Robyn Welch

Website: http://www.burgis.com/

Member Since: August 2008

Type of Member: Resident

When Robyn moved to Seattle a year and a half ago, she was trying to get a handle on the whole telecommuting thing.  She had moved from New York where she had worked for four years as an urban planner with Burgis Associates.  She had thought that the move across the country would be an end to that but Burgis loved her so much that they wanted her to try telecommuting for the New Jersey-based business.  As luck would have it, she saw a sign pointing her towards Office Nomads and has not left us since.

As an urban planner, Robyn works with private firms and municipalities that are too small to have their own department for planning.  “Basically, we write master plans and development ordinances to implement the plans.”  Projects include affordable housing, open spaces, historic preservation plans, and much more.  Her projects have been known to keep her here until 11:30 PM, which is what prompted her to become a resident here at Office Nomads.

Robyn is a great, positive addition in the space.  When not working, she is usually laughing with one of the other folks sitting near her. “I was so isolated when I never left the house.  I come here and everyone is great.  I’ve made great friends.  Office Nomads has given me a good social network,” she says with a smile.  It also gives her the opportunity to live vicariously through the pet owners in the space.  With Cortez the Killer across the way and fellow nomadic pooches Chuey and Sadie taking turns sitting to her left, Robyn gets a regular quota of quality dog time. Whether it’s the people or the dogs keeping her here, Office Nomads is incredibly lucky to have Robyn on board – not only does her laughter light up the space, but her welcoming attitude has made others feel at home here on their first days as Nomads.

Justin Bell

Website: http://www.new-edge.com/

Member Since: January 2009

Type of Member: Resident

Justin has a fantastic business card.  It opens up and has a great, clean design to it.  The one thing, though, is that there is no title with his name.  “There are no titles for a reason,” he says, “My job title depends on what day it is.”

Justin works for New Edge + The Brewery in marketing strategy.  Some days he is a strategist or a project manager, other days maybe a client director.  Justin’s work has him working with mostly Fortune 500 companies who are seeking some help.  “They come to us and say, ‘We know innovation needs to be a focus but we don’t know where to focus our innovation strategy’ or ‘We have this technology or opportunity and we need to find a market for it.’”

Justin had a big suite in Bellevue where there were multiple conference rooms and offices, just no other people there but himself. When New Edge + The Brewery realized they no longer needed a suite for their one-man Seattle operation, Justin was left looking for an office space where he could complete his projects when a friend pointed him in the direction of Office Nomads.  Now he loves it.  “A stuffy office with no interaction is very one-dimensional,” he said.  “The physical space here gives me figurative freedom.”

He is a constant fixture in Office Nomads as the Seattle office of New Edge + The Brewery, adding to the Richland, WA-based business which also has a London office.  When he leaves us in the evening, he goes home to relish in the life as a new dad. His ride back to ON in the mornings is a pretty awesome Discovery Channel Team Trek.  He is probably the most active Nomad with multiple triathlons and two Ironmen under his belt.  We all mention 5Ks we are thinking of doing, while he has his sights set on a Half Ironman in the spring.  Go Justin!

Paul Pham

Website: http://pulse-programmer.org/

Member Since: June 2009

Type of Member: Resident

Paul Pham is an inventor.  How cool is that?  He might just say that he is an electronics designer but then he will explain his job and it’s clear that he is an inventor, like we all dreamed we wanted to be at some point.  Paul designs electronics for scientific instrumentation, like physics experimentation.  This is something that grew out of his graduate school work and has taken off to be his full-time job.  At his desk in the Green Room here at Office Nomads he adjusts his designs per requests of clients from as far off as Germany.

Paul is a huge fan of shared spaces like Office Nomads.  He had been working in his apartment and in coffee shops but he found that isolating and discouraging.  Now he has his hand in two shared spaces, here at Office Nomads and at a workshop space in SoDo.  In the workshop is where he solders together his pulse programmers.  We get him most of the time, luckily, when he has put down the soldering gun and is tapping at his keyboard. “I left Amazon to work here full time.  It has helped me focus on this project, which I’ve been working on for a while.  I thought I should get serious about it and now it can be my main focus and this space lets me concentrate on it.”

Paul is a constant and positive presence in the space.  Whenever there’s a Brown Bag Lunch or any events with the Nomads gathering, he is sure to be found.  He wows us with his brightly colored hair and willingness to help out.  If he’s not at his desk, he can be found mingling around.  “I enjoy going around and seeing what other people are working on.  We’ll have game nights sometimes.  Last week three of us went out and saw a movie during the day.  If you can’t watch a movie in the middle of the day, why be your own boss?”  Excellent question.

Nancy Ward

Website: http://www.worldjusticeproject.org

Member Since: June 2009

Type of Member: Basic

Nancy says she’s not a superhero, but listening to the mission of her work one might be able to argue that she just about is.  No, she doesn’t put on tights and fight crime or run into burning buildings to save people. Instead her subtle hero work involves getting people from 90 different countries together who work every day to strengthen the rule of law. These are people who work “to make societies safe, lift people from poverty and build economic prosperity, reduce corruption, improve public health and enhance education”.  Any person who makes that collaboration possible is a hero.

Nancy is the Event Manager for the World Justice Forum, which is part of the World Justice Project.  The forum will be in Vienna this November and Nancy is behind inviting all the participants, agenda development, logistical arrangements, and program materials.   At the World Justice Forum the participants will work to create new projects to strengthen the rule of law globally.  Nancy is “facilitating their ability to impact change.”

“[The World Justice Forum] is like Office Nomads.  ON creates a space for people to come in and do their best work.  It creates a community that can learn from each other and encourage each other.  I see ON as a community like I see the World Justice Project as a community.  They are getting people from different backgrounds and fields together to effect change.”

Nancy signed up as a Basic member in June 2009 and we saw her once a week but she has become a more frequent presence as the World Justice Forum nears. “As an event planner, I ramp up to an intensity as I near my event date,” she says. “Having an office as flexible as my schedule is helpful.  It doesn’t make sense for me to have a permanent office because I don’t know how my contracts will go.  This works with my contracts.”

When asked why she loves Office Nomads, she has much to say.  “It’s near Molly Moon’s.  It’s easy to get here by bike or bus. I love that they play KEXP all day.  I love the music.  I also like the tea varieties.” Oh, and she finds it to be a great place to get work done, too.

Suzi Tucker

Website: http://biznik.com/members/suzi-tucker

Member Since: July 2008

Type of Member: Resident

Suzi started coming to Office Nomads after three months of trying the ‘home office’ thing in her one bedroom condo.  She would try and work from her living room then go to Victrola (local coffee shop) then home then to Remedy Teas (local tea shop).  Each place could only keep her focused for two hours before she needed something different.  She found Office Nomads and, with it, a place to hold onto her sanity.  “I came here one day over a year ago and never left.  That day when I left Office Nomads I walked by Victrola and knew I was done with that” (for work, I’m betting she’ll still head there for the delicious coffee).

At Office Nomads Suzi has been able to stay focused on her work and complete major projects. She is an independent contractor working for a client that is a multinational, multi-institutional research organization creating an online interactive learning experience. “I bring to bear my unique combination of experiences in education, the physical sciences, and design to create engaging experiences that educate and inspire visitors. I handle concept, development, and design for both physical and online exhibits.”   Her work has led her to learn more about such topics as Alzheimer’s, global warming, neurology and more while creating educational exhibits.   Check out her latest project at http://www.emergentuniverse.org when it goes live on October 1st.

Closing her apartment door behind her in the morning and coming to work at Office Nomads has helped Suzi feel like a real person.   “My job didn’t feel real when I wasn’t leaving my house to work…Now I can set these very clean boundaries for my work.  When I’m here I work.  When I’m home, I don’t. “

Suzi is a great, positive individual in the Office Nomads space.  She loves coming to many of the evening events.  These events prove to be great opportunities to connect with the other folks working around her.

“I rave about this place all the time.  Office Nomads is $475 a month.  Therapy is so much more expensive.  This is the better deal.”

Look for Suzi at Office Nomads Turns Two and chat her up about her awesome experience here at Office Nomads.

It isn’t every day that a Nomad writes a book!  We are so excited to celebrate the official book launch of one of our members, Matthew Amster-Burton: Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father’s Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater.  So great!  If you get a chance, please check out his book – I got leafed through it today and it looks awesome.  If you don’t believe me, there are plenty of reviews on his website, including the following:

“Since becoming the proud father of a little girl, I’ve found myself quickly morphing into Bill Cosby–minus the sweaters. One of my greatest fears is imagining my daughter insisting on nothing but crustless grilled cheese sandwiches and “chicken” McNuggets. Hungry Monkey goes a long way to allaying that concern. I finished the last page and immediately set about making her Thai Shrimp Curry. A very timely and excellent book.”
–Anthony Bourdain, author of Kitchen Confidential

In addition, Matthew is hosting a book launch event at Capitol Hill’s Baily Coy books – you should head there and support him if you can!

Hungry Monkey Booksigning Event
Bailey Coy Books
Thursday, May 14, 7pm

Congrats, Matthew!

Have an iPhone? Looking for a way to keep Office Nomads (or at least a water cooler) with you at all times? Thanks to our very own Ryan Salva, principal of Capitol Media and stalwart Office Nomads member, now you can. Out of the blue, he created the following excellent wallpaper for you iPhone. Download and bask in its gloriousness!

Since we’re profiling each member of Office Nomads in the reverse order they signed up, you already know that eight members was not enough, but since I loved that show as a kid, I couldn’t resist using it as a headline for member number 8: Campbell Cooper.

Campbell comes from Napier, New Zealand which means he traveled the farthest to be a member of Office Nomads. His 7,000-mile plus trip beats out member #10, Henrik, who originally comes from Denmark. Campbell’s route to Office Nomads was somewhat winding as he’s worked in a number of exotic, international locales including Singapore, the Philippines, London and Melbourne. For all his international travels, this is the first time he’s ever worked and lived in the U.S.

Campbell’s professional life has been focused on commercial food companies which partially explains why he’s lived in so many far-flung cities (he also has a travel bug, so the urge to experience new places is a part of his DNA.) This time around, it was a job setting up a new business for Dutch food ingredients company SVZ that brought him to our fair shores.

Because the company’s main U.S. office is in Eastern Washington, Campbell said there was a lot of discussion about where he would be based and where he would live when he first signed on. He travels a lot for work, so being near a major airport was key and if you’ve spent any time in Eastern Washington, you know there’s nothing major about it. Seattle, he says, was a perfect fit for him and since there is no need for him to be in the office all the time, the company agreed.

Campbell told me that he was thrilled to find Office Nomads. Without it, he’d have to be setting up a full office with all the headaches and responsibilities that come with doing that, and he’d still be working alone in a country and city where he didn’t know anyone. When Office Nomads turned up, Campbell says he knew it was right. First, it would give him some social interaction with other professionals in his new home and second, he’d just be meeting new people, no matter what they do.

Now Campbell sits across from Robyn who is an urban planner which has given him an interesting insight into American cities.

When I asked him how Seattle compares to all of the exciting places he’s lived, Campbell said, “It’s great. It’s an international city with a big Asian influence.” He (like the rest of us) likes all the opportunities to get outside and says it’s not all that different from life in New Zealand and Australia. If that’s true, I’m going to see if I can find a way to get myself down there for an extended period.

You know what’s next in this countdown series on the Nomads: Lucky Number 7! Stay tuned…

Numbers 9 and 9.5

Ryan Salva holds coveted spot number nine spot here Office Nomads. Good thing he likes The Beatles (I caught him singing under his breath today). He may be the ninth regular monthly member, but Ryan started as daily drop in long ago. In fact, I don’t really remember a time when he hasn’t been around.

Ryan is one of the partners in Capitol Media, a web design and development agency which provides technology to support a host of online marketing endeavors. He and his other partners started the company in 2003 when one of his freelance clients came over to work with Ryan as a project manager. Before long, another client offered to incubate the newly forming company which Ryan says was an offer he just couldn’t pass up.

When they started their company, Ryan that they thought the idea of a centralized office didn’t seem to make sense. Although they never wanted to have official offices for Capitol Media, he and his partner did want that communal feel one finds in offices. In an attempt to make this happen, they held a 15-minute conference call at the start and end of the day between them and two other people. The effort didn’t really work though and was soon killed off.

At the beginning, Ryan worked at home but says, “That drove me crazy because I was alone all the time.” He moved to coffee shops like Capitol Hill’s Online Coffee Company which he loved for the racket they provided. He then became a regular at daytime coffee shop/nighttime bar Liberty where the owner gave him a key so he could get in before opening time.

Although Ryan felt comfortable at Liberty, as a permanent space, it wasn’t a good idea. Standing next to dumpsters in the rain to take phone calls got old he says. But he couldn’t go home because of his need for that community feeling. Enter, Office Nomads.

Ryan started out coming in as a daily member and was often here three and four days a week. When he found himself bringing in collaborators, using the conference rooms and acting almost like a monthly member, he felt like it was time to get a monthly membership. It’s worked out. “Just phone calls and emails don’t give much of a sense of community,” he says.

Membership at Office Nomads has an extra benefit for Ryan: It allows him to bring his five-month old long-haired Chihuahua Cortez the Killer in to work most days, something his girlfriend can’t do at her office. “If he was left at home everyday, he’d be so pissed,” Ryan says. Cortez is as important a part of the office here as any of our other members. His antics keep us all entertained and often provide a welcome distraction. He is also an excellent playmate for Stella, our other office dog.

All in all, Ryan is happy to be working at Office Nomads thanks to some welcoming distraction from his coworkers. If left to himself, he says, he’d sit at his desk for 12 hours at a stretch. Between us and Cortez, that doesn’t happen so much anymore.

Stay tuned for our next installment of “Meet the Nomads.” Next up: I Eight the Member!

Big news this week folks! Office Nomads welcomed our tenth monthly member! As the kids say, “W00t!”

We’ve been planning to profile each of our monthly members for some time now, but you know how things can get put off? Right, well since signing up the 10th member is big enough news for posting, we decided to start doing it here and now. Why, we thought, should we start with the first one? He gets all the press.

So please welcome Henrik to the Office Nomads world. He’s a software product manager for Pace Systems Group and an all around cool guy. I think he’s going to fit right in. The first thing he did when he signed up was to choose his desk which ended up being right next to mine. While we were talking on his first day, it took less than five minutes for him to tell me how he’ll probably like hearing me be on the phone all the time because he’s been stuck at home and isolated for so long.

A true Office Nomad.

As you can see, Henrik comes complete with a dog. Her name is Stella and she’s a sweet as can be (she also gets along famously with Cortez the Killer). He’s got a wife who stopped by the other day to give her approval of the new space (she liked it). Right now, he’s trying to get back into soccer-playing shape. (Ask him how his legs are feeling two days after his first game in a long time.)

Welcome Henrik (and Stella), to the Office Nomads fold!