I went to a meeting earlier that was broadly to do with how arts organisations can share resources and collaborate. One of the case studies looked at how sampad and mac work together in various ways.
One of the things from their presentation that set pens scribbling was the idea of shared office space, the benefits that have come as a result and the plans to develop it a bit more.
Sounds like a good idea to me. I share an office with Substrakt (actually, it’s their office) and Podnosh and there’s a steady turnover of various freelancers who have come and gone over the past couple of years including Kate Beatty, Chris Bates and Pete Ashton. Currently we have Caroline Beavon and Daniel Davies in here. It’s been really useful to share space with film makers, photographers, web developers, designers and others.
So yes, good idea.
A couple of options
If you’ve got a spare desk and you like the idea of making that available to someone (for free or not) then:
- List it on DesksNear.Me, a lovely new service that’s been set up for just this sort of thing. There’s nowhere listed in the Birmingham area yet
- Put it on Jobplot. Get a profile on the site (it’s free) then add your available desk space to the Opportunities board
DesksNear.Me is open to everyone, Jobplot is aimed at creative companies and individuals.
Other options
There are of course plenty of places where you can rent desk/office space around the city (cow-orking spaces, serviced offices, etc) and a few others where, for the price of a few coffees, you can get all the wifi you can eat.
I think its a great idea and a good way to grow the independents in Birrmingham.
Involved in Moseley Exchange and through my BCU work have recently visited Betahaus in Berlin and La Cantine in Paris