“The essential ingredient is the workers”
Filed under: coworking, FAQs, In The News, Independents Hall
The [coworking] space can be in a renovated house, large office or custom building. But the essential ingredient is the workers. “A coworking space, without the community of people to go along with it, is called ‘an office,’ “ says a Web site devoted to the concept.
Nice. We totally agree.
“Free” is a lousy motivator
Filed under: coworking, FAQs, From the Business Side, In The News, Independents Hall
I’ve never really thought that free days made a good incentive to convert non-members to paying members, short or long term.
In the short term, part of the barrier to entry created by paying for membership at a coworking space is dedication and commitment. Free isn’t a good way to start a committed relationship. Furthermore, even our night shift members have pointed out that they get more done in a 4 hour session that costs $10 because they know they should; sitting on the couch working on their side projects is free, but that means that slacking has no real cost. When you slack AND you pay for your desk-time, your utilization patterns change.
Furthermore…there’s the factor of intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivators.
Extrinsic motivators, like providing things for free, or other monetary (or otherwise token) incentives may work once. It may work a few times. Even several times. But odds are, if your goal is to charge money in order to sustain at some point, the “free-ness” will have to go away at some point. And then expectations need to change and you’ve taken a technical problem (cashflow) and made it a social problem (commitment).
Free is an extrinsic motivator. Business services are extrinsic motivators.
Community is an intrinsic motivator. Being empowered is an intrinsic motivator.
Intrinsic motivators are the ultimate in sustainability. They’re harder to provide initially because you have to figure out what they are, but we think it’s worth it in the long run.
Update: IndyHall Membership Drive 2009
Filed under: Announcements, Community Support, coworking, From the Business Side, In The News, Independents Hall, Kudos
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.
Dex’s Coworking Road-Trip visits IndyHall
Filed under: Announcements, coworking, Education/Workshops, Events, From the Business Side, In The News, Independents Hall
Scott Annan and Scott Lake, two startup entrepreneurs from Ottawa Canada are doing a roadtrip to co-working spaces in Toronto, Montreal, Boston, New York, and Philadelphia to connect with local startup communities and share their story about a new method of open and collaborative development to create Dex, their recently launched personal and social CRM system.
Join us Thursday night January 29th at IndyHall, from 6pm-8pm, to hang out, meet the founders, and talk about their trip to coworking and their product. It’ll be fun and casual, and all are invited! Please RSVP on Garys Guide.
Scott Annan is a founder at Mercury Grove. Scott Lake is a co-founder of Shopify.com and ThinkSM. They also both write for StartupOttawa.com.
Scene But Not Nerd
Filed under: Community Support, In The News, Independents Hall
IndyHall and a number of other (but hardly all) of the members of the fabulous geek scene we’ve been a part of over the last 2 years got a really great FRONT PAGE feature in this week’s Philadelphia Weekly. The author, Steven Wells, did a great job capturing some of the diversity that makes Philly’s geek scene totally kick ass. There are some great quotes from Geoff and I, as well as a comparison to a sage Yoda and an impulsive Luke Skywalker. I don’t think anyone’s ever pinned Geoff and I so well.
It’s on newsstands around Philly all week, so if you want a hard copy grab yours now.
Thanks again to everyone who’s contributed to, led, supported, and cheered along with us over the last couple of years.
Geeks rock, and Philly geeks rock hard. Congrats Philly.
IndyHall-oween ’08 @ Tatooed Mom on South Street
Filed under: Announcements, coworking, Events, In The News, Independents Hall, Kudos
International “it’s OK to dress like a freak” day is coming soon: Halloween is in just a few weeks! Via twitter, I saw someone Ben Kessler mention that they’d like to have a geeky party to wear their obscure geek-culture referenced costume to and not be laughed at. Becky Clawson and I chatted about it outside of our usual haunt last week, and we brainstormed around trying out a new spot. That’s when we reached out to Robert Perry, co-owner of Tattooed Mom on South Street, with an idea.
Robert’s been pretty active in the philly geek scene, and is a bit of a self-proclaimed geek himself. He’s running one of our favorite small business twitter accounts, and has come to events including the August “Tweetup” and one of the P’unk Ave Junto‘s in the past.
Last night, Robert and I solidified plans to invite the Philly creative/geek scene to Tattooed Moms on Thursday, October 30th (the night before Halloween). We plan on starting at 9pm and going as late as they’ll have us. Drinks are always cheap at Mom’s, and Thursday night is their $1.50 Pabst 16oz cans & $1 Lionshead bottles til midnight.
The only logical name for this event? “IndyHalloween ’08!”
Over the next couple of weeks we’re going to reach out to some other folks in the community to come up with some fun games/contests for during the party. In the mean time: mark your calendars for Thursday, October 30th at 9pm, and get working on your geeky costumes now!
Please RSVP on Facebook so we have an idea of how many to expect!
It’s Always Indy in Philadelphia – Come Party With Us!
Filed under: Announcements, Community Support, coworking, Events, From the Business Side, In The News, Kudos, Library
Thanks to everyone who sent in venue ideas for the IndyHall 1 year birthday party. We’re ready. Are you? Here it goes!
[viddler id-8d2000e7 h-370 w-437]
The Deets! (below the cut)
The Great Open Source Birthday Party
Filed under: Community Support, coworking, Events, From the Business Side, In The News, Independents Hall
IndyHall’s office is almost 1 year old. We signed our lease on August 10th, 2007, began occupying the space on August 13th, and over the next 2 weeks, built out our intial office. At the end of August, we threw our inaugral party.
It’s August 2008. That means we’ve been at this for a year, which still blows my mind. It’s time to celebrate.
There are 31 days from today until the end of August. In the next 31 days, we’re going to put our birthday party together, but we’re not going to do it alone. Just like IndyHall came together as a community, so will our first birthday party.
So here to explain what we’re doing is…well…me!
OK! So you have 1 week from today to give us your best connections to the raddest venues in Philly.
The constraints are:
- Hold lots of people
- Serves alcohol
- A stage/sound system would be really helpful for some of our other ideas
- Outdoor is cool, but remember the weather is unpredictable!
Send your venue connections/ideas to me or leave us comments here.
You have one week to complete this challenge, if you choose to accept it. Let’s make this the best birthday party ever by open sourcing it and powering it by the community that makes Philadelphia a place we love to call our home!
Let’s Celebrate Innovation with iSepta and RipIt
Filed under: Announcements, Community Support, coworking, Education/Workshops, Events, From the Business Side, In The News, Independents Hall, Kudos, Library
IndyHall is PROUD of two of the products to come out of organic team collaboration in the last several weeks.
This 4th of July weekend, we celebrate iSepta: created by Randy Schmidt, Chris Conley, and Jason Tremblay, as well as Ripit: created by Jason Allum, Johnny Bilotta, Dave Martorana, and Dave Speers.
In the spirit of celebrating our successes, IndyHall is inviting everyone to join us for frosty cold beverages at our favorite watering hole, National Mechanics. And we can’t remember a bad time at National Mechanics!
We’re gathering at 7pm on Thursday, July 3rd (right before your holiday weekend begins!) so there’s no excuse for missing it, unless you’re going out of town. And if you’re going out of town, you might want to reconsider!
RSVP is requested so we can get a head count. Your choice, Upcoming or Facebook.
We hope this is the first of many celebrations of team success!
SPONSORS!
The only thing better than a night at National Mechanics is a FREE night at National Mechanics!
We’re hoping to make these launch parties a regular event, and so with this first one we want to open up the opportunity for you to sponsor the event.
We’re designating 3 levels of sponsorship to make this event happen:
- Fan : $25 sponsorship
- Super-fan : $100 sponsorship
- Sugar-daddy : $500 sponsorship
We REALLY want to support more innovation like this, and we’d love for you to show your love for these teams hard work. All sponsorship dollars will go directly towards an open tab and passed appetizers.
As a sponsor your name and link will be added to a thank-you page on our site, as well as announced during the party.
Fan-level sponsor $25
Super-fan-level sponsor $100
Sugar Daddy-level sponsor $500
All payments can be made with paypal, or you can drop off a check at IndyHall any time before the party. We thank you in advance for your support and generosity!
Thanks to our sponsors!
Anonymous Contributions
$25
$25 Fan Contributions
Kara LaFleur
Stan Schwartz
Lisa Schwartz
Haveboard
MediaComponents
Alex Sutherland
Roz Duffy
Duran Goodyear
Tony Green
Kevin Lee
Bill Bratun
J Marziani
Ross Lieberman
Marisa McClellan
Chris Morrell ($50 at the bar)
$100 Super-fan Contributions
Night Kitchen Interactive
Sealworks, Inc.
Reed Gustow
WebThere
Round3Media
PhillyPreneurs ($50)/BridgeMarketingGroup($50)
Seer Interactive
30Points
P’unk Ave
Annie Heckenberger
Scott McNulty
$500 Sugar Daddy Contributions
ümlatte
uwishunu
Weblinc
Jason Allum ($500 at the bar)
From Love Comes Paine – Buy Tickets to Paine’s World at IndyHall
Filed under: Community Support, coworking, Events, In The News, Kudos, Library
This Saturday will be a celebration of a new movement, and as you all know, we’re big supporters of movement in Philadelphia.
As part of an initiative to re-inspire the skate movement after skating in Love Park was banned six years ago, the Paines Park Project is working to rally support for an important part of the urban culture that has since dissipated to other cities. Paine’s Park is planned to be not just a skate park, but a skate environment. An environment that can, much like IndyHall has become for us, become an icon for a community.
We’re huge supporters of projects that help retain talent across industries and cultures. This opportunity is no exception.
So join us, along with artists, performers, and a number of other iconic brands from the Philadelphia area including Space 1026, Nocturnal Skate Shop, Urban Outfitters, Tastykake, and Johnny’s favorite: Pabst. Along with food and beer, there will be live performances from musicians and skate professionals at the Urban Outfitters Navy Yard HQ.
This is a 21+ event (we’re checking IDs to purchase, and they’ll be checking at the gate as well) to support Franklin’s Paine Skatepark Fund in its mission to build the 2.5 acre skatepark in Center City Philadelphia. Transportation options will be available, details are on the website.
You can buy tickets at a number of locations around the city. They’re $22 online, or $20 if you come to IndyHall and pick them up. They are also available at Red Tettemer, Urban Outfitters in University City and Center City, and Nocturnal Skate Shop.
See everyone Saturday, Skate on!
