Wow! The January Open House was a great time!  Thanks to everyone who stopped by.  It was great to see everyone and catch up.

For those of you who missed out, I understand the weather was rather terrible that evening.  But, you missed out on some pretty spectacular fun.  Josh, from Bluebird Ice Cream, scooped out some incredible ice cream for everyone to try.  He very quickly ran out of the vegan coconut mint chocolate chip and there was a good reason why.  I had no idea vegan ice cream could be so fantastic!  The Stumptown ice cream and the snickerdoodle were also really delicious and it was all finished off by the time the night came to a close.    Mychal Richardson’s photography was a great conversation piece and had many people quietly going from one photo to the next reading about how each individual pictured fought for their rights.  I think we all came away inspired.  See more of his work on his website or stop by and check them out!

A big thanks must also go to Andy Aupperlee of Explosion 5000.  He took over the Green Room and shot portraits of our Open House attendees and their New Years Resolutions.  The results are rather amazing and you should make sure to read about it on his website and look at his Flickr page.

A big thanks to all of you who could come out.  Hopefully see you all at our next Open House!

Thanks to Flickr user Sukanto Debnath for use of the above photo through the Creative Commons License

What a crowd we had!

Our fifth open house was a wonderful success!  As we mentioned before, this was a highly co-sponsored event with several groups involved:

• It was the Capitol Hill Greendrinks event, bringing together the Capitol Hill environmental community
• Sustainable Capitol Hill was also a co-host, raising funds and getting more folks in the know about their presence on Capitol Hill
• Expeditionary Art showed us that watercolors are not for wimps – Maria’s art created a big buzz around the event and drew lots of well-deserved attention
• Out for Sustainability stepped onto the scene as a new organization at this event.  This awesome crew is committed to connecting LGBT individuals who are committed to sustainability.
• Other fantastic sponsors included Sierra Nevada, Snoqualmie Wines, Pizza Fusion, and Madison Market.  We were so thankful for this excellent team who kept us well hydrated and well fed!

There were a thousand reasons why this event rocked, but one important lesson we were reminded of was how great it is for us to co-host our open houses.  In October we did our first co-sponsored open house and took it to a whole new level in January.  Co-sponsoring events with our open houses create a win for everyone involved – we get to mix communities of folks who may not have met up otherwise and to forge new partnerships in our neighborhood.  We are humbled by the organizations we’ve teamed with so far, and look forward to seeing what will happen at our next open house.  Any suggestions?  Let us know – our next open house will be in April!

One of the things I love about working for a coworking business is the friendliness between the various coworking businesses. I think it’s a result of the fact that each group started the business in an effort to find community and this has extended to the WAY they do business.

So color us happy here at Office Nomads happy that our pals up at Giraffe Labs got some e-ink this morning in John Cook’s Venture Blog in the PI.

“A club house for big people.”

That’s how the folks at Giraffe Labs are describing a new work space in Pioneer Square, a 1,200 square foot location where artists can interact with engineers and computer scientists can write code next to musicians composing music.

I really like the collaborative focus of places like GL and StartPad which incubate start-ups. It’s comforting to know that the next big ideas are being worked on in the current big idea.

That said, I know from experience that just working near people is a form of colloboration even if we’re not “working together.” The distraction that others provide gives my brain a break and allows it to find a solution to problems on its own. It makes all those conversations I have with my office mates and the time I spend playing with the office dogs Stella and Cortez a form of work. (Read this article on insight in the New Yorker if you don’t believe me.)