Hello,
I am the Community Manager for Troy Innovation Garage in Troy, NY. After many months of construction we are at the final stage of construction and anticipate to open our doors in the Fall. I wanted to reach out to hear about the challenges people faced while opening their doors and if you had any advice. What was your grand-opening like and how you got the interested individuals throughout the project to transition to paying members?
I appreciate any advice!
Michelle
Welcome, Michelle!
You have to involve people in the process as much as possible from as early as possible.
You don’t want customers coming in to consume your services; you want co-conspirators who feel emotionally invested in what you’re doing.
The real value of a coworking community is in the bonds built between the people who are a part of it. The workspace is just a delivery medium for that.
Host happy hours, dinner parties, pop-up coworking sessions, and whatever else people want to do. Before you open the workspace.
Solicit feedback on decisions, through in-person meetings and online. Invite people to be a part of what’s happening.
Treat people like humans, empower wherever possible, and remember that we’re all in this together.
The office and business stuff gets a lot easier when you’ve built a tight-knit core of passionate and dedicated people.
Best of luck!
Tony
On Thu, Aug 4, 2016 at 9:10 AM, [email protected] wrote:
Hello,
I am the Community Manager for Troy Innovation Garage in Troy, NY. After many months of construction we are at the final stage of construction and anticipate to open our doors in the Fall. I wanted to reach out to hear about the challenges people faced while opening their doors and if you had any advice. What was your grand-opening like and how you got the interested individuals throughout the project to transition to paying members?
I appreciate any advice!
Michelle
–
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Hiya Michelle!
I can’t second what Tony said here enough.
I was at a coworking space in Philadelphia (IndyHall) last week, and I noticed that they have 3 rules: Take care of yourself, each other and this space. (They’ve even got a cool artwork for it!) The space is last on the list because the people are what make or break the coworking community - without them, you’ve just got an empty office space, and that’s no fun!
Get the first 10 people, then empower them to help build your community. The space is just a place to meet. If you’ve created a community that exists outside the building, then the “space" part of coworking will be a lot easier.
Good luck!
216.206.9338 (c)
“Those who can, do. Those who can’t, hold meetings.” - Some person on the internet
On Thu, Aug 4, 2016 at 9:10 AM, [email protected] wrote:
Hello,
I am the Community Manager for Troy Innovation Garage in Troy, NY. After many months of construction we are at the final stage of construction and anticipate to open our doors in the Fall. I wanted to reach out to hear about the challenges people faced while opening their doors and if you had any advice. What was your grand-opening like and how you got the interested individuals throughout the project to transition to paying members?
I appreciate any advice!
Michelle
–
Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups “Coworking” group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected].
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.