As a quick follow-up to our recent post, we had a great time at Lunch 2.0 today!  Here are some photos to prove all the fun….

Thanks to everyone who attended, the great panelists, and for the support of the sponsors (Thank you in particfular to Redapt.com for supporting the purchase of the lunch!).  We had a great time and loved bringing this group’s vibe into the office!

If you’ve ever heard of coworking before, you know that the folks who lead up coworking spaces all around the world are a bunch of folks who like to re-think the way we use space.

Well, fresh from the coworking Google Group is a new string of conversation about the creative reuse of closed pubs throughout the UK. Apparently, pubs in the UK are closing at a rate of nearly 6 per week, begging the question – what happens with these spaces once they are vacated?

Similar conversations are happening all over the world when it comes to commercial real estate – whether it’s pubs, restaurants, or other small businesses, the unfortunate truth is that many small businesses are unable to keep their doors open.  Obviously, saving them from closing down in the first place would be ideal, but in the end we will still lose some businesses during this tough economic environment. So what do we do with these empty spaces?

Coworking could be one answer (I know, I’m biased on this one).  What if these spaces could be rented out relatively cheaply (to keep at least some minimal income coming in for buildling owners) for workers to fill in?  Sharing costs of an office is one of the biggest perks to a coworking space for independents – these spaces could allow for that to happen in a wider variety of places than just traditional office spaces.  They could also allow for more neighborhood-based work options for individuals who are able to telecommute instead of commuting traditionally all over the place.

Beyond coworking, crowdsourcing these great spaces could provide a way for a group of independents to salvage and save these spaces from becoming bland fill-in businesses (do we really need another cash advance/payday loan store on our corners?), and enable them to be reflections of the people who live in the neighborhood.  Imagine co-owned woodworking shops, art spaces, community kitchens…the options are endless.

What would you do with a beautiful empty space like those photographed on the “Last Orders” photo set on Flickr?

Thanks to Flickr user camies for the use of this photo under the Creative Commons license.

Office Nomads is very excited to announce that we’ll be hosting a Lunch 2.0 event next week!

What is Lunch 2.0? It’s a monthly lunch and short panel conversation aimed at Seattle-area entrepreneurs, independent workers and tech folks who want to together for a FREE LUNCH and learn about how other people tackle problems, start businesses and the like.

This month the event will have a less technical topic. We’ll talk some about what coworking is and why it’s better than working in a coffee shop and some about the ins and outs of starting and running your own business.

Our panel will feature four Nomads:
Ryan Salva – Prinicipal, Capitol Media
Ron Theis – Principal, Ridiculous Software
Susan Evans – co-founder, Office Nomads
Gabriel Scheer – co-founder, Re-Vision Labs

Lunch is being served by Seattle’s latest and greatest lunch delivery service Molly’s Salads which strives to bring you the best tasting, organic, local and otherwise really good sandwiches and salads you can imagine. All for unbelievably great prices. You won’t want to miss it.

So please come to Lunch 2.0 at Office Nomads on Friday June 26 from 11:30 AM to 1 PM. We’re at 1617 Boylston Ave. on the second floor. To RSVP (space is limited), please visit http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/2912016/?ps=5sl.

This is the advertisement we put in The Stranger

We also have a facebook event. We are very excited that Tara is coming up to talk about her new book. This is going to be a great night.

The Seattle area is gearing up for even more highway renovations and repairs this summer, spinning many local commuters into various levels of panic about how they’re going to get to and fro’ their jobs on either side of the water.

Well, we’ve made attempts at getting in touch with the local DOTs to let them know  about local coworking spaces willing to take in commute refugees. But we have not yet been able to connect in a way to get the word out to you commuters. Instead of getting the word out through their communication channels, they suggested we reach out to you directly.  So here we go:

Sick of commuting across the floating bridges?? Check out one of your local coworking spaces!

If you’re working at some of the large companies either on the Eastside or in Seattle, it is likely that your company either recommends telecommuting regularly or may even require it as part of a commute trip reduction strategy. Instead of battling the productivity demons at home or at the coffee shop, get yourself into a coworking space and get to work. Better still, ask your boss to pay for it since it’s likely cheaper than losing hours of your productive time by asking you to try and work at home.

We’ve talked about the benefits of coworking to commuters before. But never has there been a more timely occasion for those of us in the Puget Sound to take a stab at working from a coworking space, even if it’s just one day a week. There are spaces in Seattle and on the Eastside, all of which provide an awesome alternative to the challenges of telecommuting from home or coffee shops.

So floating bridge commuters I urge you: instead of battling traffic all summer across the bridges, see if you can get yourself into the lucky scenario of kicking your commute goodbye and working alongside some of the savviest workers in the area: coworking members in the Puget Sound.

Thanks for Flickr user rutlo for the use of their photo through the Creative Commons license!

Well, it’s official.  The New York Times loves coworking. They’ve taken notice at least twice since Office Nomads has opened, and those are just the articles that we’ve picked up on.  So I wasn’t very surprised when yet another article came across my desk this morning  – “Losing the Income, but Also the Camaraderie.” A quick excerpt:

Working from home, I lack not only the third-place socializing I used to enjoy with my congenial coworkers, but I also miss out on the basic human contact that usually comes standard in a second place…The lack of human interaction — aside from the one-on-one kind I share with my husband in the evenings — is starting to take its toll. In addition to the loneliness, I’m finding it harder to maintain a sense of perspective, and humor, about my life, and when I am finally in a group situation, I feel out of practice and like the shy kid I used to be.

In an effort to create a better balance for myself, I’ve tried taking my laptop to Starbucks. I know from its marketing materials that it seeks to be a third place, but I’ve found that no matter how many people are sitting there drinking coffee and tapping away at their computers, the experience is essentially solitary. With little wit, laughter or lively, engaging conversation among regulars — and no free coffee — it bears little resemblance to my ex-office…

More than five million people have been laid off in the United States since December 2007, so I know I’m not alone. While that makes me no less lonely, it does suggest that there are hordes of people out there who, like me, have suffered from a double loss: their income, as well a place that provided a special form of social nourishment.

Third Places, community, camaraderie – author Catherine Bergart has got the language down.  I’m thinking that I should e-mail her directly about our Pink Slip Special and see if that gets her to come out and work with us for a month from Seattle.  Ms. Bergart’s conclusion at the end of her piece to seek out a coworking space is a spectacular example of how coworking is becoming not only more mainstream, but a truly new way of defining how we will work in the future.

Ms. Bergart says it well – “more than five million people have been laid off in the United States since December 2007, so I know I’m not alone.” I’d add, many of those people have decided that instead of traditional employment, they would start their own small businesses. How are these nomadic workers being served? It only seems natural that coworking has evolved in response.

Thanks, as usual, NYT. We’re so glad you love coworking as much as we do.

Well we finally went for it – Office Nomads synced up with Karen Lindenberg of Phyzz Yoga and took a yoga break in the office!  As one of the participants, I have to say it was awesome.  Not only was it a great way to break up the day, but finally I didn’t have to stress about whether or not I was going to get in some exercise today – it just happened right here.

Hands-down my favorite moment was when Karen told us to tighten our “C-3PO wires” in our midsections – this woman not only is a rockstar yoga teacher but really knows how to speak to her audience.  We got to geek out AND get in a great stretch & strengthening session. How great is that?

We’re hoping to do more of these in the future as a great perk for our members.  If you’re another office space in Seattle reading this post, we definitely recommend having Karen come by your office to do the same – it’s a blast!  Thanks, Karen -we hope to see you here again soon!

Twitter. Facebook. LinkedIn. MySpace. Blogs. I know there’s a ton more social networking platforms and apps out there, so what am I forgetting? Oh yeah: Yelp. Discussion Boards. Flickr. YouTube. Viddler. Does that cover it? Nope, because I forgot the biggest, baddest, oldest, most important social network of them all: Word of Mouth.

It’s amazing isn’t it? Most of us who live and work online think and talk about and interact with social networking platforms all day, every day thinking all the time that the world of social networking is some new phenomenon that we need to learn how to manage. But humanity has been networking since we’ve had language and Ugg told Grog about that new warm and bright thing in the back of the cave.

A good friend of Office Nomads, Jeremiah Andrick, who happens to be a social media guru brought all of this to our attention yesterday with a post that says simply:
“We forgot about word of mouth.”

Often when I hear people talk about the how “Twitter is changing everything” I laugh because while I get that twitter and other social platforms are changing our ability to stay in touch, these tools are just enabling us to have conversations that we might have had by other mediums. Real change occurs not by a medium, but by people how people use it.

Take some time to read it. Jeremiah’s idea is pretty brilliant in it’s simplicity, and it’s definitely a D’Oh! moment because it reminds all of us who are in customer service (and which of us running our own business isn’t?) that every interaction is a social interaction, replete with all the opportunities and risks inherent in every social media platform there is.

It isn’t every day that a Nomad writes a book!  We are so excited to celebrate the official book launch of one of our members, Matthew Amster-Burton: Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father’s Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater.  So great!  If you get a chance, please check out his book – I got leafed through it today and it looks awesome.  If you don’t believe me, there are plenty of reviews on his website, including the following:

“Since becoming the proud father of a little girl, I’ve found myself quickly morphing into Bill Cosby–minus the sweaters. One of my greatest fears is imagining my daughter insisting on nothing but crustless grilled cheese sandwiches and “chicken” McNuggets. Hungry Monkey goes a long way to allaying that concern. I finished the last page and immediately set about making her Thai Shrimp Curry. A very timely and excellent book.”
–Anthony Bourdain, author of Kitchen Confidential

In addition, Matthew is hosting a book launch event at Capitol Hill’s Baily Coy books – you should head there and support him if you can!

Hungry Monkey Booksigning Event
Bailey Coy Books
Thursday, May 14, 7pm

Congrats, Matthew!

There is a conversation going on across the intertubes today about the many reasons why telecommuting can help reduce costs to employees as well as reduce emissions across the board.

Charlie pointed me to an article this morning on Treehugger, “Calculating How Telecommuters Make a Difference.”  The folks at Treehugger point telecommuters and their employers to a new tool developed by SonicWALL designed to help folks realize the impact they can make by kicking their commute goodbye.

This is a wonderful step.  For a long time now we have only been able to rely on our instincts about why it is a resource conservation step to telecommute.  We have the same issue when talking about potential savings for coworking spaces – it is often difficult for us to point to specific savings that members of a coworking space can refer to in order to convince their employers or their colleagues that coworking is the real deal.  Well, thanks to SonicWALL, we may be on our way to being able to get some true data on what the financial and environmental value of telecommuting.  Their calculator gives employers a way to measure the impact of telecommuting on the planet as well as the cost savings to employees by telecommuting. The tool lets you customize your data depending on how far you’re traveling, how many days you telecommute, as well as fuel costs and fuel efficiencies of the vehicle you’re using.  Pretty simple, and an easy way to realize the benefits.

I’d ask, could employers then support their employees to work out of a coworking space so they could still have the benefit of a productive, energetic workspace while avoiding the nasty commute?  Seems like a logical fit to me.  In fact, we’ve talked about the benefits of coworking to the commuting world before.  A couple of times.  If employers want to ensure that they’re not losing productivity from employees, they could realize some serious financial benefits by encouraging telecommuting from a coworking space.  They could reduce their overhead costs of running a larger office, as well as allow their employees to have the benefit of not only saving their money, but saving them valuable commute time.

What do you think?

[Thanks to Flickr user blair25 for the great calculator shot, made available by the Creative Commons license!]