Other Co-Working Groups feedback

[Ben Gibbs]

Hi all,

In the last few days I've visited 3 co-working groups to see how they started and operate.

Met:Space, Leeds

On Tuesday 20th May I went to Met:Space in Leeds and chatted to a couple of people, I can't remember one chaps name, but the other was Imran. I wanted to findout how they operate to get ideas about how to set-up the co-working effort in Manchester.

Met:Space is owned and run by Leeds Uni and they subsidise the outrageously low fees to use their space and "pods". See this page to see their plans: http://www.oldbroadcastinghouse.com/services/. As I walked into the building I met 2 chaps who were "Visiting". They were sitting on some comfy sofa's with their laptops. They pointed me upstairs to the co-working space where the "pods" are. You can do "co-working lite" where you can use whatever pod is available, or "co-working" where you have a permanent pod.

Each pod has: 

• Generous desk space.
• Smaller side tables for collaborative work and visitors.
• A Mac Pro desktop computer.
• An Apple 30" studio display (two of our pods are equipped with dual displays for video editing!)
• Adobe Master Collection and Apple Pro creative software.

Imran was very interested in helping us in manchester to set-up a co-working space and said that they are talking with a place in Huddersfield and Lausanne, Switzerland to have a co-working roaming agreement, and they'd like Manchester to be part of it too. I think that sounds great.

One of the things Imran highlighted was that co-working is only really going to work when you have a community of people committed to it and each other. The core community will provide the attraction for those wanting to join or simply hot-desk. He said that they have struggled to keep a regular core of people using Met:Space and that this has meant the community aspect hasn't been able to build much.

Imran also pointed out that co-working is ideally suited to the "bohemian" environment that Guy talked about at the last co-working day.

On a tour of the office, I was shown a side room where there was a photocopier and a 3D photocopier, just sitting there waiting for someone to use it! We know that Leeds Uni is swimming in cash, and this 3D photocopier and the interior decor and space blew me away a bit. Compared to what we are thinking, it's a whole other level. Any co-working effort in Manchester will have to be self-sustainable from the word go since we have no investors or big money.

The Hub, London

Yesterday I went to see The Hub (http://the-hub.net/where/london/). I chatted with a lady called Holly. They operate by hot-desking all their space. Individuals, not organisations, are members of the Hub, there is no minimum term and The Hub employs "hosts" who network and try to drum up use of their space, they arrange events like Hub lunches with experts talking about stuff, twice a week they all have lunch together and on Friday's they share wine, and the hosts also help newbies settle in.

Members buy time on a tariff basis, you can buy 5, 25, 50, 100 and unlimited hours per month then use those hours when you like. If you buy over a certain amount of hours, you get a postal address at The Hub and a dedicated phone line. I've attached a PDF of their tariffs.

The Hub has a shared Kitchen and Library space where members just leave books etc for others to peruse. The Hub is mainly for social enterprises and was started as a social enterprise when a group saw the need for such working space and how much good can come from people working in the same space but on different things.

Pics I took of The Hub are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/woowooben/sets/72157605306183057/

Lemon Studios, London

This afternoon I visited Lemon Studios (http://www.lemonstudioslondon.com/). They have two large open plan areas with 21 companies having permanent desk spaces. They started 3 years ago with alot of help from e-consultancy and another company who had the financial flexibility to see Lemon Studios through the first 18 months. Seting themselves up in Clerkenwell was good since it is an attractive place for new media and web companies.

I met with Jodie, the Office Manager, and Jeremy, the business manager. Jeremy highlighted very strongly the need to know the property market in your location. He stressed that basically, the co-working group will be come an office and services provider and there are many costs associated with that. Lemon Studios is a company and employs a number of staff, as well as maintaining the infrastructure of the offices and paying for drinks every friday!

Community and Networking are a focus of lemon Studios, and the design of their space either aidesw or hinders that strongly. They have a shared Kitchen, Chill-out room and meeting rooms available. Jeremy said that 50% of companies work with each other. He said if we want any investment, we will need to thouroughly go through profit & loss figures, cash flow issues and have a great business plan.

Jeremy said that they would be willing to sit-down and advise us about setting up a bigger effort. They suggested they could work with us to set-up a Lemon co-working space in Manchester, so they would manage it and we could just do our jobs!

Pics I took of Lemon Studios are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/woowooben/sets/72157605306183069/ Jeremy didn't want me to take any pics of the open plan spaces for the privacy of the workers.

Manchester thoughts

Lemon Studios seemed very professionally managed but still keeping a community feel. It made me wonder why we thought we could set-up a co-working thing in Manchester without employing people! Of course we need to do it our own way, and I'm still interersted in running it as a co-op. It seems to me that there are many models for co-working, and what will emerge in Manchester will be different again, especially since we need to be self-sustaining from day 1. Co-working won't work if people are only interested in desk space in an open office. It will work if people are keen on building an active community. Also, co-working in Manchester will be made of mainly permanent desks and a couple of hot desks, at least to begin with.

Without the capital to invest in a space, I think the best approach will be to rent a larger and a smaller room at the Manchester Science Park for 3 months, and see how that goes with about 8 permanent and 2 hot-desks. After the first 3 months, the members of the co-op can decide whether to move somewhere else (different opportunities may present themselves once this has started) and how many desks to expand by. But would this hinder the effort by not having initial investment to get a permanent place from the start?

Thoughts?

Ben

--
www.bobop.co.uk
web design | web development | web consultancy
07811197374
b...@bobop.co.uk

[Imran]

Thanks for including me on the report Ben. Just to add to your
comments...

* The Leeds-Lausanne-Huddersfield discussions are underway and
we'd love for you guys to be part of that; we meet on 6th to start
that track.
* To clarify - developing the coworking community at Old
Broadcasting House hasn't been a struggle, just slower than we'd
hoped. However, we're able to do things like host Flickr/OpenCoffee/
GeekUp meetups, unconferences (BarCamp, PhotoCamp), movie nights, Wii
tournaments and evening talks from interesting speakers - these all
help to market to the right kinds of communities. Our targets for
residents have been met - however, we want to grow more drop-in,
casual users to keep things buzzing and also to service both
university's enterprising students.
*A bohemian environment is definitely something I'd personally
benefit from, though I'm not sure that's shared by the other residents
and the owners of OBH.
* The city centre location really helps and adds to the value of
even super-casual once-a-month users of a meeting room or desk.
* Having a diversity of residents, while not engineered in, has
been a happy side effect for us - PR guys, developers, designers,
video producers and 3D artists are all knocking around. We really
wanted to ensure there was an atmosphere and culture where people from
diff disciplines would collaborate and that seems to be happening.
* I'm really keen to tap larger space owners and employers (the
city's libraries, complimentary companies like Orange etc) to make
their spare desks available to outsiders as a means of infecting their
culture with new perspectives, but also solving a problem for the
city's freelancers and nomadic workers.
* Lastly and perhaps most importantly, we're pulling together an
advisory board that includes Tara Hunt, entrepreneurs, academics, VCs,
designers and of course geeks...all of whom are commiting time to be
advocates and mentors for people starting out with their first
business...we think this could be a really powerful lever.

On May 28, 4:42 pm, "Ben Gibbs" <bobopm...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> In the last few days I've visited 3 co-working groups to see how they
> started and operate.
>
> Met:Space, Leeds
>
> On Tuesday 20th May I went to Met:Space in Leeds and chatted to a couple of
> people, I can't remember one chaps name, but the other was Imran. I wanted
> to findout how they operate to get ideas about how to set-up the co-working
> effort in Manchester.
>
> Met:Space is owned and run by Leeds Uni and they subsidise the outrageously
> low fees to use their space and "pods". See this page to see their plans:http://www.oldbroadcastinghouse.com/services/. As I walked into the building
> I met 2 chaps who were "Visiting". They were sitting on some comfy sofa's
> with their laptops. They pointed me upstairs to the co-working space where
> the "pods" are. You can do "co-working lite" where you can use whatever pod
> is available, or "co-working" where you have a permanent pod.
>
> Each pod has:
>

>    - Generous desk space.
>    - Smaller side tables for collaborative work and visitors.
>    - A Mac Pro desktop computer.
>    -

>    An Apple 30" studio display (two of our pods are equipped with dual
> displays for video editing!)

>    - Adobe Master Collection and Apple Pro creative software.

> Pics I took of Lemon Studios are here:http://www.flickr.com/photos/woowooben/sets/72157605306183069/Jeremy didn't

[Guy Dickinson]

On 28 May 2008, at 16:42, Ben Gibbs wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> In the last few days I've visited 3 co-working groups to see how
> they started and operate.
>

> <snip>

Wow!

Great effort Ben, really interesting reports (our roving reporter down
South!)

Thanks for making all the effort for the research.

Just curious, you mentioned previously that the Hub people were
interested in setting up a Mancs space - did they say any more on that
yesterday?

@ Imran; sounds like you're up to some interesting stuff (as
usual :-)...like you, I'm very much in the 'Bohemian' camp; I want to
work alongside people from varied disciplines, in open shared spaces,
and I really like the Hub's model of shared lunches, wine on fridays
and communal library.

fwiw, I like the building shell of Broadcasting House (and of course
the kit), but from the photos I saw on the site, the physical space
was a bit 'office partition' for my taste. Could be wrong, I only saw
a couple of photos.

As I've said before - I'll put my money where my mouth is on
this...but I'm not around enough at the mo to sort out any Bohemian
Rhapsody in Manchester, but I'll be the first to signup for a Hub-like
setup in Mancs.

Guy.

[Ian Moss]

Not much to add at the moment Ben, but cheers for all your efforts in
writing all this up :)
Seriously give yourself a BIG pat on the back :)

I'm still interested in having an element of my working week with
co-working peers.
I'm still not sure how this would realistically work with the need for
privacy and own space as part of an established commercial company (with
NDA / other commercial issues) - however where there's a will there's a
way.
I think a mixture of semi-private spaces for established companies,
and more open areas for freelancers could work very well, and benefit both
sets of potential users.
We can write the rules for how this might work Im sure.

Speak to you soon.

Ian

p.s. would be interested in a few of us 'Manc' lot going over to
Imran/Debs n co's Open Co-Working day in Leeds soon, forget the dates at
the mo, but will look them up in the morning.

[Guy Dickinson]

On 29 May 2008, at 01:10, Ian Moss wrote:

>
>

<snip>

>
> p.s. would be interested in a few of us 'Manc' lot going over to
> Imran/Debs n co's Open Co-Working day in Leeds soon, forget the
> dates at
> the mo, but will look them up in the morning.
>

Please do - wasn't aware there was such an event - I'd be really
interested in popping over to Leeds...I'd drive, and have space for
another three.

[Imran]

Guy & Ian - the next OpenCoffee Leeds is on Tuesday morning (http://
upcoming.yahoo.com/event/592095/)...OpenCoffee runs from 10am-12 and
then the coworking spaces is open the rest of the day upstairs for
people to hangout, work, whatever they like....sorta modelled after
Paul Robinson's coworking day in Manchester itself.

Would love to have you guys pop over.

[Guy Dickinson]

Gah - I'm in London next week.

Imran - I think I'll pop over independently (or wait for the next
Leeds GeekUp?)

On 29 May 2008, at 10:58, Imran wrote:

>
> Guy & Ian - the next OpenCoffee Leeds is on Tuesday morning (http://
> upcoming.yahoo.com/event/592095/)...OpenCoffee runs from 10am-12 and
> then the coworking spaces is open the rest of the day upstairs for
> people to hangout, work, whatever they like....sorta modelled after
> Paul Robinson's coworking day in Manchester itself.
>
> Would love to have you guys pop over.

>
> <snip>