Cospace recently welcomed a new member and intellectual property lawyer, Kirk Cesari. During my new member interview with Kirk, I mentioned that we encourage our members to host classes and sessions, and we both realized that a lawyer with a background in tech was a fantastic fit for a Cospace event!

Kirk is very excited about his session. He’s planning to give a talk on how entrepreneurs can protect themselves when sharing their ideas and getting them off the ground. While his background is with huge tech companies, he wants to branch out and work with some startups and individuals with IP law needs.

Kirk’s session is scheduled for 10am on Thursday, April 21 at Cospace. Find out more details and register for Meet Here Mornings at Cospace: Cover Your Ass(ets) with Kirk Cesari.

Cospace is excited to be hosting GeekAustin’s new Spring web development classes. GeekAustin recently added several new courses to their 2011 schedule: Basic HTML, Basic CSS and Basic Topics in MySQL Replication.

GeekAustin, a local online resource for the latest news and jobs in web development, has offered informal classes in open-source tools and technologies for over two years.

GeekAustin has two classes beginning in April and one to be announced:

1. Basic HTML – Mondays 7-9pm April 18-May 2 (registration info)
2. Basic CSS – Mondays 7-9pm May 16-June 6 (registration info)
3. Basic topics in MySQL replication – 4 sessions TBA

If you’d like to be notified when registration opens for other classes, send a note to classes@geekaustin.org stating in which classes you are interested.

All classes will be held at Cospace, 911 W Anderson Ln, Suite 203, Austin, TX 78757.

One year ago, we signed the lease & opened to doors to Cospace. The idea that had been in formation for more than a few months became a reality and North Austin’s first coworking space was open for business. This week we celebrate the completion of our first year of business.

It’s been a successful year.

We started with three members that first couple of weeks; one year later, we have a member family of more than 30. Craigslist & Ikea were our furniture suppliers of choice. We now enjoy a partnership with Turnstone to provide our members with some of the best office furniture out there. Our community stretches beyond our members, as Meetups and groups of all sizes and interests meet here on a regular basis.

We’ve gathered some thoughts and photos from the past year.

I’m going to walk around with a big, goofy grin all week. It’s been a whole year. I don’t know how I’m going to top 2010. We set the goal of launching this business and making it successful and so far, we’ve succeeded. One of the goals for Cospace, early on, was to make it an intersection of ideas, people, and resources. This grew from the first core message of Cospace, which was “meet here”. We wanted this to be where people came to work, to learn, to meet colleagues, to collaborate, to create, to grow. Cospace grew right alongside our members. Here’s to year two!
– Pat

I had lunch with @damon this week. Amongst many other things including his idea blog, we talked about how it’s important to share your intentions with others. Often times, the likelihood of intentions to manifest in reality increases if you share them early and often.

So, I decided to share a story that I tell every day. Every time a new person comes by to check out Cospace, this is what I share with them:

The Cospace mission is: To be a foundation for small business owners, entrepreneurs and freelancers.

I believe that there are 3 critical components to this foundation:

1) Affordable Infrastructure: Everyone needs a stable foundation to build their business from. Infrastructure is traditionally expensive and inflexible. It should be affordable and flexible, so that’s what Cospace provide.

2) Relationships: Everyone needs a foundation of core relationships to grow their business. It typically starts with your own personal and professional network. Cospace believes in helping people expand that network. Getting connected to other like minded professionals can make or break your business.

3) Resources: Everyone needs to continue to develop professionally to keep pace in the fast changing world of business. Cospace is committed to supporting networking, learning and training opportunities to the best of our ability.

The Cospace vision is: That the future of work is Lean, Mobile and Diverse. We hope to someday provide a nationally accessible network of foundations(Cospaces) for business owners, entrepreneurs and freelancers.

The Cospace plan is to:

Step 1: Continue to grow our membership at our Anderson Lane location. For September, we had 21 paid memberships + 4 co-founders and were about $980 from breaking even.

Step2: Expand to 2 full-size locations in Austin in the next 12 months. We are currently targeting Round Rock as the next location.

Step 3: Expand to 1 cafe size location in Austin in the next 12-18 months.

Step 4: Expand our offering to Franchisees across the US in the next 18-24 months.

Somewhere along the way: We expect to partner (and we’ve already started that process) with amazing Resource and Relationship providers. We don’t want to be a incubator or accelerator. But we’d like to have an app for that.

And Then: When people visit Cospace we also take a tour, learn about each others’ business and background, talk membership, talk about Cospace members, etc. Not everyone is interested or is looking for all 3 of things I mentioned above, but if you haven’t toured yet, and you’re looking for a foundation please schedule a visit!

Talk to you again soon.

Love,

Kirtus

We are pleased to announce a membership option for teams or groups who want to join the community and take advantage of the space and resources that Cospace provides.

Cospace understands the flexibility that a small team or group needs and we make things easy for our members. Sometimes it is important for all team members to be in the same place at the same time, and sometimes it isn’t. We don’t want anyone to have to worry about when and where they can work.

Our Team Rate allows up to 5 team members access to Cospace at any given time for just $500 per month. Each member of the team receives all of the benefits of our community membership; workspace, free high speed wifi, free printer/copier/scanner use, free coffee and water. The team membership also includes free meeting room hours. Your team or group can reserve either of our conference rooms up to 8 hours each week for free. The team can purchase additional hours at the member rate.

At $500 per month, the team rate is likely the most inexpensive replacement for office space your team or group will find in town. But, as our members tell us, the real value is the opportunity to connect your team or group to a community of like-minded professionals in a collaborative environment. After 3 months of operation, our member base is starting to take shape. We are home to entrepreneurs and mobile professionals working in various domains. We have telecommuters, mobile employees and many early stage startups and small businesses with their CEO based right here at Cospace. We’ve also hosted a number of virtual companies, groups and professional organizations in our meeting spaces. Cospace is a great community centered around collaboration and we exist because of the great people, space and resources.

If you are interested in a group membership, contact us today.

Event Details

Wednesday, May 19 from 9am to 12pm.

Alex Hill is the president of BaileyHill Media, an Austin web design firm. Alex brings a broad technical background to BaileyHill Media. He has a passion that combines the creative with comprehensive, customized solutions for world class websites. Alex is going to be sharing his experience utilizing global service marketplace sites such as ODesk.com to build his business.

RSVP for the Event

The schedule for this event will be as follows:

9:00 – 9:30 – Networking
9:30 – 10:00 – Speaker: Alex Hill of Bailey Hill Media
10:00 – 12:00 – Guests are encouraged to continue their networking conversations and stick around Cospace to try out 2 free hours of coworking in our community space.

Cospace will be hosting ‘Meet Here Mornings’ in our Boardroom. In order to maintain a collaborative and networking-friendly environment, the events will be limited to 20 people. This is a free event. You do not have to be a Cospace member to attend.

Bring something to write on, plenty of business cards and your laptop or work supplies if you plan on coworking after the networking and speaker sessions. Coffee and water will be provided. You are welcome to bring a snack.

About Cospace

Cospace is the intersection of people, space and resources. Cospace promotes coworking, but looks to go beyond it. One of the ways we will do so is by providing resources that support entrepreneurship and business growth in Austin.

‘Meet Here Mornings’ is an event series designed to connect entrepreneurs and small business owners with the industry experts and resources that they need to grow their business or turn their idea into reality. The series is designed by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs. This event will consist of a networking session, a hands on learning session and an opportunity to kick off a productive day with some free coworking time at Cospace.

Please visit our site for more information about coworking in Austin, meeting space rental or ‘Meet Here Mornings‘. If you’d like to suggest a topic for our next event, or if you are looking to meet a specific type of contact at this event, please email me directly at kirtus@cospaceatx.com.

Hope to Meet you Here!

Announcing ‘Meet Here Mornings,’ an event series from Cospace.

Cospace is the intersection of people, space and resources.  Cospace promotes coworking, but looks to go beyond it.  One of the ways we will do so is by providing resources that support entrepreneurship and small business growth in Austin.  We also have options for meeting and event space, centrally located in Austin

‘Meet Here Mornings’ is an event series designed to connect entrepreneurs and small business owners with the industry experts and resources that they need to grow their business or turn their idea into reality.  The series is designed by entrepreneurs for entrepreneurs.  Topics will be selected by the community and will be taught by local experts and fellow entrepreneurs.  Each event will consist of a networking session, a hands on learning session and an opportunity to kick off a productive day with some free coworking time at Cospace.  Attendees will have a chance to discuss practical business questions and solutions and network with an expert and other local entrepreneurs.

Cospace will be hosting ‘Meet Here Mornings” in our Boardroom every Wednesday beginning 5/19, from 9am -12pm.  In order to maintain a collaborative and networking-friendly environment, the events will be limited to 20 people.  Check out our Meetup page to see upcoming event topics.

Working in suboptimal conditions can cause outbursts like this

Thanks Myerman.

Not everyone out there would word it exactly like you did, but there are many people out there who share the sentiment.

Working in a restaurant (or coffee shop for that matter) and expecting a good environment for getting work done is like trying to win a NASCAR race driving a school bus. It’s just not going to happen.

Sure, work can be done in restaurants, coffee shops, and now with Clear you can work while riding a horse. But none of these situations are designed for getting work done. Coworking facilities are designed to get work done. Real work.