Exchange program

[Carlos López]

Hi all,

I'm starting an exchange program between coworkers and I would like to know your insights, ideas or suggestions.

It's a network for coworkers who want to exchange their homes + coworking memberships, usually for short periods of time. So in other words a coworker would be living in another city and working in a different coworking space but without paying anything extra (no rent and no coworking fee since they're already paying at home).

I think it would be enriching for both the person who travels to another city/country and your coworking community. I was wondering if you as coworking managers would aprove this kind of arrangement (someone else using a coworking membership).

Thanks a lot for your feedback!

Carlos

[Ramon Suarez]

Hi Carlos,

I would start by engaging the coworking spaces within the Coworking Visa by adding a possibility for the spaces to do this.

If you want to speak with one of my coworkers who does this regularly talk to Katia She speaks English and many other languages and has a blog dedicated to home exchanges http://lanomadesedentaire.wordpress.com/

Ramon
Author: http://coworkinghandbook.com

[Alicia Hurst]

Ohhh my gosh that would be so awesome and such an incentive to get a full-time membership at a coworking space to trade with others. 

Personally, I'd need to feel a lot of security in the program (for my home's sake), much in a way that airbnb provides (and even couch surfing, which I've never heard bad things about!). But I'd certainly love to participate and would bet that others would love the idea, too, so keep this group posted on how that comes along!

[Angel Kwiatkowski]

It would be fun to take this a step further and just think about members or owner opening their homes to visiting coworkers whether the home owner is there or not. Commute to cowork together, live together :) We're piloting this between coworking space owners this fall. More details soon!

Angel

[Jacob Sayles]

I love this!  Susan and I have talked about something very similar where we invite people to come to Seattle to join the Office Nomads team for a week, or a month to get hands on experience in an established community.  We've been talking about it for a long time but haven't pinned down any details as of yet.  What do people think about that idea?  I also love to travel so give me an excuse and I'm there!  

Jacob

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Office Nomads - Individuality without Isolation
http://www.officenomads.com -  (206) 323-6500

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[Carlos López]

Thanks a lot for your feedback!

Actually we are a stablished home exchange community called happyhamlet.com. We are still finishing the development in order to create a subgroup for coworkers, you can take a peek here: http://www.happyhamlet.com/hamlet/coworking

I would like to start a pilot with some coworking spaces, I already have a few interested in Europe: the one I'm based in Barcelona and others in Vienna and Berlin, but we need a few more to reach enough critical mass. And everywhere, not only in Europe.

Please, if anyone is interested drop me a line.

Carlos

Carlos López

[Raghuveer Kovuru]

Hi Carlos,

I am soon going to open one in India. Would love to associate with other spaces around the world! Will keep you posted on this!

Regards
Raghuveer

[Kristin Romaine]

We have actually established a nonprofit arm at CO+HOOTS in Phoenix and are looking to get donations of airfare and lodging to support coworking both nationally and internationally.  I am going to be starting a community of advisors from cities around the country interested in being part of our pilot program.  In order to receive the exchange trip, we are going to ask the coworkers who participate to also do a small pro bono project in their field for an organization of need in the local community where they visit.  :D 

The local coworking spaces who participate would need to provide a desk for the visiting coworkers, safe lodging (via a local hotel) with access to public transportation and a host of people who are willing to show the person around the area on their visit.  There are still a lot of details to figure out, but we are going to be hosting a Google Hangout at the end of this month and I will post it here if any of you want to attend. 

We have established the nonprofit with the intent of it being a national program that ALL coworking spaces can benefit from for the coworking exchange program-- NOT just PHX and CO+HOOTS. 

If any of you are interested in being in the community of advisors, please let me know.  

GIVE 2 HOOTS WITH CO+HOOTS!   Kristin Romaine  CO+HOOTS Foundation :: co-founder/executive director O:: 602.688.2825 C:: 602.309-1247 cohoots.com :: Kri...@cohoots.com Find us on facebook + twitter + blog! 1027 E. Washington St. Suite 107, PHX

[Jacob Sayles]

This is amazing.  I love the idea and Office Nomads would love to participate.  This takes the beautiful cross-pollination that fuels the Coworking Visa and kicks it up a notch or two.  When I get back from spending the summer in San Francisco, I plan to keep a guest room in my house in Seattle for visitors like this.  

I won't be available for the conference call later this month but I'll keep an eye on the project and reach out later in the year.  Nice work!  

Jacob

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[Craig Baute - Creative Density Coworking]

The exchange of owners is the one that selfishly interest me the most. I would love to go to another coworking space in another country and swap spots with them. We would hopefully spend a day or two together but then operate each other's space after a bit of an orientation. If possible, we would exchange living situations as well, but that's not always possible. It would be great to know someone was looking over my coworking space while I was away. 

My community members often look over the space when I'm away but I think it would be great to exchange and look at other people's space and to participate in their community. Their feedback would be very helpful as well.

My is place is ready for visitors if anyone wants to check out Denver. ;)

[Melissa Mesku]

Good timing! We just published our 3rd issue of New Worker Magazine with two articles on how people combine coworking and travel:

- Trading places: Coworkers switch cities by Rafa Moreno of Zona Coworking (about Betahaus Berlin swapping members with utopic_US in Madrid, and vice versa)

- This is how coworkers travel by Ashok Amaran (about CoPass, LiveWorkAnywhere, Misfits Inc., and the Coworking Visa program)

Melissa

[Ramon Suarez]

For those that like Craig want to work at another coworking space, we participate in the European Young Entrepreneurs program, where the European Commission can pay you to come work with us for 6 months: http://www.betacowork.com/the-european-exchange-programme-for-entrepreneurs-trainees-are-welcome-at-betacowork/

Ramon Suarez
Serendipity Accelerator, Betacowork
Author: http://coworkinghandbook.com
email & hangouts: ra...@betacowork.com

Phone: +3227376769

GSM: +32497556284

Twitter:http://twitter.com/ramonsuarez
Skype: ramonsuarez
Try coworking: http://betacowork.com

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