optic connectivity right to the desk! Talk about fast and secure.

We hope our new lease will become your new lease on a non-isolating work life. Can’t wait to work with you.

About LaunchPad Coworking

LaunchPad Coworking is a unique combination of workspace and cafe where mobile workers work together, collaboratively or privately, with meeting rooms and individual desks available by the hour, ergonomic chairs, ample power outlets, and secure fiberoptic internet access. The coworking model encourages the free flow of projects and ideas, with the belief that when we work together, we work smarter.

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Coworking at the PSFK Conference in New York

I’ll be talking about our experience with co-working at NASA at PSFK‘s great New York conference in March, and will be joined on stage by Etsy Labs to contrast our experiences. I’d love input from anyone else with experience using co-working in government or other large enterprise contexts as I prepare my talk.

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.

SXSW and crying babies

Hi Again from Austin,
So excited that coworking will be repped at SXSW. I’ve been attending and participating in the festival since 1993ish and have paneled a few times, including the first year they offered an interactive component. For those of you attending, please do give us all a shout when you’re getting ready to come down. I might even be able to help with housing which is a scarcity when five billion people descend upon this city in March.

My latest post at is regarding setting policy prior to opening to try to make the place what we’d like it to be from the get-go. Specifically, we’re addressing the issue of a no-baby-policy, not to be exclusive in a mean-spirited way, but to keep the sound level appropriate for coworkers. Please take a minute to post your thoughts on the subject when you get a chance.
thanks,
Spike
www.launchpadcoworking.com