SXSW is a great chance to evaluate how something has progressed over the course of the last year. For some folks, the event itself can be a huge turning point.
Just ask Twitter. Or Sarah Lacy. (Sorry, cheap shot.)
Let’s take a quick look at coworking. The following numbers are unscientific and probably inaccurate, but they’re close enough to paint a compelling picture:
Estimated number of coworking communities with a presence at SXSW:
|
2006 0 |
2007 4 * |
2008 14 ** |
The 2008 number is hard to pin down depending on your definition. Jelly’s sort of one organization, and sort of several. Ant there’s a lot of overlap between Jellies and other coworking groups. This number represents the most conservative estimation.
Looking to the future, I’m pretty confident that next year I won’t be able to even try to keep count. We’re already at the point where no one could estimate how many people involved in the coworking movement were in attendance. There were dozens of people from a lot of different walks who knew about coworking and were interested or involved in some way.
Hugh Forrest & SXSW, pay close attention. I’m looking out for you here because I love you guys. As your friend, I’ve got two words that I think will be helpful to you.
I’m going to whisper, so listen closely: coworking panel.
Schedule it first. Before any other panel. Failing that, at least try to get it squeezed in before the panels on Dirk Diggler’s imagined 2025 eulogy, lolcats, and PowerPoint Karaoke.
The evolution of the workplace is relevant to everyone attending SXSW Interactive. The technology and infrastructure in place now are allowing an increasing number of people to work from somewhere other than a traditional office, and it’s only going to continue to grow. Attendees will benefit from understanding what that means for them.
The Core Conversation was a great start, as were all of the other coworking-related events surrounding SXSW: two Meetups and a BarCamp Coworking panel, all incredible and inspirational.
If we had a full panel this year, who knows what waves we might have made. I guess the masses will have to wait.
As the above numbers demonstrate, coworking has exploded in the past year. Further, judging by postings to the Coworking Google Group by people with new spaces in the works, the growth will continue at a fast pace. A lot of people learned about coworking for the first time in Austin, and those of us already involved made a lot of progress in speaking with our geographically-diverse fellow coworkers.
Today is the first day of the countdown to SXSWi 2009. When it arrives, it will bring with it a full coworking panel, hundreds of new and existing coworkers, a packed LaunchPad Coworking facility down the street, and the unstoppable march of a starfish organization that’s changing the world.
See you there!
-Tony Bacigalupo
* Some spaces not yet established, but leaders of La Cantine, Williamsburg Coworking, Citizen Space and Indy Hall were present.
** The 14 represented spaces so far: (Updated from 12 to 14 thanks to comments!)
*** I’ll have to write this in a separate post at some point, but one more note to the SXSW organizers: if you’re really listening closely and want to really knock it out of the park next year, try this: Integrate coworking into SXSW. Hold not just a coworking panel, but actual coworking sessions. Build it into the conference the same way you wisely built BarCamp-style open topic panels into it this year. That would be something to get excited about. Let me know if you want me to help.
**** Updated 8/10/08 - After discovering photos from the 2007 SXSW / BarCampAustin coworking talk, I updated the 2007 representation from 1 to 4.
Wow! Thanks-
Add to this the growing recognition within BigCo that distributed creatives are also highly productive and entrepreneurial, and what you have to say is relevant not only to SXSW organizers, but to the larger business ecology as well. 24 hours of Jelly, (tomorrow) will be yet another convergence, and perhaps a good archive job from that (pics, signs, etc) can go a long way in documenting the coming storm.
Great trip!
San Antonio was represented .. I’ll post their link after I dig out from under the Chachki….
Eddie Codel from the Hat Factory was definitely there, as well.
Okay, I think I tracked down San Antonio. According to this article they don’t have a space but are meeting in a coffee shop called La Taza Coffeehouse. A group may also meet monthly at Firecat Studios. There’s a great silhouette of Julie in the article, too.