Last night I was happy to present a quick 3-minute stint on coworking at Great City’s “What’s the Big Idea?” event.  This was the first time they’ve held an event like this, and it seems like they got enough positive support to host more in the future.

I was excited to share a big idea for Seattle, and am now happy to pass along some of what I presented.  Ideas are still very much in the initial stages, but if any of this catches your eye and you want to get involved or pick our brains about it, definitely get in touch!

Coworking Seattle: A Platform for Shared Working Spaces in Seattle
Coworking is a community-based approach to getting work done.  Coworking spaces exist to provide shared resources to independent workers and telecommuters to allow them a sustainable, local, professional option when it comes to trying to successfully “work from home.”  Seattle has put coworking on the map in the pacific northwest and has proven that it can succeed.  Coworking is recognized as a method by which cities can drive innovation and encourage collaboration – key success matrices when it comes to surviving difficult economic times. Worldwide, there are over 165 coworking spaces currently in operation, and coworking has attracted the attention of a wide spread of media outlets.

Why are coworking spaces a big idea for Seattle?  These spaces are a simple, resource-efficient way to address the transportation issue in our city. They encourage urban sustainability by encouraging individuals to work closer to where they live without sacrificing their sanity and professionalism by trying to work from their living rooms.  Coworking spaces enable citizens to get out out of their cars, save valuable commuting time, and keep their dollars local by supporting other neighborhood businesses.  Coworking spaces are economic generators for neighborhoods.

Seattle is current pouring huge amounts of tax dollars into building more roads and bigger transpiration systems to move people all over the Seattle region.  While this work is important, it also begs a question: when it comes to daily transportation needs, why not work on encouraging our citizens to stay closer to home?  Why push to do more when we could succeed by doing less? We have the technological capacity (access to the internet, virtual private networks, etc.) and city-sponsored programs to support increased telecommuting in our area. As the job market tightens, we see more and more individuals deciding to strike out on their own and start their own businesses.  Instead of asking these people to attempt to succeed by working isolated at home or amongst noisy cafes, why not support shared workspaces which not only allow individuals to work in their own neighborhoods, but also to share resources and save energy by sharing space?

There are an average of 210,000 cars going over and back on the floating bridges each day.  This is a shock, and an embarrassment to our city as we claim to be an environmentally friendly place to live.  Seattle can do better, and Seattle must to better.  Coworking spaces, whether for desk jockeys, caterers, woodworkers, or artists, are one way in which our city could take a strong step forward in making a difference.  In our current market, and with so many commercial offices spaces laying vacant, we cannot afford not to.  An effort which combines the energy of private coworking spaces and leverages their knowledge to support public spaces is going to be key to making these spaces available to all.

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.

…and you’re invited!

It’s officially time to celebrate Office Nomads turning two! That’s right, we’ll be crossing into our third year coworking in Seattle, and want to throw a party to celebrate.  Here are the important details:

Office Nomads Turns TWO!
Thursday, October 8
6-10pm
@OfficeNomads – 1617 Boylston Ave., Second Floor

As usual, there will be drinks, food, and great people.  We’ll also be featuring new art from Kuros Zahedi, who’s beautiful piece “Garden of Hope” has been living in our main conference room for almost a year now.  More of his art will be out and about throughout the space, and it is not to be missed!  This date syncs up with the Blitz! Capitol Hill Art Walk – so if you’re planning on attending the art walk, make Office Nomads a stop for sure!

Come on by, meet the awesome members of Office Nomads, and raise a glass with us as we celebrate our first two years.

Want to RSVP to let us know you’re coming?  Here are some of the spots you can find the event online (because everyone has their favorite…):

Facebook
Twitvite
Upcoming

We can’t wait to see you!

As a quick follow-up to our recent post, we had a great time at Lunch 2.0 today!  Here are some photos to prove all the fun….

Thanks to everyone who attended, the great panelists, and for the support of the sponsors (Thank you in particfular to Redapt.com for supporting the purchase of the lunch!).  We had a great time and loved bringing this group’s vibe into the office!

When I tell people I’m a journalist for a magazine with offices in Portland and San Francisco leaving just me in Seattle, the assumption is that I work at home. I then explain Office Nomads and coworking. More and more,  people realize they’ve heard of us or at least the concept of coworking. Rarely, I think, do they really get what coworking is. If you’re involved in coworking at all, you know how badly I want the questioners to understand that coworking is more than shared office space. That it’s community, incubation, colloboration, happy hours and zombie plans (more on that later).

Patrick from The Movement in Toronto has put together a podcast that is his attempt to explain coworking to the world. Actually, through a podcast he runs called Prototype, he’s letting some of the players in the movement explain it themselves. I just listened to the first two episodes and absolutely adored it. The show is a collection of voices from across the globe (literally) explaining the different feelings, set-ups, members, designs, business plans and other features of their coworking spaces. The result is an amazing cornucopia of the coworking possibilities that are out there. As different as each space and person sounds, they also all sound alike. As Patrick says on the Prototype blog:

In speaking with a friend about the podcast, I explained the amazing lesson was that all of these people sound like they’re describing the same place. In his subtle and knowing way, he responded: What I hear is that they are the same people.

Each episode is just a collection of the voices from different spaces explaining their space seemingly without prompting. That tight juxtaposition is what makes the differences and similarities so apparent. Butted up against each other, you hear statements such as:

“It’s shared office space.”

“We have a hot-desking policy…there’s no set desks.”

“It’s like a mobile phone tariff across the month.”

“You can be a tenant here if you can tell me why you’re a social innovator.”

or

“The space is a great loft.”

“We built a board room/library/kitchen that people can get some privacy in.”

“When we moved in, it was a bad looking, 80′s sort of of office.”

“The front door and the back door are both steel doors and they are zombie safe. They’re rated up to 50 zombies. We also have a zombie attack plan.”

“We’ve got  nice open plan kitchen and just behind that we have got a library area. It’s sort of cushions. People sleep in there, meditate in there.

It’s all so different, so unique. We are, after all, hearing from Colab, Office Nomads, Citizen Space, Station-C, Workspace, The Hub, and The Center of Social Innovation. And yet, they’re all similar in a way because wherever you go, coworking is obviously needed in a variety of different formats. I’m looking forward to learning more about the other spaces around the world, and to using this podcast to help explain the varieties of coworking  when I’m asked about it again in the future.

Last night Tara Brown hosted a meeting here at Office Nomads to kick off planning for Seattle’s first Bar Camp. BarCampSeattle is going to be on June 14th and 15th at a location that will soon be determined. The first meeting was mostly to get the ball rolling and see how excited people are. We filled our main conference room and despite the high turn out we actually got a lot done too! Priority #1 is to find a venue and we have some great leads. Next we will focus on sponsorship and promotion. If you are interested in helping plan we are having our next meeting here on May 6th, 7PM. Contact Tara to let us know you are coming. You can also join the Facebook Group.

Thanks is due today to the great Austin, TX coworking space LaunchPad for a really good interview with Susan and Jacob they put up today.

It’s always fun to see what people want to know about this place and the team that put it together. It’s even more interesting when the questions come from folks who are also trying to set up their own coworking space. The interview contains some interesting nuggets from Susan and Jacob about their thoughts on the coworking “movement,” their strengths and weaknesses, and their feelings around the evolution of Office Nomads’ space. Well worth a read!