Hello Everyone,
We recently setup a co working space in New Delhi, India.
While we set it up with passion and made sure the interiors, exteriors,
location are nice. We are finding it difficult to market the same and
attract people.
It could be because of the lack of awareness about such a concept.

I would like to ask other who have pulled this off, on what are the best
ways to build a community and market the space.

I'm sure this would be of interest to alot of others too.

Thanks in advance

Cheers
Shitij

Hi Shitij

My name is Joanne I started a Coworking Space in Swansea, South Wales,
UK in October 2011. We will be open a year next month.

I thought that as soon as we opened the doors we would have queues of
people waiting to take up a desk but that has not been the case. We have
grown over the last 11 months but very slowly and it has taken
determination and dedication to get through the start-up period.

I was lucky to meet up with a space owner in a near town to us who informed
me that he had also been in the same position as us, lack of people, lack
of understanding of the concept. It took them 3 years to build their
community and they have just opened 2 more spaces int heir town. It just
takes time and patience.

So my advice to me and you is to stick with it, believe in it and grow your
community.

Hope that helps?

Joanne

I've been on this list for a long time and if I've said one phrase more times than anything else, it's been "focus on the community". So Joanne's advice is sound. Community growing takes time, and is even harder with the pressure to keep the lights on.

I've also realized that for a lot of people, "focus on the community" can feel like empty advice, especially if they don't know how to do that (or what they've done to prevent it from working so far). It's easy to mistake a group of people for a community, and we've seen countless people on this list make these mistakes.

After 5 years of learning on our own as well as coaching so many spaces around the world, I realized that solving coworking logistics aren't nearly as common of a problem as "how do I build a successful community". So I took a good hard look at the commonalities between our success in Philadelphia, many others successes, and common stumbling blocks that people run into with community building. They generally fall into one or more of a few categories:

How to get the word out about a community via word of mouth
How to attract/retain members
How to structure a community & memberships (in the case of a coworking space, the business model) so that it rewards community growth instead of inhibits it)
How to plan events that help develop community
How to involve & include members in the evolution of the community

So I'm answering all of these questions in the first edition of a new course that I've designed to help people learn how to build any community, not just one for a coworking space. It's 100% virtual and conducted over email (the current class has attendees from across the US, 4+ from Australia, Italy, and more) and takes 4 weeks to complete.

I've made the warm-up lesson available for free here: http://gum.co/community-builders-masterclass for anyone who's interested, and will be sending out more details about the October course very soon!

Community building is a process, and it's one that never stops - the sooner you start, the better off you'll be in the same amount of time.

-Alex

--
/ah
indyhall.org
coworking in philadelphia

Alex brings up a good point and his class sounds very interesting on
creating the process on building a community. It is a skill to build a
community and there are several key things space owners have learned
through trial and error over the years. I was just asked yesterday what
three key things were important in a building a community once you have
people in the space.

Here were the things that I learned and came off the top of my head at the
moment (meaning they likely will be slightly changed over time)

   1. Events - Social + Support. Have events that start the conversation
   between new and old members and another type of events that create a
   support system like show and tells, accountability meetings, etc.. These s
   also helps integrate new members and allow current members share new
   projects or hobbies and keeps the relationships growing strong.
   2. Be a great host. Introduce people, make them comfortable in their new
   setting, and use that initial interaction to start indicating the culture
   and type of community that's in the space.
   3. Design a space that encourages interaction, but also allows for
   people to work in a variety of different ways. Space and interior design
   are under estimated ways to encourage the interaction and culture you want
   within a space.

Now how do you get people in there?
I'm not that familiar with the India market but start your branding with a
specific voice that tells the culture and community that you have or want
to create. You are competing against the home office (maybe not so much in
India because the homes are much smaller), traditional executive suites,
coffee shops, and probably other elements different than the US market. BUT
your greatest competitor is the lack of awareness of coworking in India. If
you have a strong brand and voice coming from you and your community then
it will create a story that intrigues others to at least explore coworking.
Offer a few free days and you can emphasis what I stated above.

There are plenty of threads that exists on here about how to build a
community throught Meetups, Jellies, starting the chatter online, and
creating collaborative groups. I would recommend you just search for
previous threads that give ideas for getting people in the space and
developing a community even before a space is opened.

Good luck!

Craig
Creative Density
Denver, CO

Hey,

I'm looking for some co-working space in and around Delhi. Do you have a
site up where I can know more?

Thanks and have a great day ahead.

Hello to any dili co workers, I am interested to organise a jelly (one day coworking) on about the 18th somewhere near the paharganj district. Please contact me if you are interested to help out. Is there a Dili list that I can post to, or coworking group that is set up somewhere?
Cheers,
Michael

Hi Shitij,

I am looking for a co working office in Delhi. Could you give me your
contact details? Whereabouts are you located?

Shitij I am looking for a co-working space. Can you please contact me with
location and contac? Thanks!

Hi Shitij,
We are looking for space for our start up company. Can you please share the
location of the coworking space and also your contact number.

Thanks
Saxena
9910022778

Dear Shitij
I am looking for co working space at earliest possible. Please let me know
the details.
My contact number is 9999310502

I am looking for such space, we are three.  Shitij, can you contact me at
vipin....@gmail.com.

Thanks