Re: [Coworking] Classes at co-working spaces?

Alex Hillman

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Oct 30, 2012, 11:45:43 PM10/30/12

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Hey Andy,

Your answers will vary dramatically from space to space - every community has a different hungry for learning, teaching, and what they wish to learn and teach.

Some spaces have regular learning opportunities as a critical part of their business model, while others approach knowledge sharing more casually.

Can you share some more about the source of your curiosity? That might help you get more useful answers :)

-Alex

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indyhall.org

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On Tuesday, October 30, 2012 at 8:34 PM, Andy Cary wrote:

Hi,

I'm curious, do you take classes (learning sessions, courses, professional development workshops) at co-working spaces? Do you teach classes? Or, do you want to take classes at co-working spaces? If so, which courses would you like to take?
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☮ elf Pavlik ☮

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Oct 31, 2012, 11:30:05 AM10/31/12

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Excerpts from Andy Cary's message of 2012-10-31 00:34:28 +0000:

> Hi,
>
> I'm curious, do you take classes (learning sessions, courses, professional
> development workshops) at co-working spaces? Do you teach classes? Or, do
> you want to take classes at co-working spaces? If so, which courses would
> you like to take?

One of coworking spaces in Berlin co-up ( http://co-up.de ) hosts regular clases of http://www.opentechschool.org :D

Craig Baute - Creative Density Coworking

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Nov 1, 2012, 11:26:22 AM11/1/12

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Alex is right that classes vary dramatically from space to space.

We tried to do regular classes and found it to be difficult to find quality instructors and to market the classes. Basically, it's a lot of work with little pay off. I have since shifted my focus and looking partner services that have already built the marketing and organizing machine like Dabble.co or Skill Share.

Craig

Creative Density

Denver, CO

John Wilker

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Nov 1, 2012, 11:45:19 AM11/1/12

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Semi separate of my coworking space my experience was similar to Craig's as far as classes. Lots of work variable pay-off

We've had tremendous success with meet ups as our space has a dedicated space that can hold about 60 people with 10' screen, HD projector etc. That has worked well.

We're open to hosting classes when approached and have a relationship with Dabble but haven't had a class hit critical mass yet.

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Alex Hillman

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Nov 1, 2012, 11:50:12 AM11/1/12

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Since people are mentioning organizations that do the heavy lifting, I can point to Girl Develop It as a distributed non-profit organization that helps teach women to code. We're one of their Philadelphia hosts and they've been awesome/well organized.

We'll be moving forward with more arrangements like theirs, where they have classes run by/partnered with a trusted "co-host" who does a lot of the heavy lifting.

We're thinking about encouraging them to offer split rates, one for Indy Hall members and one for non-members (GDI doesn't do this currently, given their mission I don't know that we'll ask them to) but we DO plan to offer two different hosting rates for members/non-members. Based on that rate, we'll take a cut of their ticket sales so the more successful they are, the more we both benefit. Win win!

-Alex

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/ah

indyhall.org

coworking in philadelphia

building a community? http://masterclass.indyhall.org

Mojo

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Nov 2, 2012, 9:28:18 AM11/2/12

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Hi Andy. At Mojo Coworking we have been working with other community organizations to host classes of all types in our common space/classroom area. We've had 3 workshops from the Mycelium School (http://www.myceliumschool.org), Microsoft Office Classes, A maker workshop, creativity/brainstorms ... and there is going to be a women's business conference all next weekend. As far as regular classes/courses we are hoping to try and implement something like the Brooklyn Brainery (http://brooklynbrainery.com) model in 2013.

Our experience suggests that it's best to let the member community, the neighborhood/city community and their respective networks to help drive classes, workshops and events.