On Tuesday 18th November at 2pm will be our first opportunity to meet in CambridgeCommunityInnovationCentre, to decide whether it would be a suitable space to use for the coworking community. Please come if possible, and give your opinions -- this is may be a unique chance to get good office space under sensible conditions in a relatively central location. We need to know how suitable it would be for people interested in coworking in Cambridge.
The wifi will be in, so we should have a chance to try it out right away.
As usual, put your names below if you know if you can come; or feel free to just turn up on Tuesday 18th November.
Who was there
What happened (please add to this!)
We had a tour of the building; there is still some painting and tidying going on but there is now a new sign on the Newmarket Road entrance. The space upstairs is still full of desks and being painted, the kitchen and small breakout room were being decorated while we were there. There is now one hotdesker - a lady from Mencap who is very happy with the space. Around a third of the space is now tidy enough to use immediately and Wifi is available, currently SDSL/ADSL but will be running off fibre soon.
Martin Clark explained a bit how Citylife wanted the space to work and we also heard from everyone there: we had several web developers, two search engine experts, a business development expert, a graphic designer, so already a good mix of people & skills. Around 50% of these said they would be interested in using the space more or less immediately.
We discussed how the idea of 'coworking in Cambridge' divides into two things:
- A space or spaces to work - Citylife have organised this and are actively looking for users and to discuss the practicalities
- A coworking group of people - who will meet online and in real life, have discussions, develop a community based on open principles, hold events, talks etc.
We need to develop this outside just the Refresh list, as not everyone who came to the meeting had even heard of Refresh or necessarily are part of the Refresh audience. Perhaps we should create a new mailing list. In the future we can publicise this to other groups.
Martin Clark produced a new set of prices and details which will be available soon.
It was emphasised that Citylife Ltd. is a charity, and usually rents out its space to social enterprises (and there is already an eclectic mix of organisations in the building); they accept that freelancers usually have commercial objectives, but they don't mind as long as commercial users pay a higher rate than non-profit organisations. On the other hand, tenants of the space have the security that they are not being commercially exploited. The general feeling within the group seemed to think positively about this arrangement.
Citylife showed themselves very flexible regarding the management of the space; for example, if somebody wanted to come in full-time for a few weeks and then not at all for a few weeks, that could be averaged to medium usage. It was generally agreed that the space should operate on a 'don't take the mickey' basis, i.e. trusting that members will act in a fair and responsible manner, rather than setting lots of rigid rules.
Interested to start using the space as soon as possible:
Juan Delgado: I'm going to play cautious and start with a medium usage "subscription", but yes, as soon as it's available.
Martin Kleppmann: I would probably start with medium too, and see how it works out; if it's good, I'll consider leaving our office in St John's and go for permanent coworking.
Charlie Hull: I'm pretty sure I'll be "low" for now, as I'm happy at home most of the time...but it depends how noisy our daughter gets as she gets older!!
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