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.