A view from the Austin Coworking Unconference : Angel Kwiatkowski, CoHere (Fort Collins, Colorado)

Angel Kwiatkowski is the founder of CoHere, a coworking space based in Fort Collins, Colorado.

She is the co-author of “Coworking : building community as a space catalyst“, and spoke about it during the Coworking Unconference, which took place on March 10th in Austin (Texas).

“As a former human ressources manager in a traditional organisation, I was just sending emails and fullfilling ineffective tasks, she says, Today, as a coworking space catalyst, I spend my time listening to people. That’s the best version of human ressources development. Ironicaly, I had to leave a company to actually practice my craft”.

Building a community before the opening up of a coworking space is critical, says Angel. Coworking spaces which opens without having a community already sticking people with each others take such a long time to build it that they can have to shut down before reaching the occupation breakeven point.

Coworking spaces also have a life cycle, acknowledge Angel. Free lances, entrepreneurs and people in general come in a coworking at a specific time of their professional life. They will work there during maybe 3 to 5 years, and likely move away. and the same applies likely for Coworking space owners…

Jean-Yves Huwart
Global Enterprise
Coworking Europe 2010 conference

Advertisement

Interview of Christoph Fahle, co-founder of BetaHaus (Berlin), during Coworking Europe 2010

Two simple ways to build the community in a coworking space : ask and promote !

Nice post published on the global coworking blog :

Coworking is not just about freelancers sharing desks, chairs, and wi-fi. It’s about connections, interactions, conversations, collaborations. In a word, coworking is about community. Independents working together is a testament to how coworking both fosters and sustains community. And you can help build community by doing two simple things: ask and promote.

1. Ask
Believe it or not, if you ask someone for help in a way that’s respectful of their time and knowledge, you’ll probably make their day! What better way to build community than recognizing the awesomeness in others? […]

2. Promote

[…] We’re not talkin’ about smarmy self-promotion. Oh no. We’re talking about promoting others. As you grow your own business, you can contribute to your coworking community by helping to promote others—in small and big ways. […]

Read the all post here

The Works, Prague : “Community first !”

The Works, in Prague, is “the first CZ international online and real life Coworking Community promoting sharing knowledge and best practices”. The Works organises real life meetings to work (e.g. jellies) and share knowledge and best practices.
“The community matters more than the physical spaces !”, stresses Dave Ruzius, the founder of The Works in Prague. Dave will be a speaker at Coworking Europe 2010. (watch the video)

Nomadz: a Coworking space in The Hague