Announcements, Week of 3/5/2012
Filed under: Announcements, Ex Libris Den Mother 4.0
*Disclaimer: I tried to Google the phrase “funadelphia”, came up short. So, this.
Weekly Announcements
SXSW and all of it’s nerdy debauchery commences in Austin, TX, this week. What does that mean for those of us holding down the Indy Hall fort? It poses the challenge for us to have such an outrageously fun and productive week that we’ll make our SXSW-goers regret the moment they stepped outside of 20 N. 3rd Street. Let’s all band together and have way more fun than everyone so unlucky to attend what the San Jose Mercury News calls “a fashionable place”. [In related news, anybody want to take the phones this week? I really want to go to SXSW.]
A handful of new members joining Indy Hall, this week and last. Introduce yourself to:
Michael Auritt
Justin Campbell
Mark Headd
Liz Koster
Ben Levin
David Manning
Luke Ellis Nicholaides, Mike’s newborn son (Mike, I’m charging him as a Full-Timer, fyi)
This Week!
Monday (TONIGHT!) - Nothing?!
Tuesday - Alex Hillman and Councilman Bill Green meet for a discussion on Philadelphia and Business Privilege Tax. The talk begins at 5pm, and if you haven’t already RSVP’d, let me know.
Wednesday – Night Owls is on at 6pm. Good music! Great company! High productivity! Miniature disc golf ! (totally free to all Indy Hall members)
Thursday - Cocoaheads meet-up at 7pm – be there, or don’t (but you’re better off being there)
Friday - Here’s a little pre-weekend math:
Let y = you
Let f = friend
Let NM = National Mechanics
y + f + NM = math makes me anxious, let’s drink
NEXT WEEK: Tuesday, March 13th – Revel in your loyalty to Philadelphia and the choice to NOT go to Austin! RSVP to attend the #notatSXSW Celebration presented by your friends at YIP, Indy Hall, Technically Philly, and Geekadelphia. It’s at Barcade and it’s going to be great/better than SXSW.
Details, here: https://www.facebook.com/events/324335397613350/
NOTICE:
This week, Indy Hall begins composting. Toss ALL COFFEE GROUNDS in the compost containers, please and thank you!
Do something out of the ordinary, today. And, tomorrow. And, the day after that.
Announcements, Week of 2/27/2012
Filed under: Announcements, Ex Libris Den Mother 4.0
Weekly Announcements
The end of this week ushers in the beginning of March, a month of green milkshakes, green top-hats, green clovers, green beer and monochrome, cultural stereotypes. Indy Hall is going green (ha!) beginning this week, too, with the inception of composting and vastly-improved recycling habits, not to mention the sprouting of serpentine flora throughout the Hall. Lest I start talking about plants and garbage in the introductory paragraph of the announcements, I suggest we move right along to the week’s events.
This Week!
Monday (TONIGHT!) - Find out what’s cooking at Indy Hall with Counter Culture, starting at 6pm.
Tuesday – Postgreen Homes’ reNEWBOLD launch party, at Taproom from 5pm to 8pm.
- Indy Hall Poker Night. Cards come out at 7:15pm and blinds go up every 30mins. Spots are still available to play. RSVP at http://anyvite.com/usndejkvdc
Wednesday – Betsy Spivak makes her triumphant return to Indy Hall, offering invaluable advice on insurance options for small businesses and independent entrepreneurs. Enlist for 30 minutes of pure, unadulterated insurance intel by signing-up on the sheet in the kitchen.
- Night Owls commences at 6pm. Good music! Great company! High productivity! Miniature disc golf ! (totally free to all Indy Hall members)
Thursday - Nothing specific to report on Thursday. Anyone have plans?
Friday - Lunch ‘n Learn with Adam Kazan, Financial Wizard – starts at noon!
- Does the phrase “data gloryhole” mean anything to you? Get down with Kelani Edmondson and Little Berlin when they launch flashfl00d, their “semi-secretive mass public exhibition of rapidly-distributed hidden flash drives containing downloadable exhibitions”.
Check out the site: http://littleberlin.org/flashfl00d/
-also on Friday: GO TO NATIONAL MECHANICS AND DRINK.
Introduce yourself to someone you don’t know, this week – Go forth, and be merry!
Announcements, Week of 2/20/2012
Filed under: Announcements, Ex Libris Den Mother 4.0
Weekly Announcements (Now with 100% more Future Space Presidents!)
Who’s ready for President’s Day?! I want you all to know, each and every one of you is my President, this year. I also want you to know that I have, essentially, plagiarised my own introduction from last week because I haven’t had a cup of coffee, yet.
So sue me. (Don’t, though.)
This Week!
Monday (TONIGHT!) - President’s Day, which means impromptu scotch tasting? What’s going on tonight?!
Tuesday - Indy Hall Poker Night. Cards come out at 7:15pm and blinds go up every 30mins. Spots are still available to play. RSVP at http://anyvite.com/usndejkvdc
Wednesday – This is how Philly coworking does Downward Dog. Join Pam Selle for yoga at 11:30am.
- Night Owls starting at 6pm. Good music! Great company! High productivity! Miniature disc golf ! (totally free to all Indy Hall members)
Thursday - Girls. Geeks. Dinners. Three of the best things on the planet*. Dine with the three, new fellows for the Code for America program, starts at 5:30pm.
*somewhat subjective
- Two words: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA. Is Battlestar only one word? Does contemporary grammar hold up in space? Answers to these questions, and more, when you nerd out over the newfangled BSG movie, starting around 7pm.
Friday - It is written, “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every pint of local beer from National Mechanics”. Take someone out, tonight, because Indy Hall sayeth so.
Continues to be Happening - Have you spared a measly 30 seconds to win $1,000, yet? Enter the GCUC-sponsored “I Share My Space” contest: http://www.austingcuc.com/i-share-my-space-video-contest/
Here’s to the best week of your life, and next week’s going to be even better.
Announcements, Week of 2/13/2012
Filed under: Announcements
Weekly Announcements
Who’s ready for Valentine’s Day?! I want you all to know, each and every one of you is my Valentine, this year. With my romantic proclivities in mind, let’s muster up a little love and make this week an excellent one.
This Week!
Monday (TONIGHT!) - #whyilovephilly Party tonight at National Mechanics! Be there or, well, don’t be there. Be warned: you will regret not joining the festivities.
Tuesday - Indy Hall Poker Night. Cards come out at 7:15pm and blinds go up every 30mins. Spots are still available to play. RSVP at http://anyvite.com/usndejkvdc
Wednesday – Night Owls starting at 6pm. Good music! Great company! High productivity! Miniature disc golf ! (totally free to all Indy Hall members)
Thursday - Show ‘n Tell is this Thursday, and Becky Collins is fixing to drop some knowledge on you about going green. Join the environmentally-friendly presentation, gain karma points for the rest of the day/week/year.
Also, don’t miss Ignite Philly 9, tonight. Hope you snapped up a ticket for this one, because this bad boy is sold out! More information, here: http://ignitephilly.org/
Friday - I cracked open a fortune cookie, today, and it advised that I go get a beer with a friend at National Mechanics. None of that is true, but I’ll do it, anyway.
Still Happening - Dude, seriously, enter the GCUC-sponsored “I Share My Space” contest: http://bit.ly/yE0gzu [contest rules: http://www.austingcuc.com/i-share-my-space-video-contest/]
Note - The cereal box apocalypse has come and gone, praise be Zorn, and it seems fitting that a similar end is near for the assorted spices and condiments all packed into the cabinets above and around the microwave. If you’ve been hoarding cumin and thyme, your compulsion may need a new venue. Fear Zorn, Destroyer of Worlds!
Have a great week, everyone!
Announcements, Week of 2/6/2012
Filed under: Announcements
Whoa, it’s February 7th, and there’s a lot happening here at the Hall. We’ve seen a lot of fresh faces joining as Basic Members in the past two months, and a few retroactive introductions are in order.
Here are a few of our new Basic Members:
- Rob Epler
- Louis Gamble
- Wendy Kirby
- Lee Kreloff
- Brett Mandel
- James Maxwell
- Aaron Ogle
- Julian Zarate
…I know I’m missing people, here. Consider this a small “sampling”?
Speaking of new faces, if you haven’t gotten your lovely mug on the new and improved Face Wall, let me know! I am fairly confident that my FujiFilm Instax 210 will not steal your soul – I think it has something to do with the film, which apparently only needs light and oxygen to develop, and not souls. I have no idea how cameras work.
Anyway, don’t recognize someone you keep walking past? Say ‘hello’, meet someone new, learn something great. Easy, right?
This Week!
Tuesday - Indy Hall Poker Night, $10 buy-in. Cards come out at 7:15pm and blinds go up every 30mins. Spots are still available to play. RSVP at http://anyvite.com/usndejkvdc
Wednesday - Night Owls starting at 6pm. Good music! Great company! High productivity! Miniature disc golf ! (totally free to all Indy Hall members)
Thursday - CocoaHeads meeting at 7pm // InLiquid Benefit v.12: Pre-Party, which Indy Hall members have been exclusively invited to!
Friday - ⅘ doctors recommend that you and a friend go have a pint at National Mechanics. Don’t argue with 4 doctors.
All Week - Enter the GCUC-sponsored “I Share My Space” contest, dude/ttes: http://bit.ly/yE0gzu
[contest rules: http://www.austingcuc.com/i-share-my-space-video-contest/]
Administrative Note:
Cereal boxes have somehow been spawning at an exponential rate over the course of the last, few months. In an attempt to control the population, Zorn has placed every box of cereal in a larger box, waiting to be reclaimed. If you reclaim it and place it back above the counter, it’s yours. Those boxes not claimed will be prosecuted and cast into Cereal Hell, which closely resembles our trash can.
HAVE A GREAT WEEK, EVERYONE!
Mo’ Money, Mo’ Problems
Filed under: Ex Libris Den Mother 4.0
Having people come up to visit Indy Hall for the first time is awesome. I say the word “awesome” too much, maybe. But, oh my god, it’s awesome to show-off something awesome to some potentially awesome people and have them leave thinking that you’re an awesome person who works in an awesome environment.
/awesome
That being said, during every tour that I give to someone brand new to our space, our active philosophies, I almost always arrive at an incredibly shitty juncture, prompted by this question:
-”How much?”
Hey, don’t harsh my buzz, man. Don’t get me wrong – it’s very obviously a perfectly valid, practically-minded inquiry. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS QUESTION. The issue is entirely on my behalf, and it comes from my reminder that Indy Hall isn’t some totally-not-for-profit oasis of zero obligation and need for financial sustenance. It reminds me that money has to be involved, at some point. It reminds me that I can’t just invite this positively wonderful visitor into our happy family without at least subtly initiating a transaction.
It’s at that point where I wonder where the balance is between Indy Hall’s ability to sustain its obligatory (financial) operations and its almost free-love ethos (the coworking mantra). That “line”, and there is one, is so finely vague – intentionally, too: too much of the operation b.s. and we’re diluting the essence of what it is to “cowork”. Too little of it, and we’re dead in the water – we won’t have amenities to boast of (not that we have ever or will ever brag on behalf of our desk real estate). I just…feel weird bringing it into the conversation, as though it spoils our soon-to-be wonderful friendship.
I found a significant likeness to my Indy Hall “finance vs. fun” trouble during a poker game that I had no business buying into. See, before that game, I didn’t know how to play poker. The $20 buy-in, however, was a risk that resulted in understanding that I wasn’t paying money to just to lose it (as I initially anticipated), but to join friends and meet new ones over an easy card game. Hell, I learned how to play Poker after I put my money on the table, and I’ve been laughing about conversations with the other guys at the table since we played. An ignorant and cynical self saw nothing but loss in that game, but an enlightened and happy self knows only how much I gained. I gained everything, that night.
And, look, I’m not saying that Indy Hall is a risk or a gamble. I recognize the inherent issues with comparing our lovely coworking environment with a scandalous game of betting and bluffing. What I’m getting at, ultimately, is the game of Texas Hold ‘Em opened my eyes to a new worth of currency, and that’s how I feel about Indy Hall. I’ll state it, bluntly: no one is coming here for a desk. Nobody is paying for our printer. You’re coming here for something intangible, but lasting: a platform for relationships we might not find elsewhere. If there is a risk, I promise you that it’s worth one. If we must talk money, I’d prefer that we discuss how very much you will gain from putting up a few bucks to keep this good thing rolling.
By the way, the buy-in is $25 – coffee is on us, though.
I don’t think you’ll regret sitting at our table.
Here Comes A New Contributor!
Filed under: Announcements, Independents Hall
I am historically awful at introducing myself, particularly in blog format. I get nervous and awkward and accidentally hit caps-lock while typing. You’ve been warned.
HEY, I’M ADAM, and I’m the new Office Manager here at Indy Hall. “Office Manager”, by the way, is a terrible title for what I do, here. It sounds so uptight and formal, when really I can just as easily say that my job requirements involve hanging out with extremely talented independent workers, learning from insanely ambitious free-lancers, and tossing back a pint at National Mechanics with said talented and ambitious dudes and ladies.
It’s awesome.
I have so many things that I could drone on about – why I chose to be involved here, how I plan on carrying the coworking torch into and beyond 2012, my humble stance on being the fourth in a prestigious legacy of Indy Hall Den Mothers, etc. Tons of great material. What I will (briefly) say is this:
What consistently surprises the hell out of me, the one thing that always leaves me in awe of this community and concept, is our absolute lack of competitors. We have no rivals, here. No enemies, no detractors. We harbor no secrets, no “corporate” ill will. Our competitive spirit extends into FIFA 2012 and Ping-Pong. Indy Hall, as far as I am concerned, is astonishingly pure – a lawful good paladin. I’m not just exaggerating that. We are karmic gold, with all the kindness and malleability that entails. We love what we do, we love where we live, and we love one another.
If you’re just getting back from throwing up, I understand. It’s weirdly ideal and hokey, but oh my god, I defy you to challenge those statements. Come and visit us, take a glimpse at what we’ve got going on.
I THINK YOU’Re going to like it.
*I Googled the phrase ‘new challenger’ to find a relevant image for this post. What I got is 200 pages of trucks. Didn’t even think of that.
Quick Business Stats
Filed under: Announcements, coworking, From the Business Side, Independents Hall
This week 4 years ago, Indy Hall was in it’s “public beta” before opening officially on September 1st, 2007. I assure you, it wasn’t always glamorous.
Enough sappy reminiscing. I spend plenty of time focusing on the important coworking soft skills on my personal blog that I wanted to share some quick business stats that we’ve produced as a result of operatin on those values:
- In 2011, our basic memberships ($25/month) have generated 20% more revenue than our lite memberships ($175/month)
- In 2011, our full time membership accounts for almost 50% of our total annual revenue
- Our AVERAGE monthly revenue across 2011 is >8x growth over our first revenue generating month in 2007.
Video of Ship It Society @ Indy Hall
Filed under: Community Support, Events
Thanks to Flying Kite media for this video and article covering the event.
Special thanks to Ship It Society organizers and participants, we’re looking forward to the next event!
Why do people love Indy Hall?
We asked. They told.
Filed under: coworkers, coworking, FAQs, Independents Hall, IndyHall U, Research
After nearly 4 years of working on making the best place in the world to work, we turned to our members to find out exactly what they thought about the experience. In their own words.
I can’t tell you how proud I am to be a part of this community.
Alternative link to PDF hosted on Google Docs
This draft includes the preliminary findings of our interviews. We will continue to synthesize our findings, add more interview sources, and in the near future publish our research framework to encourage other coworking spaces to conduct their own research as well.
Perhaps just as rewarding was hearing some responses from non-interviewed members. Things like:
It’s awesome to take a step back from the day-to-day mindset and take a moment to appreciate the big picture we are actually part of.
Not everyone is jammin’ some nice tunes whilst they work away on something they actually care about, let alone surrounded by people they like.
We get to do that.
This is a rare
and beautiful thing.
I would totally fit into this profile [...] I haven’t seen anything close to this. And I have read a ton of market research stuff and HR stuff as well. I cannot praise this report enough…
I get goosebumps reading some of the quotes in there cause I think exactly the same way.
A very, very big thank you goes to all of our interviewees. And a special thank you to Valerie Wilcox, the Indy Hall member who suggested and led this entire project.
For members, by members, about members. That’s how we do it at Indy Hall.
