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Angela Howard – Culture Expert
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Jonathan Price – CRE & Flex Expert
An item caught my eye over the weekend on the socaltech website. Great site, by the way, to get technology updates, regardless of where you’re located. The item is reprinted below, basically pointing out that Blankspaces has renewed its 5-year old lease in the Mid-Wilshire area of Los Angeles. It goes on to describe what coworking is and how Blankspaces may be the oldest coworking space in Southern California.
I’ve spoken to Jerome Chang over at Blankspaces; Jerome is a visionary, and highly attuned to the technology community, with plans to expand. He’s a good example of someone focusing on a demographic group, young, urban technology professionals, and doing a terrific job of filling space.
The socaltech article wouldn’t ordinarily be a news item, but it brings to light a couple points. First, that while we in the business center community know all about coworking spaces, to the general business community, this is still a relatively new concept. As indicated by their need to describe the concept of “coworking” to their readers.
The second point, which really leverages off the first, is that the more buzz created by folks like Jerome Chang over at Blankspaces, the more mainstream coverage coworking will get. These are good things. There is still much to be done to keep the public aware of coworking as, not only a viable alternative, but quite possibly (at least for entrepreneurs and start ups) a future standard. We, as an industry, need to continue to work hard to educate the general public and build awareness as to the innovations taking place every day in the business center/coworking marketplace.
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Reprinted from www.socaltech
BlankSpaces Renews Faith In Coworking
The last few years in Los Angeles has been a heady one for the technology startup community, with hundreds of new startups, and a tangible enthusiasm in the air along Silicon Beach. Along with that growth, there have been a host of coworking and similar service provider cropping up to serve the community, offering up office space and more to local startups and other businesses. One of the oldest coworking spaces in Los Angeles, Blankspaces, appears to have faith (and apparently, some success) in the whole coworking model, and told its supporters today that it has just renewed its lease for another five years in its original location, which is in the Mid-Wilshire area.
In an email announcing the renewal, Jerome Chang, the coworking space’s founder, said that he believes that–having already been in the location for five years–that makes the coworking space the oldest, and therefore first coworking spot in SoCal. The coworking space now has plenty of competition (ROC in Santa Monica, Nextspace @ Amplify, NextSpace Culver City, IO/LA, Coloft), but it appears there are enough entrepreneurs and others with an interest in coworking and temporary space that multiple providers are needed to support the community.
Coworking spaces are a relatively new concept, allowing individuals, startups, small companies, and others to tap into communal office space and resources like Internet connections and conference rooms, on a flexible basis–ideal for technology startups in their early stage. They’ve also become a de-facto gathering place for the local community, hosting events, meetings, and more.
