Coworking Impact Survey - collecting statistics on economic/community/jobs

[Aloma Loren]

Hello fellow coworking leaders,

I am putting together a coworking impact survey to send to our members in hopes of collecting some good information to share with the city and other places to show the positive impacts our coworking space has had on growing businesses and community.

Has anyone done one of these and do you have any advice on what questions to ask and  how to ask the questions?

I'd like to definitely have some financial info (anonymous of course), and I'd also like to know about job creation. There is a bigger picture that goes outside of our physical space, like how the restaurants in our area have been effected by having so many regulars eating lunch and even coming back to the area for evenings out. I'm not sure how to ask questions about this, it wouldn't be as black and white as collecting economic data but I'd like to try. Any advice is welcome.

Thank you. I'd be happy to share some of the questions I come up with when I'm done if anyone is interested.

[Tony Bacigalupo]

Hi Aloma! I'm developing something similar with my organizers club; perhaps we can collaborate. Do you have any draft materials you can share?

Who else out there is up to something similar?

Tony

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[Jerome Chang]

We happen to have a Subway sandwich shop next door and especially in the throes of the Great Recession from 2009-2010, I saw at least 2 dozen sandwiches brought in to the office daily. Now it’s only a few. I think that Subway owner probably actually wishes it was 2009-2010 still.

So…perhaps just ask your members where they typically eat and drink every month?

JEROME CHANG

CENTRAL: Mid-Wilshire
5405 Wilshire Blvd (2 blocks west of La Brea) | ph: (323) 330-9505

EAST: Downtown
529 S. Broadway, Suite 4000 (@Pershing Square) | ph: (213) 550-2235

NORTH: Hollywood (Opening June 2016!)
6600 Sunset Blvd. (@Vine)

[Sabrina]

Hi there, 

Yes, yes !!!

I am trying to do something similar here in Plymouth England, and I've started by turning my hypothesis of how we help the overall community into a hand-drawn graphic showing the flow of funds/ideas/people through our coworking space from the various sectors (govt, charity/NGO, higher education, and private), and how it flows back out again in the form of new ideas, investment into the community, and new collaboration. 

I've got lists of the names of the various entities we have been involved with in all the categories listed above, and now I am trying to collect the data to see if it supports this hypothesis. 

I'm participating in an open data day with our local government later this week (an effort which we helped them with initially to connect with our local digital community), to find some data geeks to help me see how to gather some of the public data that may already be available, in addition to conducting a survey to see what I can learn from our members, beyond the anecdotal stories I already know. I haven't started the questionnaire yet.

Happy to share my graphic and to let you know what I learn from the open data side of things at the end of the week. I'd love to help with questionnaire as well (or see others' questions, and participate in any other efforts.

Sabrina

[Bernie J Mitchell]

You guys know about this? 

http://www.deskmag.com/en/2016-forecast-global-coworking-survey-results

I suspect it is not EXACTLY what you are looking for but could provide inspiration and insight. 

You could give Carsten a shout - he comes to Coworking Europe and Social Workplace events here in Europe ;-)

Have a remarkable day

Bernie J Mitchell
0777 204 2012

Do you use Trello? 

Sent from my mobile device

*Unless we agree otherwise, this email conversation is confidential.

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[Tony Bacigalupo]

Deskmag's reports tend to focus on the industry side of things... I think what we're talking about here is more member- and neighborhood-focused.

I'd actually like to identify one or several metrics that demonstrate the real impact a community has on its people, so organizers can focus on that instead of Butts in Seats (BS).

Butts in Seats in the coworking world is like financial profit in the business world. It's a convenient measure of success in a narrow and 20th century sense, but we can do much much better.

Carsten, I'd love to get your thoughts on this and see if any of the existing data you've gathered could be used as a starting point.

Tony

[Aloma Loren]

Here are some of the questions I'm considering using - feedback is welcome! A couple of them are similar but I haven't decided which to use. 

How many employees did you have before becoming a member?

How many employees have you added since joining?

Estimate percentage of sales from out of area *If all your work is local this would be 0%, if all your clients/customers are in the Bay this would be 100%

How many local jobs have been created within your company in the last year?

What do you love about working at a coworking space?

Do you feel that being a member of a coworking space has helped your business grow?

The year prior to joining: What was your annual personal income or company sales *If you are a remote worker, this is your Income, if you are a small business this is your gross sales

Since joining: What is your annual personal income or company sales *If you are a remote worker, this is your Income, if you are a small business this is your gross sales

[Aloma Loren]

I would love to collaborate. I think the community impact is exciting and I'd love to figure out a way to capture that, or at least some of it. Some things are much easier to measure than others, I'm interested in all of it. Economic impact within and surrounding coworking spaces, sense of community, job/work satisfaction, etc.