As August 9th approaches, we are getting ready to celebrate yet another fabulous year of coworking – both here in Seattle and across the globe. That’s right, August 9th is Coworking Day!

That's where we'll be on August 9th!

We waxed poetic about it a bit last year, and now this year we are excited to do a little bit more than just talk about what coworking means. We’re going to show Seattle what coworking IS. Teaming up with our coworkers as a part of Coworking Seattle, we’re participating in Seattle’s first-ever Coworking Day celebration. Coworkers from all over the city will converge on beautiful Gasworks Park from 3-7pm for a little bit of working and then a lot of celebrating. We’ll have WiFi provided by Clear, picnic benches to sit upon, and even a little grill provided by Ryan of Coworking Eastlake.

So come August 9, pack up your laptop (and maybe a drink and something to throw on the grill), get yourself on down to Gasworks (either on your own or at one of the coordinated pickup spots with rides from our friends at Uber), and come celebrate coworking. We hope to see you there!

Event details: http://coworkingseattle.org/Coworking_Day.html
RSVP page: http://coworkingdayseattle.eventbrite.com/

Jacob and I regularly survey our members so we can learn more about their experiences at Office Nomads and with coworking. We analyze this data to help us create a coworking space that truly works for our members, and to ensure that we have our finger on the pulse of what makes our space work. We recognize there is a lot of value in sharing this information, so today we thought we’d post some interesting tidbits we’ve learned from our experience creating Office Nomads! Here are a few points we’ve pulled from two of our surveys: a Coworking Survey completed by members who have been with us for two months or more, and an Exit Survey of members who choose to end their membership at Office Nomads. Both of these are ongoing so the data changes over time and requires regular analysis. Each survey, as of June 2011, has been filled out by approximately 45 individuals.

Why do members come to Office Nomads?
It is a common misconception that individuals seek out membership at a coworking space because they need to share resources like the internet, coffee, or a fax machine. Through our experience starting Office Nomads, we’ve learned that individuals come to a coworking space as more of a lifestyle (or perhaps “workstyle”) choice as opposed to a services choice. Here’s a chart taken from our Coworking Survey results:

We think this makes it pretty clear that independent and mobile workers today don’t need more places just to plop down their laptops and get to work. What they need is a simple platform that enables an in-person connection with others during their workdays.

Some ideas about why they stay
What brings new members to our doors is not necessarily what is going to encourage them to maintain their membership at Office Nomads. We try to get a sense of what benefits our members experience by being a part of Office Nomads.

• 2/3 of surveyed members report they have seen an increase in their productivity since joining Office Nomads.
• 81% of surveyed members think of Office Nomads as a place where they “can meet and connect with potential collaborators for work.”
• 83% of surveyed members report their “work/life balance is healthier than it was before [they] joined Office Nomads.”
• 72% of surveyed members tell us their familiarity and knowledge of the Capitol Hill neighborhood (where Office Nomads is located) has increased since becoming a member of Office Nomads.

Why do they leave?
Part of being responsible coworking space owners is figuring out not only what brings new members to our doors, but trying to understand why members walk away. Attrition rates can only tell us how many people walk out the door, so we appreciate getting candid feedback when members depart.

The exit survey has been an invaluable tool because we can keep an eye out for red flags that do require our attention. But not every member who joins finds coworking to be the solution for them.  In fact, the exit survey process gives us an opportunity to make recommendations about where people might find a better fit. I’d recommend any coworking space operator to survey the folks who end their membership.

And now a few questions: If you own/operate a coworking space, does this data jive with what you’ve learned from your members? If you’re a coworking space user, does our membership data resonate with the reasons you’ve chosen to work out of a coworking space? Let us know – we’re curious! We’re taking all we’ve learned here in Capitol Hill and are trying to apply it to creating another space – you can read more about that process on our grow page.

Tali Edut

Type of Member: Resident

Member Since: January 2011

Tali knew she should join Office Nomads because Jupiter, her ruling planet, was moving into the social house of her chart.  She had been working from home and this seemed like the perfect time to find a place where she could work around others.  Already, as a Sagittarius, she’s an extrovert and finds that she thrives on entrepreneurial energy and creative independent folks.  “My favorite coffee shop turned into a bar so it was time to get a real desk, not just a booth. Plus, I was sick of smelling like espresso at the end of each day.”

So the Seattle half of the AstroTwins and AstroStyle found her way to Office Nomads.  Tali works with her identical twin sister, Ophira, helping people style their lives by the stars.  This involves one-on-one consultations and a ton of writing. Tali serves up free daily, weekly, and monthly horoscopes on her website Astrostyle.com.  She is also the official astrologer for Elle.com, Victoria’s Secret Pink, and MyLifetime.com.  Her approach to astrology is to “bring the stars down to Earth,” and create useful, relatable, practical advice to help people navigate their lives on THIS planet.

Creating empowering women’s media has been a common thread in Tali’s writing from the very start. At age 18, she won Sassy magazine’s Reader Produced Issue contest and was flown to NYC to help create an issue of the legendary teen publication under the direct guidance of Jane Pratt. She returned to the University of Michigan later that year and created her own magazine, HUES, which was a multicultural women’s magazine that also focused on healthy body image for women.

While working on HUES, she was introduced to astrology.  “I like understanding the psychological motivations behind people; what makes them tick.  Astrology is an intriguing way to get into the subconscious aspect of our own personality and understand the deeper aspects of ourselves.”  Taking that passion and using her history in magazines, she has been able to build this “accidental career” in which she’s flourished.

We’re pretty happy to have Tali and her adorable dachshund, Wendell, at Office Nomads.  Make sure to say hi next time you are here!

Chelsea McClain

Membership Type: Part-Time 15

One of the newest Nomads, Chelsea McClain, is a true Jill of all trades. Actually, she’d probably make Jack blush with inadequacy.  That’s really the reason she’s here, too.  Jacob put out the call that we wanted somebody to help the Nomads with their own work.  Chelsea had the skills and saw it as a great way to utilize them. She has started at Office Nomads as a sort of all-purpose helper.  Bookkeeping, project management, picking up mail, and many other tasks are right up her alley.

But her skills don’t stop there.  Chelsea spends a few days a week here but fills the rest of her time with three other jobs.  On Mondays you can find her working the front desk at Dockside Co-op, a medical marijuana dispensary in Fremont.  She only has fantastic things to say about working there, especially how professionally run it is.

A serious passion of Chelsea’s is burlesque which she produces and performs here in Seattle.  Right now she’s preparing for the Burlesque Hall of Fame Competition in Las Vegas June 2^nd – 5^th. It’s a sort of a “burlesque Olympics” into which she was accepted with an act that fuses burlesque and contortion.  She spent her younger years as a dancer, primarily in African and ballet, but was inspired after seeing a burlesque show and has focused on that for the last three years.

When she gets home, work is not completely over.  Chelsea also has a small business for special occasion desserts. She flies under the flag of Radical Cakes and fights to liberate us from the belief that cake from a box is good enough. For years she has been making cakes, cupcakes, and pies for weddings, birthdays and other occasions.  Maybe we can convince her to use the Nomads as cake testers…

So look out for Chelsea.  She’s the one with the bright red hair, often seen strolling into the office wearing a helmet that looks like a watermelon.  She’s eager to help out Nomads in need. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 10-3 she’ll be here. You can also contact her at Chelsea@officenomads.com.

We really can’t love our Nomads anymore than we already do.  They always have fantastic projects brewing and are pretty inspiring folks.  We previously posted about some how awesome they are and here are a few more great examples.

• Andy Hieb says that his company DTEK is always doing cool things. Of late, they built the new site for the World Affairs Council.  The site looks fantastic and the DTEK team is calling it their favorite. It’s loaded with great features and will be a great tool for The World Affairs Council to use to connect to the community.

• Mike Kollins is the Chief Operating Officer for World Bicycle Relief.  He has just relocated from Kenya to Seattle and is one of our newest Resident members.  I’ll let Mike tell us about the great mission of WBR. “We are a large non-profit social enterprise.   We have distributed over 75,000 bicycles in the last 6 years and trained over 700 bicycle mechanics.  Instead of using recycled bicycles (which tend to break down given terrain and loads, and have no spare parts in rural Africa), we have designed a bicycle specifically for the markets we are active in.  We have three assembly factories in Africa (Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia) currently with over 60 local employees.   We produce between 1,000 and 3,000 bicycles per month.  Our current project is focussed on improving academic performance and attendance of girl students in rural Zambia, where drop-out rates, especially amongst girls, are extraordinary high.  One of the primary reason for dropping out is transport due to safety and time issues.   Given the importance of having educated girls in society, we are using bicycles to help out.  We will distribute 50,000 to 500 schools over the five year period of the program. We have already distributed about 10,000 bicycles to date in this program.” Check out this Youtube video to get a better idea of what WBR does:  http://www.youtube.com/user/WorldBicycleRelief#p/a/u/1/sVdb5bl5z2s

• Something people at Office Nomads seem to always be discussing are TED events.  TED is all about “ideas worth spreading” and has an eye on changing the world.  Greg Bamford is excited to curate a TEDxOverlake event entitled “How People Learn: At Work, At Play, At School”.  This will take place June 18th at the Overlake School. Under TED rules, they are limited to 100 attendees but the event will be streamed online.  For more information and the latest news on speakers and their Facebook and Twitter accounts.

Well, now you’re smitten with our Nomads, too, aren’t you?  We completely understand.

Imagine you are in the middle of a large project which you need to have emailed to a client in 30 minutes.  You’ve been up all night and have had 13 cups of coffee in an equal number of hours.  Suddenly you really have to go to the bathroom.  That’s fine, you can spare two minutes.  You get up, head to the bathrooms but (curses!) they are both in use! Now you have to wait, and wait, and watch those minutes till deadline tick away.

Well, this might not be your life.  But here at ON we have two bathrooms and a lot of busy folks.  One particular Nomad was tired of hearing folks complain about waiting for the bathroom and he decided to do something about it.  Wouldn’t it be great if there was some way he and everyone else could know when a bathroom was open?

Andrew had a brilliant idea and made signs that light up when both bathrooms are in use.  The signs are situated so that every desk in the space can see.  No more standing around waiting.  Before you even get up, you know if there’s a bathroom free.  Yeah, we agree that this was genius.

Probably the best part about this was that it was completely Nomad initiated and completed.  It’s not hard to see why we love our Nomads, is it?  Thanks Andrew for your great ingenuity!

Andy Hieb

Type of Member: Resident

Member Since: August 2010

In the summer of 2010, Andy Hieb came into Office Nomads for a tour but was already exclaiming that he was ready to be a Resident. He just had to first move to Seattle from Brooklyn.

We often get folks who come in and are super excited and then are never heard from again.  Andy was not one of those people. Sure enough, August 1st he was moving his computer and photos to his desk of choice.  I’m not sure if who was more excited, him or us.  He jumped right into things here at ON, happily joining member lunches and attending the range of workshops we have in the space, from patent law to bicycle commuting.

Office Nomads is Andy’s space to work as a web developer with his company, Dtek.  He runs a boutique web development shop that builds WordPress and Drupal web sites for non-profits, commercial firms, and entrepreneurs.

Andy has just moved back to Seattle and is loving seeing the city with fresh eyes and seeing how it has changed over the years.  Visiting the new Elliott Bay Books, discovering new films with SIFF and trying to find the closest thing to New York pizza are favorite activities.  Soccer, though, seems to top the list as his son, Jonah, plays on a team, Andy also plays, and the Sounders have already won them over as fans.

We’re pretty happy that Andy found us and are fairly certain that the feeling is mutual.  Next time you’re in, you should make sure to say hi.

Susan and Jacob went to the Coworking Unconference in Austin recently and left Office Nomads in the questionably capable hand of Alexandra and Charlie for three days.  In the past they have both often said that it would be great to prank a Resident who leaves for a couple days on vacation.  Well, with Jacob and Susan both out, Charlie and Alexandra took it upon themselves to get pranking.

Susan came home to find her entire desk and all her unattended belongings wrapped in wrapping paper.  No pencil was forgotten and even her sweater and slippers were lovingly wrapped.

Jacob returned to find his desk enclosed in a box.  It took a lot of tape and cardboard boxes but we were able to make him a nice little cubicle.

It was great fun having everyone in the office in on the prank, giving helpful hints on better construction or wrapping. Nobody leaking it out to the interwebs before Susan and Jacob returned and both had great reactions.  Now Alexandra and Charlie need to watch out if they ever leave ON for too many days…

We have a quiet week happening here at Office Nomads with just the usual yoga and Happy Hour on which to keep tabs.  Hopefully we’ll see you this week!