Office Space Tour w/ Collective Giant

We'll be meeting October 7th for a tour of office spaces. Think of it as an Art Gallery Crawl but for office space. The good news is that there are only two locations we are looking at for space.

Wednesday October 7th
1st Location: NC Music Factory 4pm
2nd Location: Abbots 5pm

The first location is NC Music Factory where there are actually three offices next to each other we would like to show you. Each has its own unique feel and layout, so your feedback is very important.

The second location is in South End at the Abbots where there is a great community in the area. Many design firms are already in South End and with Common Market and the Light Rail in close proximity, it needs to be considered as well.

Nathan and Josh will be on hand to answer questions and gather as much feedback as possible. If you know anyone who would be interested, please pass this information on to them. For questions or additional info, please contact us.

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Comment by Robert Enriquez on October 7, 2009 at 9:43am

Hey what is the address of the Abbots?

Comment by Josh McGlinn on September 29, 2009 at 9:08am

Thanks for your feedback Brett. Nathan and I have already looked into other coworking spaces here in NC and they have been very helpful in providing suggestions. Likewise, we have reached out to other coworking spaces outside the state and around the country. All of the pricing economic situations are different from state to state, so I can't simply apply the same prices from other cities. I can however look into their pricing structure and see what would fit.

With that in mind, I'm not sure Shift Space's pricing structure will work exactly for us at this time though. While I do anticipate classes, events, and meetups to take place at Collective Giant, it may be a few months before those programs are set into place. I don't want to offer free attendance to events as part of the membership if those events don't even exist yet.

I've talked with Brain Russell from Carrboro Creative Coworking and among other topics, he's given me a lot of advice on pricing. He's discouraged the buying of multiple day tickets because it's too difficult to keep track of them. Plus people lose tickets and then can't remember how many days they have left. If done electronically, it creates a lot of extra work because we would end up spending a good amount of time simply checking people in and out. Instead, he suggests using a simple day rate - which I agree with. If they need three days that week, then they simply pay each day they come in. No mess, no fuss.

Other pricing options will obviously be determined by location and interest. Nathan and I both want to keep the pricing down in hopes of having as many people as possible get involved with the space.

We plan on having multiple membership options to help accommodate everyone. We intend on having pricing broken up by private offices, private workstations, drop-ins, and day pricing. Each one should be sufficient. On top of that, we have even discussed hosting CLTJelly at the new space. Since CLTJelly is free, we would open our doors to anyone who wanted to attend during the Jelly hours of 12-5pm that day.

Thanks for your help and I look forward to seeing you October 7th!

Comment by Brett Bumeter on September 29, 2009 at 7:39am

Sounds good and looking forward to seeing some people that I haven't seen in a couple months too.

I wanted to mention that over the weekend, I attended the Birmingham WordCamp where I met a couple people that have been able to bring together coworking offices in Atlanta and Birmingham (2 different people, 2 different groups in different cities).

In Birmingham the location is called Shift Work Space at http://shiftworkspace.com and in Atlanta it is Ignition Alley http://ignitionalley.com

In general, I got the sense that the demographics of people engaging in coworking in Atlanta is different from that which I have seen so far at the coworking meetups in Charlotte. But in Birmingham, I think the demographic appears to be very similar.

The pricing points at Shift Work Space seem to be very functional and appealing at many different price points and levels, which seems to work very well to introduce many people to the concept.

If you check out that page, note the simplicity and ease of use in the payment system. Nothing super fancy, but its functional and easy. For the price of 10 cups of coffee, you get a months membership and access. For 20 cups of coffee you get a months membership, plus access to meeting space. Want a personal desk, upgrade, just need a day, there's a price for that.

But this mix of price points, seems to bring in and invite a mix of people keeping the place alive and vibrant.

Ignition Alley's site is a bit more professional looking, and the price structure is not as flexible, but not all that different either. From talking with Mike Schenkel who runs Ignition Alley in Atlanta, I did get the sense that the demographic of people working in this space was a little stronger and larger, which can probably be attributed to the strength and size of Atlanta's economy, not to mention the strength of the location itself (some people think location is important in real estate ;) ).