The group of us who run coworking spaces in San Francisco, including: Citizen Space, The Hat Factory, Sandbox Suites, The Altrupreneur Center and AF83 are really excited to be throwing a conjoint Co-Hopping Event on Thursday December 13 from 6:30-10:30 pm. We are also really excited to have Bio-Diesel Betty (aka Lindsay Hassett) entertaining us between venues in her bus with the Bamboo Floors, pillows and, what else, bio-diesel fuel.

The route map looks something like this:

And can be found on Google Maps. The event commences at Citizen Space (425 2nd Street, #300), but you could potentially begin at any of the spaces on the route and catch up with us as the bus will be making the loop throughout the evening. There will be food and drinks at each of the spaces and the event is totally free.

The night is intended to give people a flavor of the different spaces, meet the peeps who run them, find out a little more about coworking and just generally celebrate. Hope you can come out and celebrate with us!

Saturday, July 21, 2007 10:00 am PT – 5:00 pm PT
Citizen Space, San Francisco, CA

Cost: $99

Artists and designers rely on studio critique to understand how their work resonates with others. But it’s not just artists who need to bridge the inner worlds of creativity with their audience to improve and innovate, we all do.

This workshop is an inside look at studio critique. It is a hands-on inquiry about the fundamental human practice of feedback. Find out what’s entailed in creating a safe environment so that people will share what’s on their mind productively. Walk through an evaluation framework that allows diversity to flourish. The rigor of the approach accelerates innovation and boosts morale.

Learn for yourself the how of studio critique: be guided through a proven 10 step protocol for compelling evaluation and optimized outcomes. Come away with a clear and grounded approach to giving feedback at work.

Audience:

• Creative Teams
• Product Development Professionals
• Engineers & execs who want to learn to give better feedback
• Q&A teams

In the fast-paced world of technology, we may miss the nuances of feedback. Essential for any design team, especially non-designers.

Instructor:

A thought leader on creativity, Elle Yaven provides programs on emergent research from inside the art and design studio. She has a background as a painter and is on the Graduate Design faculty at California College of the Arts, San Francisco.

Elle has been a guest presenter on making thinking visible and the studio critique at Harvard, AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Artists), The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, The Creative Problem Solving Institute and Innovation Immersion for Fortune 500, among others.

Visit her website: www.lindayaven.com

So…wow…we collected over 120 responses (including the first 11 via email that aren’t in the spreadsheet) and I spoke with quite a few people who said they didn’t get the chance to go take the survey, so I think this is representative of the fact that there is quite a bit of interest worldwide in coworking! Yay! Some great information, too…really telling us where we are at and highlighting people’s needs.

Some overview results for you:

NOTE: I’m guessing due to the anglo-centric discussions, we are getting much higher response in English speaking countries. This may present an opportunity for those in other countries to champion this movement themselves, by translating important text into their own language?

NOTE: The trick, for me, is to turn the 10.9% lurkers (and the 18.2% others) into either future space owners or coworkers and turn those potential space owners into actual space owners so the people looking for spaces have somewhere to work!

NOTE: For those setting up a space, think of creating a really great atmosphere as the #1 thing to concentrate on. There is a great article here on seriously great workspaces. So, do you need art? Comfy chairs? Plants? Rugs? Flowers? Games? Yep. In the end, EVERYTHING was pretty important (nothing scored less than 50%), but Atmosphere and Comunity Feeling blew the others away.

So, how can we help the people trying to set up coworking spaces?

…if we could encourage the lurkers, maybe #3 (Partners) wouldn’t be such a big deal and they could help us find space (#1). Money? That’s a whole other issue. Anyone have good tips? For us, we decided to take fewer risks on the monthly rent (found a fix-me-upper that doesn’t have parking spots so the building rent is lower) to make for a better space and not as much pressure on us if we lose tenants…

…aaaawwwww! Community, advice and support are awesome things to get out of this list and everyone should be proud of themselves for giving so much!

The rest of the answers are here: http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pVSaj5ixYmAyYm–dbRhgXw in long form. I’ve removed all of the personal information as far as I know…(like IPs and emails)

Enjoy!

Thusfar, we’ve had two ‘levels’ of coworkers at CS: drop-ins and desk owners.

Desk owners get a whole lot of coolness for $350/month, including:

• your very own desk … store your ‘stuff’… nobody else sits there without your permission
• your own keys and key fob with 24 hour access to the space
• unlimited booking time of the conference room, lounge, space for events (as long as it’s not already in use – schedule to be posted)
• space for third parties to come in and collaborate with you (unlimited)
• wifi, power, furniture (except for you bring a nicer chair if you wish), coffee, water, office ‘perks’ (like beer and wine and snacks and stuff) and other utilities
• use of the projector, fax, whiteboards, flipcharts and printer (and other office equipment as it is added)
• moderate insurance
• growing library of cool resources: books, publications, software, etc.

We have 7 spots that are all taken at this time (including Chris and me)

The drop-ins have to sort of take a chance by whether we are going to be there or not and get the following for free:

• any available space to sit, squat or pull up a desk (except for resident desks…sorry)
• wifi, power, coffee (although it would be cool to replenish it if you drink alot) and water
• the presence of really tuned in, smart, interesting people
• ability to check out books

As long as there is space, the more, the merrier!

NOW, though, based on demand as well as the need to bring in a little more to cover those high costs, that we would add another tier of coworker. Introducing…

COWORKING LITE for $250!

What does coworking lite give you?

• Your very own key that will give you 24 hour access
• unlimited booking time of the conference room, lounge, space for events (but the full-time tenants get first right of refusal)
• space for third parties to come in and collaborate with you (unlimited)
• wifi, power, furniture, coffee, water, office ‘perks’ (like beer and wine and snacks and stuff) and other utilities
• use of the projector, fax, whiteboards, flipcharts and printer (and other office equipment as it is added)
• moderate insurance
• growing library of cool resources: books, publications, software, etc.

Basically, everything but the desk. You will have first right of refusal over drop-ins, of course (and, as it grows, we’ll manage that for you). But if all you need is an occasional office and meeting space and the ability to come and go as you please, this is a pretty cool plan.

These spaces are also limited…right now to 5 keys.

For more information, drop Chris or myself an email: tara at citizenagency dot com or chris at the same.

Do you:

* have an important pitch to VC’s coming up?
* need to brush up on your public speaking skills?
* find networking events incredibly nerve-racking?
* feel that you aren’t confidently going into job interviews?
* just want to find more confidence to talk about what you are passionate about?
* Well then, Speaker Training by Lura Dolas is exactly what you need!

Speaker Training at Citizen Space
Saturday, Apr 21, 2007 10:00 am – 5:00 pm
San Francisco, CA

About:

Instructor: Lura Dolas, Speaker Trainer Extraordinaire

Description: Whether you’re the chairman of the board or a rising star on the sales team, you have a message to convey. Your format may be a 30-second elevator pitch or a 30-minute keynote speech, a motivational address to hundreds of employees or a persuasive talk to a small group of skeptical investors. But it’s always an opportunity to present your best, most successful self.

This full-day seminar is a real deal at $99. Lura’s one-on-one rate is $150/hour. That’s almost 1/10th of her price + you will get the bonus of practicing in front of a group of peers.

(don’t worry, they are all as nervous as you)

Hey there! We’ve put together a survey to help us serve the needs of the coworking community better going forward. It would help a bunch of you filled this out…I estimate it would take about 10-15 minutes:

Survey Here

Thanks! You are swell!

Sorry for the short notice, but this bridge, which is right beside our building, is coming down this weekend, so although we can get into our building with special passes, visitors can’t just drop by.

I’m at least hoping for some cool explosives or something.

We have received many questions on what it costs to run our coworking space and, although our situation isn’t ideal for everyone (we eat much of the cost of running the space), we have been pretty good about spending the minimum on things like furniture (Ikea) and equipment (eBay, sales + donations). We add some ‘touches’ that are pricey to the space that we think makes it special (like a space/event coordinator + fresh flowers weekly) and spend money on cleaners, etc. because we found people are too busy to pitch in consistently. These are sort of ‘luxury’ costs that aren’t necessary.

So, here are our costs (some of them averaged or estimated):

• The base rent = $1500
• The utilities (electric) = $150 (avg.)
• The internet (speakeasy.net) = $140
• Cleaning service (2x/month) = $160
• Water = $25
• Nice flowers for the entry way (fresh every week) = $160
• Original space investment = $10,000 (furniture, equipment, paint, labour)
• We’ve now hired Tara 2.0 to help manage the space and events = $1500

Thus, monthly expenses work out to roughly $4,135/month (with furniture costs…and estimated replacement, upgrades, etc. estimated at $500/month). With 5 tenants, we collect $1750 (not including our ‘portion’), so we ‘eat’ about$2,385/month. We currently don’t charge for events unless they are charging (but we may start asking for a deposit based on some not-so-cool recent damage). We don’t want to rent out any more desks in the current space…if we expand to next door (here’s hoping), we willThat being said, we are always planning improvements to the space, we just want to be smart about them.

Our priorities for the next big spend are:

• New windows in the back – for both sound & climate barrier (I think these will be costly…around $2,500)
• Better projector screen (around $200)
• Better phones for the front door (around $150)

Our amenities in the space include such things as:

• Internet connection
• Coffee/water/tea …usually snacks
• A mini fridge for lunches + microwave and toaster oven for warming them up
• A central stereo system, which individuals can control through airtunes
• A fax machine/scanner/printer (two of them, actually)
• A really nice space in an awesome location
• A boardroom for private conversations (with a chandelier)
• A library of business and tech books for borrowing
• A lounge for customers to wait for you in
• Really cool ongoing community events to tap into for networking
• Whiteboards galore (even a rolling one for the active presenters)
• A projector + screen
• Desks (you can use our chairs, but they aren’t fancy, so we recommend you bring your own if you are a regular tenant)

We are also working on doing things like paying into carbon offsets and green certifying the space (Ivan talks about how we are doing this over here)

I think that’s it…If you have any questions…drop us a line!