Donors Needed! IndyHall/National Mechanics Blood Drive 2.0
Filed under: Announcements, Community Support, Events, Independents Hall
Last spring we held a blood drive, with the help of the American Red Cross and long-standing friend of the IndyHall community, Reed Gustow. We ended up having over 20 donors, which we considered a great success.
This year we decided to up the game, and set the goal for 45 donors registered. In order to do so, we needed a bigger venue. National Mechanics stepped up and volunteered their space.
That’s right, after all of those nights putting stuff INTO our bodies at National Mechanics, it’s time to reverse the process for a day!
Next Monday, April 6th, we’re hosting the 2nd Annual IndyHall blood drive with support from National Mechanics and the whole community. At this point we’re about 15 donors away from our goal and only a week away from the drive.
This is where you come in: we need you to register for a slot to give blood! It’s easy.
Step One: Register with the Red Cross to donate on the date of the drive.
Step Two: Show up on April 6th for your time slot and donate blood.
Step Three: Eat cookies and drink juice! And hang out with other members of the IndyHall community.
Do I have to be a member of IndyHall to donate blood at the blood drive?
ABSOLUTELY NOT! This is open to the whole community. The more donations, the better.
But I’m afraid of needles!
Fear not – the Red Cross nurses are awesome. Just watch the video above and look for Dave Speers’ mention of how great they are. Not only that, but what better way to get over your fear than with the support of your friends and community members. If you ask nice, I’ll even personally hold your hand 
I’ve never donated before…
PERFECT! You only get to do it for the first time once, so why not now? We’ll even sweeten the deal:
If you’re a first time donor, you get your choice of a free IndyHall t-shirt, or a “buy one/get one” credit for ANY level of IndyHall membership. Just contact us to let us know its your first time and we’ll sort the rest. We are that dedicated to making an impact.
Register TODAY. Seriously. Please don’t wait.
And as always, if you’ve got any questions, you know the drill.
IndyHall Refresh 2009
Filed under: Announcements, From the Business Side, Independents Hall, coworking
If you’re reading this post, there’s a good chance you’re experiencing the new IndyHall website, refreshed for 2009. There’s a lot to go over here…so let’s go step by step together!
Logo/Layout
Over the last 2 years, we’ve been sporting a flourished Independents Hall silhouette as our iconic logo, designed by one of our longest standing members, Johnny Bilotta. We’ve been complimented left and right on this logo, and appreciate all of the accolades we’ve received and been able to pass along to Johnny. This logo isn’t dead, it’s evolving. Don’t be surprised if it pops back up again soon.
We’ve had one major complaint all along, and that was that the logo simply lacked our name in context. If we weren’t so darned good at branding, the tie between that artwork and our brand could have easily been lost. So when it came time to refresh, that was priority #1.
Geoff and I talked about the redesign and thought it’d be interesting to go a totally new direction to show the advancement and evolution of IndyHall. At the same time, he had the interest in taking it a new visual direction, and putting a more “classic Philadelphia” feel to it. We worked with Rick Banister, one of the lead designers at Geoff’s studio P’unk Ave, to achieve that feel.
There was admittedly some conflict here. Despite a few revisions, the one piece that came out of the original comps that we all really liked was the new logo: typographic, bold in statement, and most importantly: it was made from our name!
We test drove the new logo on a new batch of tees we took to SXSW and got great response from them. It was time to take Rick’s great work and drive it home.
When we returned from SXSW, I had a moment of inspiration (mostly induced by extreme stress and lack of sleep) and took Rick’s original layout concept and began down a new path. We kept minimalism a theme, and Rick’s imported the color swatch from the original IndyHall logo that Johnny created. That color scheme finds its way into a number of highlights on the site, not the least of which is the “member feed” section on the homepage. Function and feature-wise, the site began to take life.
Member Feed
One of the earliest iterations of the IndyHall website, long before we had an office, was an aggregate of activity about coworking in Philadelphia: blog posts being tagged indyhall and coworking, photos, and posts to our google group. It became difficult to manage as content started coming in from all over the web, so we lost touch with that concept.
In this re-approach, Rick had the concept for an accordion that let you expand each section to peer into life at IndyHall, a “lifestream” for our members, if you will. While the accordion visual didn’t do what I wanted to as far as being a dashboard into activity at IndyHall, the concept was strong. I poked around the web for ideas and landed on the column layout for photos, tweets, blog posts, and events.
Photos: this one’s simple: we’re pulling in photos tagged “indyhall” and displaying thumbnails. Clicking on them brings up a larger version, the title, and a link to the original photo.
Twitter: we asked our members if they’d like their tweets to appear on the IndyHall homepage. Many opted in, and provided us with their Twitter usernames. We started following them with a special, private bot account that makes it easy for us to add/remove members from the stream that displays on the homepage. The script that manages this was written by David Martorana in Python.
Blogs: just like the tweets, we asked users to opt in with their RSS feeds. We’re currently merging the feeds with SimplePie. This feed aggregation is pretty dumb for now, and will evolve as necessary.
Events: turns out iCal is a giant pain in the ass to parse. Luckily, David figured out how to hit the Google Calendar API with Python and created a feed of events starting on the current day, and reading 5 events forward. Want to view more events? We’ve embedded the entire IndyHall event calendar in agenda mode and linked below the feed. Still not content with the events we’re tracking? We link to one of the best event aggregation sites in the Philly scene, Philly New Media Hub, created by IndyHall Member Chris Morrell.
Sidebar
Our site’s sidebar has always been dismal and useless. Nowadays it sports our hours, address, phone number, and a place to sign up for our new weekly email newsletter.
Full copy rewrite
The copy on our site was always a mishmash that reflected the ever-changing status of IndyHall operations. Since we’ve stabilized a bit, we never got around to rewriting.
So the new about page and space page now put heavy focus on the community, it’s dynamics, and the values of the IndyHall community. We hope it’s a clearer, more interesting read across the board.
Membership
Another really disorganized part of our site since our original launch nearly 2 years ago was our membership page. It was never clear what we offered, though we got very good at describing it in person. We took those in-person descriptions and realigned the whole member page.
Thanks to Jonny Goldstein, one of our full time members, we have a fun video describing the types of membership at IndyHall and thats now placed prominently on our membership page. We also describe how to join, and have a slick slider that lets you choose what type of needs you have and it suggests the right kind of membership for you.
We also included “night shift” officially now, which we’ve been testing for the last couple of months. We’re pre-selling night shifts, currently Wednesdays from 6-10pm, as 5 shift punch cards. These cards are $50 for basic members, or $75 for non-members and are available during office hours at IndyHall or to be pre-purchased by contacting us.
FAQs
Gosh, we answer a lot of questions. Most of the time, it’s the same questions! We’re hoping this page answers those questions before people need to reach out to us…and this page will continue to live and grow as those questions change and evolve. We’re super-excited about the video down near the bottom, where Geoff and I share some insights into how to develop the business side of a coworking space from a community. Be sure to check it out!
Blog
The blog is still our blog, all content has been migrated. We’re taking better advantage of tags and comments to organize information, and also have more prominent placement for author information. Our hope here is to encourage more of our members to contribute to the blog with this change, and consequently keep it fresh. The blog is still running on WordPress, and the latest and greatest version.
Easier to find us
Our contact info is easy to get to from every page. No excuses for not knowing where we are, how to get here, or how to get in touch with us!
Now what?
I’m sure there are bugs, and opportunities to improve. Your feedback is welcome and encouraged. We want this site to do a great job of expressing what IndyHall is all about, what it means to be a part of it and what kinds of activities take place here. If you see something blatantly missing, or other ideas, drop us a note in the comments or email us.
And most of all, we hope to see you around the office to be a part of the excitement that takes place in our office. That’s right. IRL. In the mean time, go ahead and grab our RSS feed to get more. If RSS isn’t your game, you can sign up for our new newsletter.
Happy 2009 everybody, and Viva la Coworking!
SXSW, Coworking, And A Video about some Frequently Asked Questions
Filed under: FAQs, From the Business Side, Independents Hall, Movies, coworking
Geoff and I got back at the end of last week from SXSW Interactive, where thousands of geeks from around the world converged to discuss topics of design, technology, business, community, marketing, social media, etc.
Not only did we attend, but we were presenters: I ran a core conversation that was not only well attended, but included representation from around the world and from all different walks of coworking life. Additionally, Geoff was on a panel about “Building Regional Whuffie” and attracting innovation to your city with some other coworking space founders: Susan Evans from Office Nomads in Seattle, Julie Duryea from Souk in Portland, Matthew Wettergreen from Caroline Collective in Houston, and moderation by Tony Bacigalupo from New Work City in Manhattan.
Furthermore, the now annual Coworking meetup at the Hotel San Jose organized by Julie Gomoll from Launchpad Coworking once again fused the global coworking community for an evening of drinks and conversation, hugs and inspirations. It’s one of my favorite evenings of the year, as it seems like the Coworking Google Group descends on Austin Texas and we all get to share meatspace for a few hours.
And finally, but certainly not to be overlooked, was the first time we got to visit Conjunctured, Austin’s first coworking space that opened up shortly after it’s founders spent time discussing their concerns and hesitations with Geoff at last year’s SXSW Interactive. They’ve done a phenomenal job, and it was really great to attend a “Jelly Talk” in their coworking space. It was also great to finally meet Amit Gupta in the flesh. After many near brushes with each other over the last 2 years (and plenty of conversations online and on the phone), we finally got to shake hands.
I’m sure I’m leaving out some coworking highlights (like high fives with the crew from Beehive Baltimore, brilliant chats with our coworking friends in Paris, and being called a “Paragon”), but they aren’t the point of this post anyway.
Last year seemed to be a breakout year for Coworking in regards to SXSW as a focal point. Through the year, Tony B and myself had a number of calls with Hugh Forrest, the main organizer of SXSW Interactive about the conference’s influence on Coworking, and the potential for coworking’s influence on the conference. Hugh remains supportive, though I understand where he’s stretched thin. More on that later.
Geoff and I began to notice that this year, Coworking had certainly matured. The number of spaces has increased. Many are beginning to stabilize, and communities are really beginning to galvanize and do great things for their local communities. Those are the spaces that are at the same or similar levels of evolution to IndyHall, and continuing to exchange and dialogue with those communities excites us.
But as the movement continues to grow, the same basic questions continue to be asked by new groups entering into the fold. This isn’t a bad thing by any stretch, but it’s not sustainable for us to keep answering the same questions over and over (or anyone, for that matter).
We’re in the process of formalizing some of our thoughts and processes, but in the mean time, wanted to share some of our content with the coworking world.
We took an afternoon and sat down at the Hotel Saint Cecelia and propped up my Flip cam, and produced a 50 minute video answering 15+ of the questions we get asked the most about IndyHall and coworking. Despite some noisy conditions (produced by an unexpected landscaping crew), the video turned out well and we’re excited to share it.
We just posted that video live at a new page on the IndyHall website, specially designed for this new venture. Our number one goal here is to allow us to point people to this website (and we encourage others to do the same) when these questions get asked. This will free us up to continue evolving IndyHall, and working with other coworking communities who are evolving past the fundamentals as well.
We’ve licensed the video Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial Share-alike to encourage people to take this content and reproduce and republish it in the ways that they see valuable, so long as attribution remains. You can even download the original .mov source if you like.
This is the first (and the longest) of the installments that we’ve created and will continue to create. If you have specific topics that you’d like to see us cover, leave a comment here or tweet the question to us (I’m @alexknowshtml on Twitter, Geoff is @geoffd) and we’ll be sure to cover it in a future episode.
Oh, and to tie this all back to SXSW, we’ve got some ideas on how coworking principals can help SXSW continue to grow without consuming itself. Would anybody be interested in hearing an episode covering that topic?
Update: IndyHall Membership Drive 2009
Filed under: Announcements, Community Support, From the Business Side, In The News, Independents Hall, Kudos, coworking
Last weekend, Geoff and I put out a call for new, upgraded, and pre-payment of IndyHall Membership in order to show the level of commitment from the community needed to grow IndyHall to the next stage of it’s evolution.
We put a very short deadline on this, since our efforts are moving quickly, and asked that people step up by the end of the day on Monday, March 9th.
That was yesterday. And everybody want’s to know how we did.
The Results
We did pretty well.
13 New Members (all levels)
4 Upgrades (all to full time…are there any basic members looking to go lite?)
9 Pre-paid current members
Many members, existing and new, also pledged their support for the move by prepaying anywhere from 2 to 12 months!
This is all in three days. It’s all thanks to every one of you. Well done.
But it’s not over.
Now What?
You said you wanted IndyHall to grow. You proved it to us by opening your wallets, which really means a lot to us and this community. We welcome all of the new members, and look forward to having you joining us very soon.
Geoff and I are going to be taking the next steps towards the new space, and making each step forward with your backing and support to guide us. We’re also thinking carefully about the use of 32 Strawberry St, and a variety of models to continue to make it a community resource and sustain the property there.
Most Importantly:
The membership drive isn’t over. We’re still signing members at all levels, and the more commitments we have before May 1st, the better off IndyHall will be. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, and we need as much support as we can to make it happen.
Keep your eyes peeled here (and on twitter) for more news as it comes forward. We’ll keep you updated at every turn.
And thank you.
Important! – Membership Drive for Monday March 9th: IndyHall v2.0
Filed under: Announcements, Community Support, From the Business Side, Independents Hall
As you may have heard by now, we’re considering moving IndyHall into a new, larger office on the other side of Market Street, 20-22 N. 3rd St and will be discovering some alternative uses for the community better suited for the space we will continue to occupy at 32 Strawberry Street.
Geoff and I called a Town Hall meeting on Tuesday, and had lots of positive response.
If you haven’t seen yet, some of those responses are posted online:
http://www.indyhall.org/2009/03/04/the-state-of-indyhall-march-3rd-2009/
http://technicallyphilly.com/news/indy-hall-to-expand-add-educational-element/
http://www.imouttaherethebook.com/2009/03/big-changes-coming-indyhall-raises-the-bar-again/
Now What?
What we need now is commitment from the community that we embrace, encourage, empower, and completely love.
Much like the membership drive we held in August of 2007 to open 32 Strawberry Street, we’re looking for member commitment to help us verify the sustainability of a move into this new office.
We’re turning to three core audiences:
- Our Current Membership
- Our Waiting List
- The Extended IndyHall Community
We’ve already contacted our current membership, and are working with our waiting list to manage upgrades and new members that have been waiting patiently for news about our expansion.
We’re looking to the phenomenal community of businesses, entrepreneurs, creatives, freelancers, startups, telecommuters and remote workers in Philadelphia, the people we consider the extended IndyHall Community, for their interest as well.
Open Membership
In fact, membership is re-opening at all levels immediately, and will become active on May 1st.
Now, what we need from you.
We’re looking for folks who haven’t had a chance to come meet the IndyHall community and experience our work environment now. If you’ve never worked at IndyHall, we’re certain that working here for a day will help you determine if this alternative office is the right thing for you. Normally, its $25/day for non-members to work here. For a limited time, we’ll be offering free dropin days for visitors who sign up for multiple months at any level of membership.
Space is limited, so you must reserve a desk in order to take advantage of this offer. You can contact us for information on how to make a reservation.
Not familiar with how IndyHall works? This website is admittedly outdated and needs a refresh. Our bad. More on that coming.
In the mean time, Full Time IndyHall member Jonny Goldstein put together this excellent video to explain who we are, what we do, and how it works.
Please don’t hurt yourselves
What we’re NOT looking for is for you to overextend yourself. Our decision is based on how sustainable this move is, so if your upgraded membership is not sustainable, it’s misrepresentative of the entire goal.
At the same time, if you have the ability to pre-pay for any number of months beyond the usual month-to-month commitment we offer to IndyHall, that will also help us plan for this move and have some cash in the bank to work with. While we haven’t decided to raise our membership rates, if you have the ability to pay ahead, we’ll honor that rate for the duration of your pre-payment.
Whatever upgrades we’re taking will go into effect on May 1st, which is our proposed move-in day for the new office.
Deadlines. Comin’ up fast.
This is going to happen very, very quickly:
Geoff and I are going to be making our decisions based on how many commitments are made between now and End of Day on Monday, March 9th.
Yes. That’s this upcoming Monday.
Finally, and maybe most importantly: you are our front lines recruiters. Nearly everyone who works at IndyHall was referred by somebody other than myself, which is what makes this community so strong. If you have friends, colleagues, business partners, etc that you think would benefit from working at IndyHall, let them know that we’re looking for new members to join our community. Encourage them to come work at IndyHall soon for a day and see if they like it. If you’ve got questions about how to go about this, please drop us a line. Share Jonny’s video above. Let them know about the free drop in days (and that they have to reserve!).
Thanks for enduring this lengthy post, and for your ongoing support of IndyHall. If you have questions, or simply want to let us know what you’d like to do, our door is open and so is our inbox.
Thank you so, so much. This is so much excitement, we don’t know what to do with ourselves.
The State of IndyHall: March 3rd, 2009
Filed under: Announcements, Community Support, Events, From the Business Side
Last night, around 50 community members piled into IndyHall to discuss where we’ve come from, how we got here, where we’re going, and how we’re going to do it together.
created by Kevin Lee
I’m still digesting the event, and I’m sure our community is as well, but I wanted to at least share some of the material. Geoff and I led the discussion from this loose deck of slides, which exposes some fun stats about our growth.
At the point where the deck says, “and now for something completely different”, we shared a video walk through of a new space we’re considering moving IndyHall into.
These two pieces of information leave a lot of unanswered questions, many of which were discussed last night and the rest of which still remain to be seen.
The crux of the situation is this.
IndyHall is full to capacity a few days a week, and there continues to be demand for more desk space while we’re already pretty cramped. We’re looking to the community to commit to the desire to continue to grow IndyHall with more than just their words: we need to convert our waiting list to actual members, and sign up more people who we have not had join yet. Have you been considering joining IndyHall? Now’s the time. Still have questions/concerns? Ask us.
We need the community to help us make this decision in an informed, and sustainable manner.
Much, much more to come. Thanks to everyone who came out to last night’s Town hall.
-Alex
Philadelphia’s Pre-SXSW Mixer @ National Mechanics
Filed under: Uncategorized
Headed to Austin, TX next week for SXSW (South by Southwest)? Going for the interactive, film, or music portion? Worried that you don’t know a soul from Philly who’s going as well?
Are you a SXSW Newbie who’s looking for someone to show you the ropes so you don’t find yourself (and your iPhone battery) totally burned out on day 2 of the festival?
FEAR NOT!
We’re hosting a pre-SXSW Mixer at National Mechanics on Tuesday, March 10th starting at 7pm. Nothing extravagant, just a place for the Philly scene to converge, pre-game a bit, and meet some of their fellow conference-goers, and swap pro-tips on the experience.
If you’ve never been to National Mechanics (you’re crazy and) it’s on 3rd, just below Market Street. Big stone columns. You can’t miss it!
Follow up with TechKaraokePHL, Cogeoke Practice Edition.
TechKaraoke is a tradition passed down from generations of nerds (ok, a bunch of nerds in NYC) who have an extreme longing to sing poorly in front of an audience, and is also the name we’ve given to the Karaoke night that goes on at National Mechanics every Tuesday at 9pm. Why is this an important juxtaposition to our Happy Hour SXSW Mixer? Because at SXSWinteractive09, Happy Cog is thowing a Karaoke Competition and we need to practice! Come support some of your local Philadelphians who are competing, including Haveboard, TommyBGoode, and of course yours truly. P.S. We still need votes. Especially me.
