Re: [Coworking] Joining the international coworking movement
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TCS
Oct 29, 2012, 11:15:58 AM10/29/12
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Hey Ron,
I'm sure there is good stuff happening over there all the time! The media tends to feature one side. Bad news is good news for news.
SO nice to see some real good news coming out of Rwanda! Congrats!
No harm in joining the list and networks, but your main market is your local community. Best to spend the time working those relationships then broadcasting on the global bulletin board. As it's been said many times in this group; build the community first.
Our biggest success are groups of little wins and losses that happen along the way within our community and organically grow which provides greater sustainability.
Hosting events around your focus market are great ways to get people into the space. It's always the greatest "sell" to see and experience the space and the community in it. Host a JELLY or IGNITE: Kigali, to get the tech/media/geek crowd in or a meetup for journalists, etc. Your local media should be jumping at this kind of news. Free press!
Love the trees out front! Show some of the surrounding area on going - location/ environment are key.
That said - continue to use this international group - there are lots of great people willing to share stories, ideas, cautions, etc.
Peace!
Chad
Chad
On 2012-10-29, at 10:47 AM, Jon Stever, The Office RW wrote:
Hey everyone,The Office RW is a new coworking space in Kigali, Rwanda.We opened two weeks ago for 12 crash-testers, and will open officially in December (www.TheOfficeRW.com).I've seen various groups (league of extraordinary co-working spaces, loose cubes, deskwanted, goodcoworking, etc), and was wondering if we should be trying to join or get listed on any of these sites/groups to help integrate ourselves better into the global coworking community and movement? Is the coworking un-conference something that many people would recommend us travelling to attend?So far we've found the coworking wiki and this google group very useful (our terms of use agreement, for example, borrows heavily). But, any other thoughts on how we can reach our hands out to the international crowd for sharing experiences would be really welcome!CheeriosJon--
Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com
TCS
Oct 29, 2012, 11:17:11 AM10/29/12
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Sorry - Jon - not Ron!
On 2012-10-29, at 11:15 AM, TCS wrote:
Hey Ron,I'm sure there is good stuff happening over there all the time! The media tends to feature one side. Bad news is good news for news.SO nice to see some real good news coming out of Rwanda! Congrats!No harm in joining the list and networks, but your main market is your local community. Best to spend the time working those relationships then broadcasting on the global bulletin board. As it's been said many times in this group; build the community first.Our biggest success are groups of little wins and losses that happen along the way within our community and organically grow which provides greater sustainability.Hosting events around your focus market are great ways to get people into the space. It's always the greatest "sell" to see and experience the space and the community in it. Host a JELLY or IGNITE: Kigali, to get the tech/media/geek crowd in or a meetup for journalists, etc. Your local media should be jumping at this kind of news. Free press!Love the trees out front! Show some of the surrounding area on going - location/ environment are key.That said - continue to use this international group - there are lots of great people willing to share stories, ideas, cautions, etc.Peace!ChadChad
On 2012-10-29, at 10:47 AM, Jon Stever, The Office RW wrote:Hey everyone,The Office RW is a new coworking space in Kigali, Rwanda.We opened two weeks ago for 12 crash-testers, and will open officially in December (www.TheOfficeRW.com).I've seen various groups (league of extraordinary co-working spaces, loose cubes, deskwanted, goodcoworking, etc), and was wondering if we should be trying to join or get listed on any of these sites/groups to help integrate ourselves better into the global coworking community and movement? Is the coworking un-conference something that many people would recommend us travelling to attend?So far we've found the coworking wiki and this google group very useful (our terms of use agreement, for example, borrows heavily). But, any other thoughts on how we can reach our hands out to the international crowd for sharing experiences would be really welcome!CheeriosJon--
Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com
Jon Stever, The Office RW
Oct 30, 2012, 5:00:19 AM10/30/12
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Thanks very much Chad,
The international news on Africa is well-known for its bias. This country deserves more positive publicity. Rwanda is developing so fast - think East Asian growth miracle speed (poverty fell by 12 percentage points in the last 5 years and real GDP growth has averaged above 7%) - and the business environment is improving really rapidly (I registered this business in 6 hours; Rwanda is considered by the World Bank to be the third-best business environment in Africa behind only Mauritius and South Africa and is the 8th easiest country in the world to start a business). The Office is hoping to become the innovative and creative and enabling physical environment that mirrors Rwanda's ambitious reforms and growth vision.
I agree with your comments, and we are definitely focusing on building the local community first. Our first 12 members are an excellent cross-section of small business owners and professionals in Rwanda - it's almost a complete entrepreneurial ecosystem already (a web designer, a creative museum outreach officer, a general construction manager, a graphic designer, a mobile app company, accounting firm, tech support company, and a financial literacy consultant).
We're also already looking at ways to engage the wider community in Kigali. For example, during Global Entrepreneurship Week (mid-November) we are partnering with a local organization that has set up entrepreneurship clubs at highschools across Rwanda to have an open house at The Office to let select highschool students engage with our members and contacts and to broaden their horizons.
But, is there much to be gained from joining international groups in terms of raising profiles, learning from experiences, and hosting coworkers from across the globe? Is Creativespace a member any of the international groups/lists, and has it had much benefit from joining them?
Also, does the community here think it would be worthwhile for us to attend the Unconference in Austin next year?
Cheers
Jon
p.s. Glad you like the view from the space - Kigali is a ridiculously beautiful city and we have a great view of its trees and hills from our balcony (and our roof terrace that we will turn into a funky cafe next summer!).
Join our community today on Facebook (www.facebook.com/TheOfficeRW) and Twitter (@TheOfficeRW)
Alex Hillman
Oct 30, 2012, 1:13:14 PM10/30/12
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Jon,
I love the perspective you're bringing from your continent. Thank you!
Have you connected with the folks at iHub in Nairobi yet? If not I'd love to connect you.
We've written about African Coworking a number of times in CoworkingWeekly.com, I hope you'd be willing to share any great stories with us to put into the weekly newsletter.
It'd also be great for you to join an in-person international event, either the one in Austin or Coworking Europe - which is just next week so maybe too soon for you now, but worth planning on next year.
This google group is the largest, most active place to talk shop with coworking spaces. Welcome to the community, you've set a great example of what a good introduction looks like. I look forward to your contribution to the conversations here :)
-Alex
TCS
Oct 30, 2012, 1:18:27 PM10/30/12
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Sounds like you are doing a great job! As for the Austin conference...it would be great time, but I'm wondering if the Coworking Europe event would be closer?
http://coworkingeu.wordpress.com/ coming up in a couple weeks in Paris. They are not the same conference and attending both would be awesome. Some year we hope to head down to the SXSW.
Love the passion there and the potential for impact.
PEace,
Chad
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Jonathan Stever
Oct 30, 2012, 1:23:03 PM10/30/12
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Thanks Alex,
Jon
An introduction to the folks at iHub would be great! They are the granddaddy of innovation hubs in the region...they even got a shout out from the head of UNDP today at the African Economic Conference that is being held in Kigali this week.
Thanks for the heads up on the coworking weekly email list. I'd be more than happy to share some stories on that when we get further along. Thanks!
Hope to see you in Austin next year, if not before.
Hope to see you in Austin next year, if not before.
Jon
julianne
Oct 31, 2012, 6:40:35 AM10/31/12
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Hey there Jon,
Congratulations on the space! Would really love to somehow visit one day!
I am not sure if you have seen the postings for the Deskmag survey - or if you are even familiar with Deskmag and Deskwanted - but I would really appreciate it, if you have time, to both take the survey as well as help me to get other folks in Africa to take it - so far we have had results from Egypt, S. Africa and Madagascar - but would really like to round them out a bit.
Here is the link to the survey: http://www.coworkingsurvey.com/
and here is a link to Deskmag if you haven't seen the magazine:
Cheers!
Julianne
Julianne Becker
Programme Director Social Media Week Berlin
PR/Communications and Community management Deskwanted and Deskmag
Congratulations on the space! Would really love to somehow visit one day!
I am not sure if you have seen the postings for the Deskmag survey - or if you are even familiar with Deskmag and Deskwanted - but I would really appreciate it, if you have time, to both take the survey as well as help me to get other folks in Africa to take it - so far we have had results from Egypt, S. Africa and Madagascar - but would really like to round them out a bit.
Here is the link to the survey: http://www.coworkingsurvey.com/
and here is a link to Deskmag if you haven't seen the magazine:
Cheers!
Julianne
Julianne Becker
Programme Director Social Media Week Berlin
PR/Communications and Community management Deskwanted and Deskmag
Jonathan Stever
Oct 31, 2012, 7:20:10 AM10/31/12
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Hey Julianne,
Did my survey response not register?? I think the survey is great...really useful info for our concept development stage, and I tried to pay it forward and submitted a response as a coworking space manager last week for our space in Rwanda. Let me know if you didn't receive it and I'll re-submit as it doesn't take so long to fill out.
We haven't built relationships yet with other spaces in Africa, but I know some of the big ones and will give them a mention on twitter along with the survey in case that helps.
Cheerios
Jon
julianne
Oct 31, 2012, 9:27:45 AM10/31/12
to cowo...@googlegroups.com, Carsten Foertsch
Thanks a lot! - I will double check on the results and let you know.
@Carsten - can you check taht we got Jon's response from Rwanda?
Cheers!
Julianne
@Carsten - can you check taht we got Jon's response from Rwanda?
Cheers!
Julianne
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