Florida Creatives – Creating a Community of Innovation

Download Podcast 24
flcreatives_24_colab.mp3
Length: 55:22

There have been some great things happening down at Orlando's coworking space, CoLab. We have a show recorded by Robert Dempsey and Greg Pederson live on Ustream, and a roundtable from the Florida Creatives Steering Committee at the end of February 2009, with Tim Rosenblatt, David and Rachael Rogers, and George Drage. Hosted by Ryan Price.

Shameless Links:

• Find out more about CoLab Orlando
• Get info about Orlando's Coworking Movement
• Florida Creatives on iTunes

About a year ago (February 26th, 2008), Gavin, Chad, Chris, Phil and myself were hanging out at CopyNight Orlando, and we got to talking about Coworking. This is when we came up with Coworking Tuesdays. Gavin and I stayed at Stardust long after closing, and I decided to shoot some video. A year later, it still says something:

Look at how far we've come since then:
wiki.coworking.info/CoworkingOrlando
groups.google.com/group/coworking-orlando (98 members)
colaborlando.com
apartmente.com/KEY/OFFICE%20MAIN.htm
floridacreatives.com/group/coworking (46 members)
facebook.com/group.php?gid=46816242912 (211 members)

On January 21, 2009 there was an evening event down at CoLab Orlando, Orlando's first co-working space downtown. Here is a video summary.

Thanks to Gregg Pollack for the awesome video!

At CoLab Orlando with my coworking pals, at 37 N Orange Ave on the 6th floor. Alex Hillman from IndyHall gets interrogated. Apparently Florida is more than just Oranges and Disney.

I've spent several days in November at CoLab, Orlando's first coworking space, mostly because of the $49 deal announced for November, and because of the fact that desk fees are temporarily waived for Tuesdays. Personally, I can walk there from my house, and there's lots of good coffee and food on the way, so it's all pretty nice.

Greetings Coworkers!

CoLab Orlando is our first Coworking space in Central Florida, and I believe the second one in Florida, after Brikolodge in Miami. I am sitting in the space right now as I write this post.

CoLab is laid out with a general admission area as well as some private suites for rent. I believe the anchor rate will be $250 once this gets swinging, but for November, they have announced a monthly rate of $49, which I was happy to pay.

A full list of rates and amenities should be available over at CoLabOrlando.com

Exciting News...

CoLab will be officially open next week!!! Wohooooooo

I just wanted to let you know that the PayPal account is already set and up on the website! But remember we are running the promotion for the month of November and you can also send us a check or bring it by next week, whatever is easier for you.

I would also have to send you the membership agreement by email so, if you are ready to sign up please email me.

See you all next week?

We just wanted to share the news with all of you. Brikolodge, Miami's first coworking facility, got some press last night on CBS 4 News (local station). Please check it out... I hope you enjoy it! And if you are ever in the Miami area, please don't forget to stop by.

Ali & Eduardo from Brikolodge
www.Brikolodge.org

Last year at BlogOrlando we had a session called 'The Orlando Scene'. The concept was to bring together folks for different backgrounds to talk about things like cow-orking, start-ups, etc. It's a year later, so what's changed? We gathered some of the local area leaders to talk over what's going on in Orlando.

Watch more live videos from BlogOrlando

BlogOrlando session notes by Tim Welch

groups

florida creatives

barcamp orlando/ tampa/ chaos
doterati
likemind
digital media alliance florida
colab / coworking

ucf incubator program

user groups

ruby
python
java

upcoming events

convergence
create chaos
ignite orlando

the knowledge shop [lab for hire]

florida creative wiki has:

• event calendar
• wireless locations
• is user generated

Watch Florida Creatives History at Pecha Kucha Night Jax

BlogOrlando is happening this week, and that was really the event that kicked Florida Creatives out of the minds of the collective and into reality. Don't believe me? Watch this video. Yours truly has the full explanation of how it all went down.

Recorded at the first Pecha Kucha Night in Jacksonville.

Etan Horowitz of the Orlando Sentinel's weekly tech column, was at last night's CoLab Open House. Here's what he had to say.

Orlando Sentinel - A recap of the CoLab Orlando open house

Below is a video of Hussey, and Greg Pollack, a local web developer and one of the CoLab organizers, speaking about the space at last night's open house.

Reposted from a message on the international Coworking discussion list:

...we recently opened a coworking facility in Miami's Wynwood Arts District. Brikolodge is a loft unit in a live-work building, home to design shops, galleries and some of the best views of downtown from the roof-top pool. We have been hosting RefreshMiami meetups since our inception and we have recently opened our doors to The Figure Network - a local artist who conducts weekend workshops on figure drawing and has also posted some of his artwork around the facility.

We are always looking for more ways to expand our community. If any of you are ever in the Miami area, please stop by and visit :) Check out our website: www.brikolodge.org

Plucked off the wire via NFi Studios' latest update:

NFi is working with other techs and creatives in the community to support the launch of CoLab Orlando. CoLab Orlando is a Coworking Space for anyone looking to have a dedicated work area (desk or suite), and be part of a community environment. CoLab Orlando is located on the 6th floor of the Angebilt building and is a work in progress. The tradition of the Angebilt, Orlando’s most historic building, combined with the innovation of Orlando’s tech and creative talent, make CoLab an exciting project we can all share in.

Owner of the Angebilt, John Hussey, is calling on the communities feedback and support…
“Over the past several years I’ve seen the Orlando tech & creative community really emerge. As a commercial real-estate owner, I am proud to be part of Orlando Coworking. However, I know it’s not my vision that will make this space successful. CoLab Orlando is founded the community’s support and feedback. I ask for your feedback in what you want from CoLab Orlando, and with your support we will make this a success for our city. ”

- John Hussey, President/CEO, RealTrend Inc.
For more info on getting involved with CoLab Orlando, contact Sterling (sterling@nfistudios.com) or Dave (david@hydrastudio.com)

FYI, the Angebilt is the same building as the April BarCamp - at the corner of Orange Ave and Wall Street. It's a historic hotel, as well as the current home of the Downtown UCF Technology Incubator, Subway, Finhenry's, and several Wall Street venues. Easy access to the Library, lots of downtown eateries, bars, clubs, hangouts, coffee shops and the like. I couldn't think of many better places for Orlando's first official full-time 24/7 cow-orking space.

I got an email today through a local creative named Tiffany - she asked about shared office space.

In my reply, I pointed her to the Orlando Coworking Wiki page on the Official Coworking Wiki and here on FLCreatives Wiki.

Obviously, you've got to know about the coworking mailing list as well.

Coworking is cafe-like community/collaboration space for developers, writers and independents.

Or, it's like this: start with a shared office and add cafe culture. Which is the opposite of most modern cafes.

When & Where

Currently, Orlando Coworking meets every single Tuesday during the day at Stardust Video & Coffee off of Corrine Dr, betweeen Baldwin Park and 17-92.
1842 E Winter Park Rd, Orlando, FL 32803

A home page for coworking orlando, on the official coworking wiki.

Over on the Orlando Sentinel Theatre blog, there has been a recent discussion about how to get Orlando's Theatre (and theater) community together. They decided on having a pot-luck dinner in a local theatre space, namely Mad Cow. The date is April 6th at 7PM, the same day as BarCamp Media Day, one hour after our event wraps up, right across the street from our event.

Every month, tons of events happen in Orlando. We post lots of them on this site, and sometimes people attend. This month, our group or our members are planning some cool things:

• Florida Creatives @ Enzian FilmSLAM (2008/03/09)

  Second Sundays, Enzian has an event for local Florida filmmakers to showcase their work. It costs just $5 to get in, and you get to see a half-dozen or so new short films. At the end you get to vote on which one you think should get shown at the Brouhaha Grand Slam in December. Enzian even has food and drinks available because they don't want to hear grumbling tummies over the films.

  Then we go across the street to Copper Rocket - you meet some filmmakers, some filmmakers meet all of us, we have fun.

  FilmSlam - 3/9 1PM at Enzian
  Happy Hour - 3/9 3PM at Copper Rocket

• Florida Creatives @ OMA First Thursdays (2008/03/06)

  On the first Thursday of the month, the Orlando Museum of Art opens their galleries up late and has a themed exhibit in the front room - the theme this month is "Beat-niks & Bongos: Abstract Art". I believe admission is $9 for non-members. There are food and drinks available for additional monies. 3/6 6-9PM at Loch Haven Park

  First Thursdays are also when Dandelion CommuniTEA has their art openings, immediately following First Thursday. Dandelion is behind Colonial Photo and Hobby on Mills (they are on Thornton).

• Coworking Tuesdays

  This is a new event that will hopefully coalesce itself into tradition in the coming months. Anyone who works out of their living room is invited to work outside their living room by joining some other folks in the same boat every Tuesday... somewhere. A regular location will emerge, I'm sure. We had settled on B&S Daily Market, but Manny has admitted defeat and closed up shop. Watch this space, the Coworking Wiki and Coworking Mailing List for more details.

• Florida Creatives Happy Hour (2008/03/17)

  Yes, it comes around so quickly, doesn't it? We get together at the Crooked Bayou every month from 6-9 PM so you always have a place to meet new people and catch up with folks. It's important to our community to have these Third Places (not home or work/school) to gather and visit. If you've never been or you feel like it's been too ling since you've been around, there's never a better time to make a habit of attending.

  This is the last Florida Creatives before BarCampOrlando goes down on April 5th & 6th, so you'll want to attend if you're interested in assisting with planning activities, passing out fliers or doing any other publicity. I also believe that will be the last week to find sponsors.

Creative TreeHouse is creative coworking studio that offers shared creative space, a meeting/event spot, and creative services to the Pittsburgh, PA area. This video is from an event they held some time ago where artists stayed up for 24 hours in the space and created original works from scratch around the theme of "Treehouse".

One of the goals of Florida Creatives is to open a similar space in Orlando. We can't do it without your help.

Here's your last-minute reminder that the next Florida Creatives Happy Hour is TODAY, Monday, October 15th from 6 to 9 PM at the Crooked Bayou on Central downtown. Parking at all meters downtown is free after 6, and Crooked Bayou always has 2 for 1 drafts and wells until 7PM. If anyone wants to get there earlier than 6, I know a few people have expressed interest in showing up a little earlier to have time to eat. This month should be a great time if September's events (BlogOrlando, BarCamp) have done anything for filling people with the creative spirit.

Chris Messina is one of the thought leaders behind some of the concepts we here at Florida Creatives subscribe to: Coworking and BarCamp are the big ones. He made a great post today that seemed to be writing itself in my head as I was reading it. The short version is this: We don't want to be like San Francisco. It's true. My idea is that we want to be a better Orlando, or Tampa, or South Florida.

The Coworking Ireland blog linked to us last week, so I decided I'd like to return the favor. Not only that, but they've got some really great statistics from a recent survey. For the rest of the results, read the full post.

What would attract you most to coworking?

Some time ago, I was cruising the Coworking wiki and I saw some info about Jelly, which is essentially "living room coworking". I remember making an edit to the wiki at the time and adding Orlando and a link here or an email to invite people over for Jelly at my place, but I can't even find that entry now.

Nonetheless, as Anna Jane Grossman was writing this article about NYC Jelly for wired.com, she must have stumbled across a message that had my post. Here's a little of the article:

A group of intrepid geeks are One intrepid geek is couchsurfing across Europe right now in a project he calls On the Luck of Seven. This is one of his most recent videos, where a French activist takes us on the journey of how the coworking meme is part of the evolution of society. (link)

At Likemind.orl on Friday, a few of us Coworking types discussed the idea of creating a video along the lines of "Hey, city council! Give us a coworking space!" Here's a video of a newly erected space in Philadelphia, which I saw on the Coworking Blog. Let's talk about making ourselves a video tomorrow. If you can't make it, make a post to the mailing list with your thoughts.

That means (I think) Birth Certificate - "The Creators". Larry Diehl just wrote a post over at the BarCampOrlando blog called "Orlando's Web Renaissance", but Renaissance really means "rebirth". I don't think the world has ever issued us with a creative birth certificate in the first place. I will agree that we're participating in a rebirth of culture, and enabling technologies have quite a bit to do with that, but enablers are nothing without the people to enable.

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