Growth
IndyHall has seen exceptional growth and stability over the last year. While we were operationally break even quickly (before the end of 2007, in fact), we didn’t have a lot of working capital and we did have a little bit of debt. And while we also had a really robust and active community all along, our desk usage and membership has seen tremendous growth as well, with all 12 of our full time desks occupied since August 2008, a paying membership roster in excess of 50 members at various levels, and very exciting activity from our non-permanent memberships.

Specificity and Specialization
One of the things that I’ve prided IndyHall on has always been zero exclusion. Unlike incubators, we don’t require you to have a “business model”. Unlike associations, we don’t require a you to be a member of a specific industry. If you can work from anywhere, we believe you SHOULD be working from a place like IndyHall.

That diversity is important to the ethos of our coworking space. I wouldn’t change that for the world.

But I remain curious what happens when a specific set of under served needs get specific attention, and how diversity can be approached in a new way.

The plot thickens
One of the smaller, but still certainly present, demographics at IndyHall (and many other coworking spaces) is media production. Audio/video editors, producers, photographers, videographers, podcasters, so on and so forth. I admittedly know very little about this industry from a production standpoint, what the roles are and how they inter operate. However the limited knowledge I do have suggests something that is really intriguing to me: could a coworking space designed for independent media producers thrive? I think the answer is yes.

One of the biggest reasons I find that media folks tend to not be the best fit for IndyHall is the difficulty in being mobile. Even with field equipment becoming smaller and more accessible, that’s only one piece of the equipment equation. As great as a Macbook Pro can be, it doesnt come close to a Mac Pro for video work, and a number of potential IndyHall coworkers have expressed that if it wasn’t for the thought of lugging their rig across the city, they’d be all over coworking. We’d either need to provide some machines as part of membership, or be a bit more geared towards full time members and less for migrant workers. Most likely some combination of the two approaches would be ideal.

The other side of the equipment fence that could be approached, though it comes with its own set of complications, is equipment rental. As we’ve done with IndyHall, making an office in Old City with a conference room available for $275/month or less is only possible when a bunch of people are sharing the resources. High end, otherwise unapproachably expensive equipment could be shared in a similar fashion. Again, this comes with a whole set of liability questions to be answered (the cost of replacing and maintaining office equipment is much less than high end A/V equipment). But that’s a technical problem with a solution, I’m sure.

Diversity within Specialization
Thinking further about the types of people who might use this space: even though they are a more focused group than the “types” of workers who hang at IndyHall, there’s still a good deal of  diversity in workers, process, etc. The way I think about it is there are writers who don’t like to direct. Directors who don’t like to edit. Editors who aren’t as good at digital effects and prefer working directly with footage (and of course the other way around). Basically, at every step of the production process there’s the opportunity for a handoff if someone more specialized is available. A similar “stick to what you’re good at and find complimentary partners” strategy as is employed often in software and web at IndyHall can apply to media production, making everyone’s end product supremely higher quality. At the risk of sounding trite, it’s like a production company without the company. The powerful “small pieces loosely joined” model strikes again.

I’ve admittedly thought about and talked through a lot of this model already, but have my mind open to how it will best serve this community. My ultimate goal is to enable the independent media creators in Philadelphia to up their game and produce even better content for themselves and their clients. I need you, those independent media creators, to tell me what’s missing.

So, whaddya say?
Are you an independent or remote media producer who’s looking for comradery, business development opportunities, opportunities to learn new skills from peers, and above all, put on some pants and get out of your house? In Philly, and interested? I’m going to follow my own roadmap and host a meetup to talk about this idea, and I’d like to do it before 2009 is here.

ACTION ACTION!

Let’s meet at National Mechanics Next Monday, December 22nd. 6:30pm. RSVP on Upcoming, or heck, just show up. Tell your friends. Invite anyone who might be interested. It will be an open forum discussion with the goal of having actionable next steps to walk away with. Maybe identify some new leaders in this community. Let’s rock and roll into 2009.

The Deets! (below the cut)

Time: Sunday, August 31st, 6pm.
Place: Triumph Brewing Company, 2nd and Chestnut, Old City Philadelphia

The IndyHall 1 year birthday party bash is coming together quickly. This event is NOT to be missed. We’re celebrating EVERYONE’s hard work, love and support of this community for the last year. And for those of you who know how much we love to celebrate, you can only imagine how big this throwdown can be.

Remember the BlogPhiladelphia party that was at Triumh? Bigger than that.
Remember the PodCamp Philly party that was at Triumph? Bigger than that.
Remember IgnitePhilly at Johnny Brenda’s? BIGGER than that.

Remember the RipIt/iSepta party at National Mechanics? That’s right. Even bigger than THAT.

We’ve got the entire upstairs of Triumph reserved, and there’s no rules against spilling over into the downstairs. In fact, I hope we do. We’ve got pre-recorded and live entertainment. We’ve got special guests.

But what’s really important? The food and drinks.

That’s where we need your help.

Much like the RipIt/iSepta launch party, we’re turning to you for help again. For the launch party, the Philadelphia community stepped up and contributed over $4000 in less than a week, and that gave us a good start on the night. This time, we’ve got 3 weeks, and as such, we’re setting lofty goals.

Here are our targets and their accompanying rewards:

<$10,000 – a bar tab, available until it’s gone
$10,000 – open bar, cash food
$15,000 – even longer open bar AND free food

Sponsors!

Every little bit helps, so we’re revisiting the old sponsorship packages!

• $25+ Entry into drawing for a free 1 year basic membership (valued $300) Giftable!

• $100+ Logo on an event t-shirt from ChoiceShirts, and name announced at the party

• $500+ 12″ wide (that’s a decent size) Logo on our Larger Than Life Prints Sponsor Sticker Wall, and name announced at the party

• $1000+ 24″ wide (THATS HUGE) Logo on our Sponsor Sticker wall & on an event t-shirt, and name announced at the party

• $1500+ 36″ wide (OMG THATS FREAKING HUGE) Logo on our Sponsor Sticker wall & on an event t-shirt, and name announced at the party

And the UBER SPONSOR opportunity:

You know how sometimes you want to set the goal that you think someone MIGHT come along and hit, but the odds are low? And you want to put a completely ridiculous reward on that goal, to match the level of ridiculousness that the goal itself has? Well do we have a treat for you!

The first single source to donate $10,000 USD and have it be confirmed in our bank account will not only receive all of the rewards above, along with an immense amount of cred with our global community, along with the satisfaction of knowing that you got to participate in our historical event. BUT YOU GET MORE!

You get Geoff DiMasi shaving his head, on camera with a personalized message to you. AND Alex will get the IndyHall logo tattooed on his body. An untouched photograph proving its placement will be provided for confirmation.

WHAT MORE COULD YOU ASK FOR!!!!!!????!!!!

How to be a sponsor!

How do you play along? This time around, we’re playing with ChipIn. It’s pretty easy, and lets you specify any amount of contribution. We’d prefer the minimum be $25, if for no other reason, Paypal DOES take a cut of our goodies, and with our goals, we should be making their customer of the month list!

So go ahead and chip in! Feel free to take our chipin widget and share it on your blogs, pages, facebook, etc as well. Remember, EVERY little bit helps! We won’t make a dime from this event, we just want it to be as off the hook as it can possibly be. This is a night meant to be remembered. We want you to be a part of that!

Want to contribute another way? Email us!

PLEASE RSVP

Upcoming.org. You know what to do.

The biggest thank you ever.

In all seriousness, thank you to everyone who’s been along for this ride over the last year. And thank you immensely to everyone who continues to pour themselves into this operation. I can’t imagine life without it.

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)

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!

Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable

The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations

Entrepreneur

Wired

In addition to our wish list on Amazon, many friends of Indy Hall have been donating books from their personal collections. Each day there are great new titles here such as Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (2 copies!), Bulletproof Web Design, Web ReDesign 2.0: Workflow that Works and Experience Design 1.

Our contributions aren’t just limited to books, as demonstrated by our good friend Joshua Lane who also donated a HUGE box of Transformers!

Stay tuned for a digital representation of all the books we have at the space, and feel free to drop by sometime to flip through a book for inspiration or to learn something new. That’s what we’re here for.

Independents Hall now has a library wish list on Amazon!

Please view the list and comment on this post if you have any suggested additions or have any books / etc that you would like to donate yourself. Perhaps there are some of you out there who aren’t ready to climb aboard with a full membership and are looking for other ways to contribute to the community. If so, here’s your opportunity!

I’m personally kicking it off with a subscription to Fast Company, one of my favorite magazines.

Stay tuned for more ways to contribute and benefit from this great community that we are building together!