WorkSpace3: Work Club Startup in Mpls?
This weekend, I got a tip on WorkSpace3 a local ‘work club’/co-working startup here in town.
While the site is currently a little slim on info (like the unfortunate lack of contact info), they’ve laid out the co-working vision for 4 personas.
My initial reaction is cautious optimism.
While their ‘What does it include’ list thankfully doesn’t include Herman Miller furnishings, it’s still 3x longer than necessary and lists items already accommodated by each of the 4 personas already (PC workstations, phones).
In addition, there are a number of reasons work clubs don’t already exist (rent is expensive, my home office is comfortable, the public library is free, etc).
The third workplace is inherently a transitional place - a place to go until. Until the home office is renovated. Until the go-to-the-office habit is kicked.
That said, the big win for a network of places described by the WorkSpace3 vision may be for corporations that want to save pile of money on real estate costs. They send their employees home, put the corporate campus up for sale, and make mini-satellite offices available for their newly nomadic workforce.
The big need locally is a place with:
- Good WiFi
- Good Coffee, Beer, and Wine
- Good Food
- Space to comfortably hold 150-200 people
- Lots of different sized rooms for meetings of different sizes (1+ telephone, 2-6, 10-20)
This place would quickly become the hub of not only the mobile worker community, but a fully functioning 3rd place in the community. It’s also the place we’re constantly looking for to host un-conferences.
A couple years back I wrote about work clubs at my other blog.
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Don’t forget the Co-Working session at MinneBar: http://barcamp.org/MinneBarSessions
Justin Grammens has been doing yeoman’s work looking up office locations for potential co-working spaces and he’s going to talk about his progress and see if there’s interest.
It’d be nice to get the Workspace3 people (person?) there but the lack of contact info make that hard…
As an example, I would point out that The Loft Literary Center has private (office) studio space available for use by its members. It doesn’t sound like they have wireless in these rooms [although there is wireless access in the Coffee Gallery on the first floor of the building they share with Open Book] - but then you are supposed to be focused on your writing
They also have a Book Club Room available as a meeting space. Open Book (http://www.openbookmn.org/) has a performance hall (auditorium), classrooms and a commons area. Did I mention the nice coffee shop 
http://www.loft.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_id=110
http://www.loft.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_id=113
Mark, thanks for the reminder.
My first thought when this topic comes up is one of the many artist studios that are available throughout the city.
Sure, the amenities aren’t there (just a bare room) but if you’re looking for quiet, focused work - it fits the bill.
I think the benefit that this holds over a home office, is less distractions. I’m fairly disciplined when I want to be, but it can be easy to worry about “house things” at home, and be tempted to just do them.
My wife is one of these people. She works well at a coffee shop or cafe, but not always at home.
@Dave Dash,
Home things are on my mind wherever I am. At home, I can get them off my mind so I can focus on other things.
I put up the WorkSpace 3 web site on behalf of the actual proprieters (who are even less web-savvy than I am). We’ll put some contact info in there asap; thanks.
I became interested in this idea for a little different reason. While the Work Club idea sounds really cool, the actual user is a bit more of a mundane guy like me: that is, I spend a lot of time driving around town to various customer locations. I try to group my meetings as efficiently as possible, but the fact is, there is always ‘dead time’ between appointments where I’m not at 100% productivity.
I am obviously a huge coffeeshop/free WiFi advocate. But, if I need to get on a conference call or WebEx, the noise is deafening for person/people on the other end of the line. In the library, I am the one who is deafening — for the other library patrons.
Garrick has it right, the idea behind WorkSpace 3 is a place to go ‘until …’ Until my next appointment, until it’s time to pick up the kids at daycare, until my subcontractor arrives, etc. In the meantime, I want to be comfortable, focused, and even a little energized by my surroundings.
That said, we have received a lot of input from the Corporate community interested in doing recruiting interviews at this kind of place. Also, as a way for employees to tele-commute from a place that is likely to be more productive than their homes.
At any rate, thanks for the good dialogue. I look forward to the Co-Working session at MinneBar.
In the meantime, a guy named Michael Matejcek can answer a lot more questions than I can …
matejcek3039@msn.com
Thanks, Jon
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