Firecat Studio

Calling San Antonio Guitar Heroes: First Friday July Coworking

July, here we come! Our First Friday Coworking session at Firecat Studio will be a little different - more relaxed, and (even) more informal.

Inspired by the record-breaking temperatures, the proximity of the July Fourth weekend and the kids being out of school, we're having PLAYTIME on Friday, July 3 from 10:30 am - 2:30 pm.

We're going to hook up Guitar Hero, the Wii, the Wii Fit and other interesting user interface devices, crank up the stereo and have some fun.

Feel free to bring your own game system, favorite controller, or Wii games. We'll have:

• The Wii
• The Wii Fit (balance device)
• Guitar Hero III (Legends) and World Tour with drum kit

We did this last year, and it was a blast! Feel free to bring your children this month, too -- they typically have more mad skills to demonstrate and have proven to be better sports.

About Coworking

Come hang out with other "mobile professionals" - that's anyone who can get some work done using a laptop, cell phone, or just pad and paper - and let accelerated serendipity happen. No charge - just community.

And just to get you in the mood:

• Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Stewart Copeland (Police) review GH Drums.
• Guitar Hero Inside Joke Cartoon (mildly offensive language).
• Jeff Howe (Crowdsourcing author) covers Why the Music Industry Hates Guitar Hero in Wired Magazine.

Come out to Firecat Studio on Friday, July 3, from 10:30 am - 2:30 pm.

First Friday Coworking In June: Keeping Time Spent Online Under Control

We've settled on our topic for the June 5 brownbag session: time management in the online world.

If you've made headway building your career or business using the web, sometimes the tail wags the dog. Do you spend more face time with your laptop or monitor than you do with your family?

Let's get real. How much time do you spend engaging in social media like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, or digging through your eMail inbox? Is it too much? Is it time to unplug?

That was the topic at this morning's Social Media Breakfast - San Antonio, where Social Media specialist Luis Sandoval (aka @Pandaran) shared some coping strategies for managing his online day. "You may need to declare bankruptcy," Luis confessed. "Sometimes you're just not going to get to the Zero inbox or read every single one of those posts." There was a lot of interest, but we just began to scratch the surface.

So we're going to continue this fascinating conversation, and take a look together at some of the tools Luis and others at the Breakfast shared.

Bring your favorite time management tricks - whether online or offline. If you're a Getting Things Done (GTD) devotee, share what you know. If you're a Franklin-Covey or Day Planner person, bring it and show it. And if you're just feeling time-strapped and underwater - come on out and get some focus and support.

Instead of tune in, turn on, drop out, it may be time for Turn Off, Shut Down, and Get a Life :)

See you Friday, June 5. Come anytime between 9 am and 5 pm for open (free) coworking -- that means bring your laptop and cell phone and work from our Studio as a change of pace. The Brownbag discussion will start as usual at noon, and we'll provide light sandwich fare.

First Friday Coworking in May: The Ins and Outs of Facebook

It's almost May, and that means a First Friday Coworking session at Firecat Studio. Come hang out with other "mobile professionals" - that's anyone who can get some work done using a laptop, cell phone, or just pad and paper - and let accelerated serendipity happen. It's open house style from 9am - 5 pm. No charge - just community.

As usual, we'll have an interactive brownbag learning lunch from noon to 1:30. This month's topic is the social media giant Facebook. Inquiring minds want to know:

• What's all the fuss?
• My kids' friends are asking to friend me. Isn't that creepy?
• Should my business or organization have a PAGE or a GROUP?
• There are a bazillion Facebook Apps - which ones should I use?
• Should I keep my Facebook profile businessy, or use it as a more social space?
• Someone posted a really embarrassing picture of me in high school, college, christmas partying. How can I take that down?
• Does Facebook own everything I post?
• Why would sane people spend time in Facebook?
• I'd do Facebook, but I'm worried I'll do it wrong, or make a mistake. Can you give me some pointers?
• I'm on Facebook but I don't have any friends.

Several of us are on Facebook, so if that last item is your problem, come get Friended by some of the best-connected social media mavens in San Antonio. And we know a thing or two about the other stuff as well.

And just to get you in the mood for the brownbag:

Alan Weinkrantz (@alanweinkrantz) posted this YouTube on his Facebook page.

Local humor blogger LetterGirl (@lettergirl) offers extremely practical advice to her potential (and rejected) Facebook Friends. Hope to see you Friday! Sign up for Firecat's email updates if you want a reminder in your inbox.

So come on out this month, it'll be a good one!

>> How to get to Firecat Studio
>> More about Coworking

March First Friday: Blogging for Business in WordPress and other Platforms

It's that time again -- this Friday, March 6, 2009, is the first Friday in March, and that means First Friday Coworking and Brownbag Lunch Session at Firecat Studio. This month's brownbag topic, selected by the Coworking community in Twitter, is:

Blogging for Business: WordPress and other Platforms

While it's hard for businesses to invest in technology right now, Firecat Studio and our other colleagues who create and manage business web presences are seeing a surge of interest in WordPress, Movable Type, and other blogging platforms. These inexpensive - even free - solutions offer a way to create and maintain a web presence very inexpensively. WordPress, Blogger, and TypePad/Movable Type were conceived as "blogging" platforms, but they can and are being used to create normal business websites.

Social media consultant and serial entrepreneur Julie Gomoll of LaunchPad Coworking will be on hand to demonstrate how she's using WordPress for the LaunchPad Coworking site. Several other regulars in our coworking orbit are building full business websites using WordPress -- so we'll have lots of examples, ideas, advice and war stories to share. Bring yours!

About Coworking

Once a month on First Fridays, we open up Firecat Studio to mobile professionals and knowledge workers in the San Antonio area. You're a mobile professional/knowledge worker if you can get some work done (any work!) with laptop, wifi and a cell phone. Coworking is a great way to put yourself in the mix of the vibrant business community to network, gather new ideas, and share what you know.

For the Brownbag session, bring a lunch OR feel free to partake of our light sandwich fare.

The Studio is open for coworking from 9 am - 5 pm. We expect 25-30 people here for the brownbag lunch session, but you're welcome to come earlier and stay later.

Hope to see you Friday

>> How to get to Firecat Studio
>> More about Coworking

February First Friday: Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Join us at Firecat Studio on Friday, February 6, 2009 for a free day of coworking. The brownbag lunch and discussion topic this month is:

Getting Your Business to Page 1 of Google Search

Web presence management specialist John Ray will join Firecat's CEO and chief web strategist Susan Price to discuss the many factors involved in optimizing a website for specific search terms.

Bring your questions and interesting problems. We'll discuss:

• Strategies for discovering which keywords your customers and other stakeholders use to describe your products or services.
• The difference between "natural" search and paid, or Pay-Per-Click (PPC) -- and when it makes sense to pay for clicks.
• Watching your website's traffic reports to see what's working for you.
• Simple coding guidelines to follow that can boost your rankings immediately, and make a better impression on site visitors.

The free brownbag session is part of our normal First Friday Coworking series. Bring your laptop, cell phone, or just a pad and paper. 

The Coworking Movement as seen from InnotechAustin

Our panel on Workplace Trends: Telecommuting and Coworking at InnotechAustin on Thursday went very well. Thanks to those of you who attended and participated; there was a lot of interest and energy around the subject. My takeaways:

Telecommuting has caught on in a big way

More than half the crowd or more reported they are already telecommuting full time. That was a surprise to me. I hadn't realized the telecommuting trend had spread so rapidly, thoroughly, though of course this conference and our topic selected for them.

The Demand for Coworking is There

The four of us represented the gamut of coworking models, and there is demand for all these levels.

1. Occasional free coworking sessions,set up and hosted by someone with time to give. No commitment, good for corporate and telecommuting workers needing a refresh/break.
2. Shared office space, where folks act as working roommates to share expenses. Good for very small businesses and freelancers. The resulting community can function like family, throwing one another work, helping out.
3. Dedicated coworking spaces that allow people who are committed to the coworking model and need to count on having their space open and ready.
4. On-demand coworking space available through a no-commitment, pay-as-you-go model good for travelers, freelancers, corporate workers or anyone who benefits from a well-equipped workspace that isn't home or the regular office.

Our Different Types of Coworking Spaces

Here's how the four presenters shook out along this continuum.

• Susan Price at Firecat Studio hosts one open coworking session per month, with a brownbag lunch to build community. We get on average 15-20 folks over the course of the day, a mix of corporate employees, small business owners and freelancers, drawing heavily but not exclusively from the internet/tech sectors.
• Cody Marx Bailey opened up his small business space as The Creative Space to save money on expenses, as well as build community. They offer a membership/tenant model, and are currently full at 13 tenants, with a waiting list. As they grew from 3 tenants to 13, their per-tenant fee to cover expenses dropped from $400 per month to less than $85.
• Dusty Reagan organized ad hoc Jelly Austin coworking sessions and enjoyed rapid growth and a flow of projects, ideas and referrals for his freelance web development business. He and some colleagues launched a dedicated coworking space earlier this year in east Austin -- Conjunctured. Another tenant/membership model, they're still accepting new members at $250/month.
• Julie Gomoll is banking on a higher-end clientele for coworking, and judging from the crowd at Innotech, she's right to do so. LaunchPad Coworking is being built out now, slated to open by the end of the year in the heart of downtown Austin. The adjacent free wifi coffeeshop allows folks to cowork for free, but they'll be lured into the open coworking side with amenities like ethernet fiber lines, flatscreen monitors and mice, ergonomically correct desks and chairs, and a lovely ambience. When a project team needs privacy, there are 6 meeting rooms for rent, and even a "cloud room" designed to inspire creativity.

Benefits of Coworking

Although I had a good sense of why folks come to Firecat's once-monthly sessions, it was good to hear from a broader mix of tech professionals their most compelling reasons they want and need coworking.

• Home can be isolating. The telecommuters in the audience reported stir-craziness and cabin-fever, as well as a lack of perspective, that results from being alone too much.
• Home can be distracting. Though participants reported an increase in their ability to achieve work/life balance, sometimes it's hard to maintain a solid "work boundary" when the office continually beckons. Kids benefit from having parents at home more, but one or the other still suffers from inattention. Then there are the standard distractions of household chores, tv, fridge and home maintenance.
• We're social creatures who need human contact. Remote teaming and collaboration tools were frequently cited as almost - but not quite - being the same as face-to-face contact with other humans.
• Several corporate folks report that their employers are embracing telecommuting to reduce costs, be "greener" by avoiding carbon emissions of commuting, and offering employees a desirable option and more control.
• Freelancers and small business people need leads, an extended network to accomplish projects and stay competitive in the global workforce.
• Several people expressed their appreciation of "accelerated serendipity -- the unlooked for but valuable benefits of being in a stream of fresh ideas, faces and work styles.

What Else?

If you were there, please expand on what we learned together. And thanks for coming!

Here's the presentation we had going (Download coworking_innotech.pdf); it features photos from each of the spaces showing coworking in action, as well as links to learn more about coworking and how to get it going in your area.

Here's the presentation at Slideshare.

First Friday Coworking Oct. 3, Guerrilla Marketing

It's already the First Friday of October, and we're doing our Coworking session from 9 am - 5 pm at Firecat Studio, 918 Nolan #104.

Here's a map to our studio.

Our lunchtime topic this month was inspired the book Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson, now in its 4th edition. Originally published in 1983, his common-sense, thrifty suggestions appeal to small business owners, independents and those of us in the marketing trade. With the advent of eMail marketing and social media, you can imagine why the book has gone from a slim volume to pretty hefty tome.

Several full-time marketing specialists and lots of people who do marketing as ONE of their many jobs will be on hand to share tactics, techniques and suggestions.

Come on out! If you're not sure what the heck coworking is, check our FAQs on this fascinating subject.

More Coworking in San Antonio!

Our hardworking colleague and coworker Todd O'Neill just announced another new weekly coworking sessions starting up downtown on S. Alamo on 10/16, and running every Thursday. If this is your cup of tea, join the Facebook Group for San Antonio Coworking.

First Friday Coworking: Sept. 5, Social Media Resume

Our usual open coworking session is coming up next Friday, September 5, 9am - 6 pm, open house style.

Brownbag session this month: Your Social Media Resume. If you want to harness FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr, and so forth to further your career or business, but fear the time and complexity, come on out! We'll share best practices and tips for making one update ripple through your social media world.

Backgrounder: Bryan Persons' (Monster, Inc.) social media post.

 

Coworking FAQs

What exactly is coworking?

It's people gathering to do their usual work, just in a new location.

Am I supposed to stay all day?

Entirely up to you, any part of the day, or the whole shebang. Many folks drop in for just a quick coffee, or the lunch discussion, others for the happy hour.

Do I need to be a web geek to participate?

No, we welcome all kinds of folks -- accountants, lawyers, artists, architects, journalists, printers, farmers, designers, massage health workers, historians. It helps if you can get stuff accomplished with cell phone and computer, but most people find a few hours spent networking and thinking with a pen and paper can be quite productive.

Is it a big networking fest?

It's pretty relaxed, and if you want to meet others, you can -- but it's not required ;) We maintain a "no pitch zone" but we have seen people find talent, projects, jobs, vendors, and a few enterpreneurs have found investors.

Why do people cowork?

A change of scenery stimulates new ideas and ways of thinking, so coworking tends to breathe life into the way you think and feel about your work. Independents, and telecommuters enjoy a break from the home office. Entrepreneurs, or anyone thinking about going independent, find lots of advice and warm support. We almost always learn something new at coworking, through what has been called "accelerated serendipity."

Is there a cost?

Not at these sessions at Firecat. We sponsor coworking sessions on the first Friday of each month for the benefits mentioned above. Our team offices at home except for meetings, so we need the contact. Some spaces are "collectives" with a subscription or rental model. This one's free.

Is there coworking at other places?

There sure is, coworking is an emerging trend all over the world. See the coworking wiki for locations and specifics. There are other coworking sessions in San Antonio, dedicated coworking spaces have sprung up in Texas in Austin, Bryan/College Station, and Houston, and more are coming. San Francisco, New York City, Philadelphia, London, Paris, Milan, even Beirut have coworking spaces.

Come check it out!

Lunch: Feel free to bring your own, have lunch out, but we provide light sandwich fare. 

Firecat First Friday Coworking: More Fun & Games, August 1

Our usual open coworking session is coming up next Friday, August 1, 9am - 6 pm, open house style.

Coworking FAQs

What exactly is coworking?

It's people gathering to do their usual work, just in a new location.

Do I need to be a web geek to participate?

No, all kinds of folks participate in coworking -- accountants, lawyers, artists, architects, journalists, printers, farmers, designers, massage health workers, historians. It helps if you can get stuff accomplished with cell phone and computer, but most people find a day spent networking and thinking with a pen and paper can be quite productive.

Is it a big networking fest?

It's pretty relaxed, and if you want to meet others, you can -- but it's not required ;) We maintain a "no pitch zone" but we have seen people find talent, projects, jobs, vendors, and a few enterpreneurs have found investors.

Why do people cowork?

A change of scenery stimulates new ideas and ways of thinking, so coworking tends to breathe life into the way you think and feel about your work. Independents, entrepreneurs and telecommuters enjoy a break from the home office. We almost always learn something new at coworking, through what has been called "accelerated serendipity."

Is there a cost?

Not at these sessions at Firecat. We sponsor coworking sessions on the first Friday of each month for the benefits mentioned above. Our team offices at home except for meetings, so we need the contact. Some spaces are "collectives" with a subscription or rental model. This one's free.

Is there coworking at other places?

There sure is, coworking is an emerging trend all over the world. See the coworking wiki for locations and specifics. There are other coworking sessions in San Antonio, dedicated coworking spaces have sprung up in Texas in Austin, Bryan/College Station, and Houston, and more are coming. San Francisco, New York City, Philadelphia, London, Paris, Milan, even Beirut have coworking spaces.

Come check it out!

Lunch: Feel free to bring your own, have lunch out, but we provide light sandwich fare.  We have a lunch topic/discussion, this month we'll celebrate Summer again and explore computer games. As designers, we have a vested interest in how the interfaces are evolving and the game stories becoming more immersive. Really, we do, seriously. Rock Band, Guitar Hero, Wii Fit -- anybody have an advance copy of Spore? We'll have a Wii and a Playstation 3, so feel free to bring what you are playing.

Coworking Coverage in Austin

Austin American Statesman reporter Omar Gallaga ran an in-depth article about coworking yesterday. It features fellow coworking sponsors LaunchPad Coworking, Houston's Caroline Collective and Austin Jelly startup Conjunctured -- all of whom you may remember from the Coworking MeetUp during South by Southwest Interactive.

Don't miss the companion video and photo features of the article.

A few of the comments on the article are surprisingly vitriolic; I would have thought Austin a natural fit for this type of ad hoc community-plus-business outgrowth, but some seem to feel threatened by the movement. To me, coworking is a natural evolution from telecommuting from home or coffeeshops, with a nod to the technology incubators that rose up in the 1990s.

Coworking allows creatives and independents to mix as often as they like, in an environment selected for collaboration potential. We've become aware of the vast creative resources that quietly live and work in San Antonio this way. Small business owners and startups, as well as corporate workers looking to make the break find a lot of advice and support -- as well as investors, clients and vendors -- through coworking.

If you haven't made time to try out coworking in San Antonio, come by La Taza Coffeehouse any Tuesday from 9-5, or Firecat Studio on the first Friday of each month.

Or take a look at the Coworking Google Group and the Coworking Wiki.