Carrboro Creative Coworking

One of my goals is to create coworking spaces that are short distances from where people live. Because the Triangle area, Raleigh - Durham - Chapel Hill/Carrboro [RDCH], is spread out this is a challenge. The first thing to do to reach this goal is to gauge interest. Its what I did for almost two years before I opened CCC.

So if you'd like to see more coworking spaces in the Triangle please take this survey and let us know where.

Thanks!

In the past six months we've seen one other North Carolina coworking space open. Its SoCo Studio in Apex, NC. I've yet to visit SoCo but have been impressed by what I've heard. (My life has been b-u-s-y.) Sounds like they're carving a unique nitch within the coworking movement and their community.

Another coworking space in the works is Collective Giant in Charlotte, NC. I've met with the founders and am impressed by their energy. I hope techies in CTL are ready to support them!

Then we have Locomotivity in Asheville, NC who are about to open. I'm really looking forward to checking this space out. From my vantage point it appears Lance has done a great job. If I was a techie near Asheville I'd be there. BTW, Locomotivity opens Monday, March 30.

There is also movement in Raleigh, NC. Two different groups are working on spaces. One is Protege Cafe and another is Cowork Raleigh. I've even heard rumblings in Greensboro, NC too.

I predict by the end of the year we could have more than six coworking spaces in our state. But even then there will be a lot of communities in North Carolina without a nearby coworking spot. I believe Coworking is a neighborhood phenomenon.

In these tough economic times we need alternative work options. We all need more support groups within our communities. Not just because there are less jobs. But because we need to be excited about what we do! By working hard and playing hard together we can do that.

So please consider taking this short survey. Its purpose is to determine where demand is for more coworking spaces in North Carolina. To be clear I plan on using this data for business purposes.

Thanks for your help!

Interesting short video of Seth Godin answering the question, "Is social networking important for business?"

"The networking that matters is helping people achieve their goals. Doing it reliably and repeatedly." - Seth Godin

For me coworking is physical evidence of a serious work trend. Freelancers and other workers thrive on variety in their work environment. So its fun to read about a very successful young person who works this way.

From a Washington Post article about Jon Favreau, the 27 year old senior speech writer for President Elect Barack Obama.

[Jon] Favreau believes he will transition well if he focuses exclusively on writing, which is why he has buried himself in the inaugural address. He moves while he writes to avoid becoming stale -- from the Starbucks, to his windowless transition office, to his new, one-bedroom condo, where the only furniture in place is a blow-up mattress on the hardwood floor. He sometimes writes until 2 or 3 a.m., fueled by double espresso shots and Red Bull. When deadline nears, a speech consumes him until he works 16-hour days and forgets to call home, do his laundry or pay his bills. He calls it "crashing."

In part its this unconventional work style that helped create the amazing speech Obama gave on Race last year.

One Saturday night in March, Obama called Favreau and said he wanted to immediately deliver a speech about race. He dictated his unscripted thoughts to Favreau over the phone for 30 minutes -- "It would have been a great speech right then," Favreau said -- and then asked him to clean it up and write a draft. Favreau put it together, and Obama spent two nights retooling before delivering the address in Philadelphia the following Tuesday.

"So," Obama told Favreau afterward. "I think that worked."

Lots of different factors lead to this accomplishment. Yes Obama's mind has something to do with it. But the fact that young people like Favreau are rising to such positions of influences proves it. We've seen the future of work and its Coworking! (or something related to it) :)

Dante Cassanego, a coworker here at CCC, wrote a really insightful blog post about coworking. For him work-life equilibrium and the people make coworking valuable. It allows Dante to stay productive by finding new inspirations and meeting people with "different life experiences".

He also prognosticated about the future of Coworking. Something I'm obviously interested in. Dante thinks it'll grow because of the global nature of business and as a way for certain companies to save money by having distributed offices. His example for this was Journalism. [Media companies] "might actually benefit from have a more distributed workforce if they can find a cost effective way to have offices (or coworking locations) in different places". I am all for this. Hey McClatchy are you listening?

Very cool to see this excellent story (video) about Conjunctured Coworking in Austin, TX.