When’s the last time someone thanked you for a casual gesture with something this thoughtful?

]]> http://www.indyhall.org/blog/2010/06/10/a-poem-about-breakfast-by-our-own-parker-whitney/feed/ 0 http://www.indyhall.org/blog/2010/04/18/indy-hall-member-profiles-steve-winkler/ http://www.indyhall.org/blog/2010/04/18/indy-hall-member-profiles-steve-winkler/#comments Sun, 18 Apr 2010 18:36:26 +0000 Parker Whitney http://www.indyhall.org/blog/?p=832 Meet Steve Winkler.

Steve, a representative of the PR and marketing contingent at IndyHall, has been with us since we lived on Strawberry St and has taken the reins of our fine newsletter. As such, I fear he will know what I’m going to ask before I ask it. To start, I wanted to know how he came to be a Haller.

“I was working for a small agency here in Philly and as the years went on we had less and less need for a physical office as employees and clients alike were spread across the country.”

What, then?

“I went on the hunt for a place to work and it came down to Indy Hall and a very corporatized office share in Center City.”

But wait, who doesn’t want a phone answering service, mail service, and a secretary?

“If you need somebody to do stuff for you, then that’s where you go. If you just need to work, and you can handle your own business, you can come here. You have to ask yourself who you want to be? How do you want to work?”

See? This guy is a pro. That last bit could be used as a full on slogan.

Now we know how Steve found us, so why the long tenure?

“This is a more interesting environment to work in. One of the problems with being in marketing and PR is you’re kind of in an echo chamber. You’re just in marketing world and you start to care about what magazines like PR Week think.”

I’m so sorry, Steve.

“When you’re exposed to people outside of what you do, you realize nobody cares about PR week. Being here I’m constantly reminded to take a step back and acknowledge there’s a larger world out there and that’s a huge plus.”

Awesome. Now’s my chance to ask what…

“I’m not doing PR anymore. You ready for this marketing speak? I’m doing what’s called ‘Experiential Marketing.’”

Bollox, I said!

“Clients basically come to us because they want people surrounded by their brands. We produce ads, websites, and do events.”

I was curious whether being here at the Hall had improved his quality of work.

“Programmers, Designers, Marketing people, we all have different ideas about the way things work. The more I am exposed to these different perspectives the more I’m able to synthesize them into ideas for cool new marketing campaigns.”

Unbelievable, this guy. If I keep getting answers like this I’ll be out of a job soon. Thanks Steve.

“It’s basically applying computer information technology to biological problems.”

“As a field it ranges from trying to understand the structure of biological sequences, such as DNA or protein sequences, to what I work on which is the understanding of chemical structures.”

“I wanted to start a company on the side and I wanted to keep my work, in some aspects, separate from the university.”

“The other reason is that, like a lot of people here, as a developer I pretty much work by myself. I had a few research students who I’ve worked with that knew some programming but they never had any interest in developing truly complex applications.”

“Working alone I had no contact with professional level developers and having been in the industry formerly, I really missed being surrounded by people using cutting edge technology.  Immediately upon joining Indy Hall my workflow underwent some massive changes as a result of conversations I had over coffee. For example, Jason Allum turned me on to Github and it makes all the difference when you can actually see why something works so well. Also, I just missed the social interaction.”

“The person that directed me here originally was Amy Hoy. I wanted her permission to use some slides she made for one of my classes and in our email exchange she asked if I was aware of the developer community in Philadelphia, more specifically here at Indy Hall.”

Megan is a professional seasonal fabric home décor designer. Wow, that’s a mouthful.

For all you seasonal fabric home décor design civilians out there this means she designs those pretty Christmas stockings you hang above your fireplace in addition to various other holiday decorations. She claims designing Christmas stockings is a year round activity but I don’t buy it. My current theory is that it’s a front for her true profession: Mercenary Assassin. More on that later.

I couldn’t help but wonder how one gets into her alleged profession.

“I originally went to school for fashion design but mostly for wearable art, not production fashion.”

Seems she’s better suited for making wearable art for the runway, no?

“You can’t make money doing that so when I left school I got a job doing seasonal home décor design.”

Consider the dots connected. So how does Megan find herself among our ranks here at Indy Hall.

“I knew a lot of the early members and we would go to the Junto down in South Philly and people were always talking about the Hall. When I heard about the job I’m doing now I came and checked out Indy Hall before I even interviewed. I knew that I’d be working remotely and that doing so from my apartment just wouldn’t work for me.”

Interestingly, I more often hear that someone’s been working from home prior to joining the Hall but found them self too distracted to be productive. Excellent foresight she’s demonstrated here… a little too excellent perhaps.

“I’m a really social person and it’s hard not having a design team to work with so at least this way I get to have the social interaction as well as a separation between by working and living space.”

Megan’s presence at the Hall predates mine so I was curious to know how long she’d been here.

“7 months on and off due to the time I spend in China.”

… Now you remember that theory of mine?

“I go to China because that’s where all the buyers from all over the world go to meet with people like me and the salesmen. If a company does import they usually will meet in Hong Kong. It’s the hub of product related business transactions.”

I believe that, assuming that by “product related” she means people and by “business transactions” she means bounty collections. All I’m saying is you’d do well to buy plenty of decorations this year.

Happy Holidays folks.

“When I would go to my doctor, my dentist, or any small business in my area it would stand out to me that they had substandard IT solutions and I would point that out to them.”

Harsh, I know. Did I mention he has a kind side too? He would always follow up by helping them out.

“When I stopped working for a huge company and was trying to figure out what I wanted to do, I thought that it would be easier for me to be engaged and understand the value I was delivering to people if I worked directly with customers in a smaller context.”

Consulting the IT civilians, empowering the little guy, it all makes sense. However, there isn’t exactly a wealth of substandard IT solutions floating around Indy Hall so what does “Mr. Savvy IT Guy” do here?

“The plan has always been for me to mine that area for a product or two and then focus on building those products because that’s what I really enjoy doing. Consulting and products are two different areas and I’m more of a product guy. Right now I’m actually moving away from the consulting side of small business to work on three products I have in development.”

If that’s not livin’ the dream, I don’t know what is. Naturally, I was curious as to what role coworking has played in Bill’s ability to create this situation for himself.

“When I was looking for office space I ran across this idea called coworking which sounded good to me. I quickly found that Indy Hall was one of the leaders in the area but living in Jersey I didn’t think I’d want to come to Philadelphia all the time. I came in one day just to do research and I realized that I really would be better off just hangin’ out here.”

Ok, but… why?

“The first day I had a six hour conversation with Jason Allum and I said to myself, ‘Ok, this is a good place to be.’ There was a lot of excitement about Indy Hall Labs and the business model that Alex, Jason and the guys were figuring out and that was very interesting to me. I realized there were people here who could teach me stuff and that was better than being alone in my basement office.”

There you have it. Indy Hall: The perfect alternative to your substandard workplace solutions.

I’d like you to meet Dr. Greg Wilder.

Greg is a classical conservatory trained pianist and composer whose works have been performed on prestigious stages across the globe. He is known by many different titles including but not limited to musician, composer, professor, and more recently co-founder of Orpheus Media Research.

I, however, know him by a very different title:

Speed Chess Nemesis.

It is for precisely this reason I challenged him to conduct this interview over a match. The opening move was simple; I wanted to know how Greg came to be a part of the Hall.

“I met Alex through PSL (Philly Startup Leaders) and I was very curious about him and his ideas about Indy Hall. I put myself on the waiting list and as soon as they relocated I became a member.”

I couldn’t help but wonder how a classically trained pianist composer wound up sitting in front of a computer as opposed to, well, a piano.

“I haven’t been hands on with any music for a number of months now and it’s been very difficult. I made a conscious decision to focus on my business and it has completely changed my life. Instead of attending an orchestral rehearsal for example, I’ll go to a business meeting.”

I still wasn’t quite sure as to why exactly he was here, a deceptive tactic perhaps. It was time to make a developing move. I had to know what could be so important to someone that they would put aside everything their life had revolved around thus far in order to pursue it.

“I’ve spent my entire life listening to, performing, and studying music. I’m fascinated by the way in which the human mind interacts with music and what I’m doing here at Indy Hall is giving computers a human-like sensitivity to music from both the listening and compositional standpoints.”

Boosh. Check. A bold move indeed, but would it pay off?

“My first morning here I really didn’t know if this would work but by the end of the day my mind was blown. There are so many brilliant people here that you really can’t be the ‘smart kid in class.’ I’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to work with quite a few of them and they’ve done a lot to help make my vision a reality. What we’re doing is as much about coworking as it is about music innovation.”

Checkmate. Well played, Dr. Wilder. Well played.

“The four of us worked on the floor…umm…borrowing Wi-Fi from a neighbor while we waited for our broadband to be installed.”

Did I say noble? I of course meant humble.

I was curious to know if Indy Hall, a truly collaborative workspace, had collaboration at its roots.

“Its roots are all in collaboration. Some of us were working together before Indy Hall opened its doors, during our ‘Cream Cheese Sessions.’”

A statement I found to be a particularly nice way of saying “Duh.”

Having been coworking for nearly 3 years now I wanted to know if Bart could ever see himself working any other way.

“I couldn’t work in a traditional office or even an office share. That just doesn’t appeal to me. This space is very open and creative. I keep to myself most of the time but I’m aware of what the people around me are doing, it’s part of the deal.”

How about from a business perspective?

“We couldn’t do it any other way. Very early on we realized that this model works really well for us. It’s not the case for everyone but for us there’s really no other way.”

A statement I found to be a particularly nice way of saying “I’m not going anywhere.” We’re glad to hear it because we sure do like having Bart around.

Holding true to form I couldn’t help but wonder first how Kevin got here.

“About two years ago I went to a cream cheese session, a Bar Camp, and Ignite Philly all within a couple of months. Alex was a big part of this scene and before I knew it I was coming in to Indy Hall to work once a month.”

Ok. Cheese, Bar, Ignite, Alex, I think I got it. Two years, huh? I think he must like it here.

“I love it here. Everywhere I go, be it Florida or Sweden, I talk about Independents Hall. A lot of the time I wind up being known as ‘Kevin from Indy Hall.’ There’s just so much going on in the Philadelphia tech community right now and when I ask around, people know.”

It seems like Indy Hall has served him well. Rumor has it he’s in the process of returning the favor.

“We’re basically developing a coworking management program in an effort to make your life easier.”

Thanks Kevin from Indy Hall! You shouldn’t have.

“The goal is to automate all the operational tasks involved in running a coworking space, such as invoicing, so you’re free to focus your energy elsewhere.”

I’ll add that to the list of great ideas that have been grown here.

“Funny you should say grown. My girlfriend and I were talking about wine the other day. The grape makes the wine and the soil has a lot to do with that. Only grapes that were grown in the Champagne region of France can be called Champagne. The reason is that you could take two seeds from the same plant, grow one in France and one in California, and the grape that grows will be completely different.

In application, an idea that starts here is going to get the flavor of the people that are here now. It’s going to turn out different than if it happened in a traditional incubator or in someone’s garage and I think we have really good soil here.”

Wow, Kevin from Indy Hall, that’s a fantastic analogy. Indy Hall: It’s good soil for your mental grapes.

“I developed an academic coaching application to help students working on their thesis stay motivated.”

Where were you while I was a full time student, semi-professional procrastinator, Mike?

Now, as an aspiring champion of logic, I thought that putting lots of coders into one space would create serious competition when it came time to find work. Mike assured me this simply isn’t the case.

“Intuitively you’d think this situation would create a lot of competition, but it’s not the case. It turns out that the people you meet are more likely to help you find a creative solution to your problem than to try and take your work.”

Like many inhabitants of the Hall, Mike sticks around because of the valuable connections he’s made since becoming a member.

“I knew after a few days I couldn’t go back to working at home. It’s really about the connections, these people who are expanding my view, my ability to do things.”

It’s not uncommon for people to take interest in Indy Hall initially because they see the potential to find collaborative work in the community. For some, it happens right away and other times, it takes awhile. In the end, they end up finding value in places they never sought it.

“I haven’t gotten any work yet through being here, even though that was the primary reason I came here. Even then, it’s been totally worth it.”

Really? No work yet? I didn’t buy it. Then Mike admitted,

“Well, Bula talked to me today about doing a mock up for an app he’s developing and Bill wants me to do some JavaScript for him.”

There, was that so hard?

Thanks for your time, Mike, it’s a pleasure having you as a member of IndyHall.

Looking forward to meeting Bula, Bill, and more? You will…just keep an eye on our bi-weekly newsletter (subscribe over on the left) or subscribe to this blog!

She contrasts her neighboring coders by running a travel service, named Chimera Travel (@chimeratravel), completely solo.  She operates out of Indy Hall or from her home, whichever she feels like that day. Freedom to move around only makes sense when you work in travel, right?

She made the decision to uproot, sell her storefront, and join Indy Hall for good reason.

“Some days I would sit in my store all day and not one person would come in. I learned quickly that people aren’t planning their vacations during work hours; they’re working. Other days, someone might come in just looking for me to beat the ticket price they just found on Orbitz. That’s not the kind of travel service I want to provide. I like to work with clients closely to find out what they are looking to get out of a vacation and make that happen for them. If you want to go relax on a beach at a spa resort, I want your booking experience to be just as trouble free.”

Maya’s excitement and love for travel are undeniable. I couldn’t help but wonder if this was what she always wanted to do.

“It’s always been my passion, but I was in corporate fitness for some time before I decided to make the switch. It’s a lot of hard work but there’s nothing I’d rather be involved with.”

I’m always curious to know whether having experienced Indy Hall people could picture themselves working outside of this context again.

“Honestly, not right now. I love the energy around here. It’s so nice to be here and interact with people throughout the course of the day as opposed to sitting in my storefront waiting for customers to show up.”

It’s nice to have you, Maya!