At SXSW last week we had a lot of coworking love. Almost sad to think about, really, being that we’ve all gone our separate ways (for now). For THE best recap of the experience, in all of its postmodern crazy-fun, Alex Hillman’s (Indy Hall) Fear & Loathing style post at Dangerously Awesome is all you need. This one should be bottled and distilled as a coworking love potion, to be taken when in need of love.
Some of the conversation at SX centered around the possible ways that the large and rapidly growing coworking scene -Spaces and Jelly combined- might be aggregated in a way that connects communities across the country (and the world). A membership that could be used in different locations like a YMCA membership does make some sense.
However, as I sit and work at Jelly today, I am recalling something that Maggie Duval (of Plutopia fame) said a while back that I take to heart. When I was asking her about Jelly Austin and the community evolving around it, she said something like this. ‘It just is. As soon as you try to give it shape and make something of it, you kill it.’ This is perhaps a bit strong, but…
Much of the success/failure of coworking depends on the specific community it’s in. Each individual community makes up its own vibe. Either you have a strong enough vibe in your local area to build up a community of like-minded entrepreneurs or, sadly, you don’t. Philly’s vibe is distinct, and strong. So is Austin’s and San Fran’s. That energy is driving the scene as a whole, and in this sense a national flavor to coworking makes absolute sense. From a distance, many of us are feeding off of that, and thanks!
Maggie’s caution, though, is worth keeping in the back of mind: Don’t squeeze the sand too hard, as it might slip right through your fingers.
It is the thing with love. You’ve gotta work on it, but you also have to kind of let it alone…
The Butcher
Amy Hoy (http://www.slash7.com) just pointed out to me the following line:
Either you have a strong enough vibe in your local area to build up a community of like-minded entrepreneurs or, sadly, you don’t. Philly’s vibe is distinct, and strong.
I’ll say that just over a year and a half ago, I felt like Philly DIDN’T have the vibe that I craved from a distance from San Fran, etc. I almost left because of it. Extenuating circumstances forced me to re-evaluate and realize that the vibe I wanted was there, just undiscovered. I think this is the case in more cities than we give credit to. All it takes is a passionate catalyst to scratch that surface and uncover the awesome underneath.
Amen, brother y sister!
I miss San Francisco and I’d love to live in New York City, but I’m right here right now, and we just got a small group of some of my favorite people together for a Jelly–some I knew & some I didn’t–and had a great time!
There are wonderful advantages to scale, and I wish we had more of that, but then I remember a guy I talked to about two months ago who told me he left Austin 25 years ago for the Bay area because ‘Austin just had no tech scene.’
- Bandit
Great point Alex (and Amy), though some times harder to see than others. The cultural conservatism that predominates in the South makes some climbs steeper than elsewhere, but with enough hard work (and hard booze) perhaps anything is possible.
As we saw today in our first go at Jelly here, what you say about Philly may in fact turn out to be also true of Bham.
Hopefully so. Will have probably moved to Austin by then, but we’re in the trenches for now.
Cheers-