Six8 Bromham - coworking in Melbourne, Australia.

[Marc Harrison]

Hi everyone,

It's been over 18 months since my last post to this awesome group, but I have been quietly working on a coworking space in Melbourne, Australia.  I just wanted to provide a brief update for those who might be interested.

Late last year I teamed up with two great partners and we purchased a space, and then quietly opened "Six8 Bromham" in Richmond, Victoria.  (The name is based on our address which is Suite 6, 8 Bromham Place, Richmond).

http://www.six8bromham.com/

It's a 235 square metre (2,500 square feet) space over two levels in a converted warehouse just a few minutes drive east of Melbourne CBD.  You can see photos of the building and interior on the website, as well as Google Sketch-Up images of the layout (although we still have a little bit of work we want to do on the space).

The website provides some detail on membership, but to give you the key points:

• We currently have 14 desks, with plans to take that to around 18.  Of the 14 desks we have today, 3 are currently available.
• We have two large meeting rooms (a 10 seat board table in one and an 8 seat meeting table in the other) and a great entertainment area with 50 inch TV, pinball machine, couches, etc.
• All members pay for full-time dedicated desks and have a key for 24 hour access.  We may add in part-time memberships (eg. 2 or 3 days per week) in the near future, again with dedicated desks.
• To keep costs and management time down we're not setting up elaborate membership admin/support systems, so we don't currently have plans for casual members or hot-desking, other than allowing members to bring in guests for a day here and there.
• Because all members have full access, we need to know our members well.  To date we have taken in members only from our networks, but we are NOT totally closed to applications from outside that group.
• We like to think of ourselves as a "small business club with a really cool clubhouse" rather than a shared office space, if that helps paint a picture of the vision for our community.
• The process we go through with new members involves some getting to know each other rather than simply filling desks with anyone and everyone.  We want to make sure we can add more value to new members than just provide them with a desk, and that new members will be able to add value to some of our businesses.  If not, we'd rather keep the desk free for when people like that do come along.

We know that our approach to memberships differentiates us from a more traditional coworking model (if there is such a thing) but it's what works for us and makes us unique.  I was worried at first that this model doesn't have the "openness" which is a key part of this group's definition of coworking, but I think that by not being open in terms of accepting casuals members we can be more open in the discussions and sharing that goes on within our community, simply because we get to know each other that much better.  So less open in some ways, but more open in others.

Finally, a big thanks to everyone that participates in this great group.  While I have only been lurking for the last year or so, I have always got a lot of value from reading these discussions.  I plan to be more active in this group in the future, and hope to be able to add some value to others in return for the value I have got from being a member myself.

Also, a particular thanks to Susan and Jacob from Office Nomads.  I visited them when I was in Seattle almost two years ago, and they were welcoming, encouraging, full of information, and great fun to talk to.  They were very supportive of my ideas and I'm sure they'd be happy to see what we've achieved here in the last few months, and to know that they played a part in helping me get to this point.

Keep up the great work everyone!

Marc.

Marc Harrison

http://six8bromham.com

Richmond, VIC, Australia.