Carrboro Creative Coworking

The sixth video in the journey to build a coworking space in Carrboro, North Carolina. We've been open six months. See all the videos at carrborocoworking.blip.tv and carrborocoworking.com.

In the past six months we've seen one other North Carolina coworking space open. Its SoCo Studio in Apex, NC. I've yet to visit SoCo but have been impressed by what I've heard. (My life has been b-u-s-y.) Sounds like they're carving a unique nitch within the coworking movement and their community.

Another coworking space in the works is Collective Giant in Charlotte, NC. I've met with the founders and am impressed by their energy. I hope techies in CTL are ready to support them!

Then we have Locomotivity in Asheville, NC who are about to open. I'm really looking forward to checking this space out. From my vantage point it appears Lance has done a great job. If I was a techie near Asheville I'd be there. BTW, Locomotivity opens Monday, March 30.

There is also movement in Raleigh, NC. Two different groups are working on spaces. One is Protege Cafe and another is . I've even heard rumblings in Greensboro, NC too.

I predict by the end of the year we could have more than six coworking spaces in our state. But even then there will be a lot of communities in North Carolina without a nearby coworking spot. I believe Coworking is a neighborhood phenomenon.

In these tough economic times we need alternative work options. We all need more support groups within our communities. Not just because there are less jobs. But because we need to be excited about what we do! By working hard and playing hard together we can do that.

So please consider taking this short survey. Its purpose is to determine where demand is for more coworking spaces in North Carolina. To be clear I plan on using this data for business purposes.

Thanks for your help!

Special guest Vanessa Floyd, Circulation Supervisor for the Carrboro Cybrary will give us a tour of NCLive. Event starts at 12:30pm, Friday, March 6.

Here are some of the things you can do with NCLive.

• Get full-text articles and/or citations to hundreds of scholarly journal and popular magazine articles
• Get career and test prep information
• Get archived newspaper articles from many NC and national newspapers
• Find out how to fix your car
• Get support for your NC business
• Get investment information
• Look up residential and business contacts
• Map demographic, business, and marketing variables
• Search population, criminal, educational, economic and health profiles of NC counties
• Get reliable health information
• Get free e-books
• Watch PBS videos
• Search for jobs

NC LIVE is a statewide collaborative that provides the people of North Carolina with online access to a large and diverse collection of resources aimed at serving educational, economic, and informational needs of everyday life. With content and indexing from more than 50,000 newspapers, journals, magazines, encyclopedias, e-books, e-audio, and streaming video titles, NC LIVE offers users high quality and reliable information resources. At this brown bag session, we will introduce you to some of the databases, research, statistics, and toolkits that may be of special interest to entrepreneurs and businesses, as well as explore sources that may have broader appeal to participants and their families: language instruction, audiobooks, health information, auto repair, genealogy, reading suggestions, encyclopedias.

The CCC Brown Bag Lunch is a regular lunch meetup for coworkers to get to know each other. Bring your own lunch and come prepared to tell people about what you do. This is a free event. The public is welcome.

Now there are no more day limits on the Part Time Coworker! For the same price of $100 a month you can use the service all you want during regular business hours. (Monday - Friday 9am - 6pm) This service requires reoccurring billing.

Previously the Part Time Coworker pass had only ten days per $100, aka $10 a day, and the days had to be used within three months. Several people's Part Time days expired before they got a chance to use them. So I came up with this new model.

For less than four dollars a day you get:

• Fast WiFi
• Free Coffee
• Free Events
• Electricity (duh)
• Comfortable and Professional Environment
• Awesome Geek Community
• Free Parking in Downtown Carrboro

Part Time Coworker, $100 per Month

Plus the regular Coworker rate is now $10 a day instead of $30. If you were using the Part Time Coworker, and enjoyed the number of days spread out, now you can purchase them ad hoc. Basically its the old Part Time Coworker.

Also the Office Coworker has no day limits. Four person teams can now save money, and receive more services, by purchasing together. For $300 a month you get four Part Time Coworkers and three hours a month in Conference Room B. This deal requires reoccurring billing.

I want you to work at CCC often. Stop counting the days you have left and get more for your money!

Save money and be more productive in this economy by sharing expenses with others. If you're a small web development company, two to ten people, and are looking for ways to save consider becoming the Carrboro Creative Coworking Resident Team.

Move your team to CCC and see a savings on rent and utilities. Stop worrying about high electric and Internet bills. We'll take care of it and keep the resources flowing. Save your money and time by drinking our free coffee. We have the amenities of big offices like quality conference rooms, free parking, mailboxes, a Nintendo Wii, and VOIP telephone service. (You know gaming is important.)

Plus the Town of Carrboro has great restaurants, bars, and clubs within walking distance of our office. Weaver Street Market is a great example with its good food, outdoor seating, and free WiFi.

Our spaces has a strong meetup schedule with free events every week. People get together here to discuss iphone/Cocoa development, Ruby on Rails, Erlang, and more. Smart and creative techies come from all over the triangle. If you work here they'll be coming to you.

Please contact me if you're interested. Find more about our other services, such as the Part Time Coworker, here.

Info from Blake about the next Cocoa meetup:

Carrboro Cocoa Consortium Meetup
Lightning Talks & Elevator Pitches

When: March 11, 2009 @ 7pm (Doors open @ 6:45)
Where: Carrboro Creative Coworking

As we learned last meet-up, the Triangle is full of talented and inspiring Cocoa developers cranking away on some really cool apps. This meet-up is going to be all about who we are and what we are doing.

Have an app you are developing and want to share it? Got some cool ideas you'd like to start cutting code on? Need a designer, developer or partner in crime to pursue the vision with? Bring you stories, ideas, and friends out to the Cocoa Consortium Wednesday, March 11 and let's have at them. Talks should be relatively short and highly interactive. We want to see your app, play with it and collaborate with you to take it to the next level.

If you are planning to present an app or pitch an idea, please throw a teaser on the wall so we have some idea what we'll be working with. After we've worked through the queue of talks, we'll mingle and network until 9pm.

Two hours not enough? Join us at Carrburritos @ 6pm for a burrito and a beer before we head over to CCC to get the meet-up going!

See you soon!

Wondering what the hell Cocoa is? Check out the wikipedia article.