[GRLUG] Coworking in GR

[Philip J. Robar]

After a warehouse social this summer I (1) talked with a young man who was looking for a better job. I’m sorry, but I don’t remember your name and can’t find the piece of paper with your contact information on it. Fortunately I finally tracked down the place I said I’d send you information about and since it may be of general interest to the group I’ll post it here and hope that you see it.

The place I was thinking of is a “coworking" location called “The Factory.” It’s a shared open office space where you work on your business or project in a professional environment among other hopefully interesting people with the possibility that something might come from the chance mingling with others:

http://workthefactory.com/

Come on in, the water’s fine!

How do you start using The Factory? Easy, come in, say hello and get to work. Our doors are open, the coffee’s hot and the chairs are plentiful. It’s the country club for your work, so just come and start hanging out here. After you’ve tried it for awhile, you can decide to become a member it’s only $150/mo.

Working alone sucks…
…and we know it. We’ve come to realize that work doesn’t always get done alone at home, in a noisy coffee shop or in a creativity-sucking cubicle. Your surroundings matter, science says so. We see great value in what can happen when people work alongside other talented professionals. It’s great.

We want to bring together the smartest and most interesting people so we can all bounce ideas off each other, share ideas and be inspired to do more awesome work.

Basically we’re an office space where you can come and work while not having to deal with awful cubicles or assigned desks. We’ll have good coffee brewing and all the internet you can handle with a comfortable chair just waiting for you.

About

A new kind of factory is being built in Grand Rapids. The Factory is the place for people who are changing how we work. Modern business is mobile and non-centralized, an “office” is becoming less relevant and the people we surround ourselves with is now more critical.

Coworking at The Factory provides a professional and community-oriented space aiming to help foster an entrepreneurial spirt while developing a sense of belonging and getting work done.

Membership is $150 a month or $150 for 10 day passes to be used within a 3 month period. (2) You can drop by and tour the place for free.

They’re located in the “historic" Leonard Building in downtown Grand Rapids.

Barcamp Grand Rapids is a community supporter.

There’s another co-working place in east Grand Rapids called 654 Work Cottage: http://654croswell.com/

Unfortunately neither is specifically tech. oriented or hacker friendly as they’re only open M-F till 6PM.

Also unfortunately, I don’t know of anything like Mountain View, Ca's Hacker Dojo (3) or SuperHappyDevHouse Meetings (4) in the Grand Rapids area, but perhaps an enterprising young person might start something similar under the Geek Group’s umbrella. Or you could takes a look at http://www.workatjelly.com/

My other suggestion would be to join as many interesting tech user groups a you can and make yourself known to people.


1) I’m the ex-SunMicro guy from California who’s currently living in Saint Louis.

2) The co-working space I know of in Old Town Lansing, SecondGear, is considerably more expensive at $240 a month. (http://workatthegear.com/)

3) http://wiki.hackerdojo.com

4) http://superhappydevhouse.org


Phil
--
"What do you think of the Macintosh now?"
It is the least unsatisfactory personal computer I know of, but that's an easy win, considering the competition. —Jay Freeman


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