A.D.O. Selected for Design Entrepreneurs NYC

Green Spaces member A.D.O has been selected to take part in the first ever design entrepreneur NYC initiative funded by Fashion Institute of Technology and New York City Economic Development Corp.

Congratulations, Anjelika!

Out of 165 applicants only 35 emerging designers were chosen who are committed to grow their business. Design Entrepreneurs NYC is an unparalleled intensive learning and networking opportunity supported by a knowledgeable and experienced faculty, exciting guest speakers, and a final review panel of influential fashion executives.

Event kickoff is this Thursday, May 24th at Andrew Marc showroom where we will meet the presidents of FIT, NYCEDC, GIII Apparel corp and other emerging designers.

For more information regarding Design Entrepreneur NYC, please visit  www.designentrepreneursnyc.com/about.html; For more information on A.D.O, please visit: www.adoclothing.com. 

See Jane Do Soiree into Action™ New York(Gala/Awards)

We were thrilled to host See Jane Do's Soiree into Action on March 5th, 2012. Its events are "Parties with a Purpose" engaging women with networking opportunities and fun filled activities to stimulate action.

Featuring Gloria Feldt, author, activist & former CEO of Planned Parenthood. Gloria shared tips & tools from her latest book, "No Excuses: 9 Ways Women Can Change How We Think About Power."

During See Jane Do's visit in New York the organization also participatde as delegates in the UN CSW and cover the 3rd Annual Women in the World Summit.

Their debut New York event was made possible by our sponsors: B Lab, The White House Project, Green Spaces and US Women Connect.

Connect with other extraordinary women like yourself and celebrate International Women's Day! We hope you'll join us! 

Green Spaces Hosts Anti-Valentine / Independence Party - Featuring Alexander Dunlop, Spiritual Life Coach, on Relationships

Social entrepreneurs and friends celebrate freedom at Green Spaces!

Special Guest Alexander Dunlop, founder of Spiritual Nutrition, will do a party presentation on cartomancy, the science of reading your life path in the playing cards. Click here to learn about his Valentine's Day $100 gift card offer.

The event is open to the public. Journalists and others may RSVP to marissa (at) greenspaceshome.com.

Green Spaces is a co-working, accelerator space for innovators of our new economy.We are a home to more than 60 socially minded companies. We cultivate community with programs that encourage professional networking and eco-friendly fun.

Spiritual Nutrition offers coaching for budding entrepreneurs, law of attraction lovers, and much more, specializing in the modern man and woman. Visit spiritualnutrition.org to see what's in your cards for your relationships, career and finances.

WHERE: Green Spaces, 394 Broadway, 5th floor; New York, NY 10013.

WHEN: February 14th, 7:30pm - 10:30pm

10 Tips: Find a Great Coworking Space

Get out of your garage: A shared office for your start-up company can improve your productivity and help keep costs low.

By Tom Searcy |  @tomsearcy   | Feb 8, 2012

In my recent outreach to keep costs low for entrepreneurs, "solopreneurs" and startups, a recurring suggestion from many of my "start-up warriors" was the idea of working in community.

Here's why:

• Community work spaces bring together people with different backgrounds, thoughts and approaches. This helps entrepreneurs develop more creative, robust ideas and solutions.
• Top challenges for solopreneurs are managing time, staying productive, and maintaining motivation throughout the workweek. Co-working spaces help with these challenges–it's easier to stay focused if you're away from home's distractions.
• Respondents to a study done by DeskMag in 2011 said they are more motivated (85%) and have better interaction with other people (88%) since they moved into a co-working space. They also say they can relax more at home.
• At least 42% of respondents also report earning a higher income since joining a co-working space.

I asked my friend Jeff Donaldson for the best things to look for in a shared work environment. Jeff works in Boulder, Colorado, at a workspace called “scrib”–short for “scribble,” because the walls are painted with dry-erase paint to spark ideas and collaboration.  Here are his recommendations.

10 Things to Look For

1. Test drive: Ask for a free day to test out the office space.

2. Office tools: Make sure they fit your needs. Everyone will have printers, faxes, etc. but make sure the space provides the tools that help you get work done (conference rooms for client meetings, phone rooms).

3. Culture: Every space will have a culture and not everyone will fit in.  Find one where you feel comfortable.

4. Inspiration: The people and the space should make you want to come to work–and be productive.

5. Lease terms: You want them flexible.

6. Room to grow: Look for multiple work zones that offer enough space to allow your company to expand and contract.

7. Good workspace management: You don't want to be the one dealing with printer problems, phone service outages, etc.

8. Collaborative community: Some co-working facilities allow members to contribute by giving presentations, making introductions or taking other actions that enhance the environment.

9. Productive workstations: Don't settle for just a flat table space. Look for offices that have put thought into a productive work environment.

10. Comfortable design. Collaboration can't happen as easily in a cubicle jungle. The most productive shared office spaces are ones that are built for collaboration.

If you've worked in a shared work environment, I'd love to hear your feedback.  Post your comments in the comments section here.

Explore the coworking movement

The coworking movement is fueled by people making connections - people who choose to collaborate and create so they can work productively, happily, successfully.

- MacWorld iWorld blog // click here for the full story

Laurea’s take on Greenspaces NYC

Here is my take on Green Spaces which we visited on November 11…

What I liked: I like how Green Spaces has a free day pass that is easy to find on their website.

All co-working spaces that are looking to be inclusive should have a link to a day pass on their website.

Amy, the receptionist was very friendly and gave a detailed tour and overview of the space. 

There is a decent kitchen, one pretty good lounge area that you could add chairs to yourself to accommodate any meetings. There are two fairly small conference rooms which could fit about 4-6 people max.  There is free coffee and tea all day and 24/7 access to full time members.  

There is one phone booth which can fit a laptop if you need to duck somewhere to have a phone call. 

You don’t have to be a part of the Green community to work here but they are aiming to be the hub for the Green community so if you are a freelancer or business looking for desk space then this is the best co-working community match for you...

Special features:

Colorado and NYC locations

Event space rental, use of the space to host workshops for $175 an hour and events with a Green community focus

Curated connections, an intern program and a referral network

Costs:

The costs and benefits for each tier are outlined very clearly here

Click here for the full story.

Sponsored by Susty!

It was sponsor city for Susty Party this fall! We joined with tons of good causes to throw great parties with some extra eco-chic cred…

For our friends at Green Spaces, we helped them celebrate their 3 ½ year anniversary. Green Spaces gives social innovators, entrepreneurs, and freelancers a space to connect and grow. They’re doing great work! Happy 3 and 1/2 birthday, Green Spaces! 

Click here for the full story.

Why Co-Working Rocks!

by Isabella Woods

Most entrepreneurs can't wait to quit the day job and leave the cubicle behind forever. It's something they dream about when trapped in wage slavery and they have detailed fantasies about what it will be like to shake the dust of the office from their heels and never look back. Why, then, are so many of these people choosing co-working. Let's take a look at what co-working is, first. In a nutshell, it's about having a shared work environment while remaining independent. Many solopreneurs and independent contractors have discovered that going it alone just isn't as much fun as they thought it would be. It's not that they miss the office politics and the boss cracking the whip. Instead it's about missing some of the advantages of office life - and that's what they get back when they use co-working space.

An End to Solitude

Let's face it, some people just aren't cut out to work alone. They just don't function the same way when they are sitting at home in their PJs trying to get motivated to work. Some people get lonely and miss the company and co-working allows them to get that company without the disadvantages of being employed. Frankly, offices are social places and human beings are social animals. When we work alone, we may be going against what comes naturally. Getting into a co-working space with people with complementary interests can meet that need. We like to shoot the breeze with colleagues round the water cooler or the coffee machine, and that's what we get with a co-working space. This is a trend that's taking off all around the world.

Better Facilities

When you work on your own, you need a whole bunch of equipment to stay in touch with the world. The best co-working spaces give you access to WiFi, phone services, meeting rooms, fax machines (for those still using them), scanners, printers and other office equipment whenever you need it. All this at a fraction of the cost of cheap office insurance. You don't have to pay to rent the whole building, just for your space - and it's affordable. You can get a space that's yours on a semi-permanent basis or just use a space when you need it - first come, first served. Of course, you could work from your local coffee shop as many entrepreneurs do, but is that really the best place to work when people are shouting out their coffee orders in the background? That might work once in a while, but it's not a great solution for every day. And a coffee shop isn't a great place to hold a business meeting, that's for certain. If you want a workspace that says you're a professional, a co-working space is your best bet.

Starting the Day Right

There's nothing like having to get out of bed and go to the office to make you feel like you're running a real business. This gets you ready to be successful. You feel professional and you won't run the risk of sitting around all day playing on the Wii while you wait for the orders to come in. As you build relationships with your fellow co-workers you will get that other major advantage - accountability. When you swap stories about your business efforts, someone will come back and express an interest in how you're doing. You want to have something to tell them, don't you?

Another advantage of a coworking space over a home office is that it enables you to limit your work day and make a clear distinction between work time and home and family time. That can be important. Entrepreneurs are famous for focusing on the new idea or business to the exclusion of all else. Everyone has to come up for air sometime, and having a coworking space allows you to do just that.

Co-working has become so popular that companies are jumping on the bandwagon and experimenting with this as a new way of getting the job done. If you want to find out more about coworking in your area, the Coworking Wiki is an excellent starting point. It includes links to several coworking projects as well as a

Google Group.

6 Reasons to Build Your Start-up in a Coworking Space

The idea isn't new, but what you get for the money just keeps getting better.

By Christina DesMarais |  @salubriousdish 

In the very early days of your company, it might make sense to call your garage (or basement or kitchen table) headquarters. But at a certain point, it doesn't suffice. There are only so many times you can bring clients to the same Starbucks for a meeting. And even the most passionate entrepreneur is bound to see productivity wane when spouses, kids, dogs, or all of the above inevitably hover near your workspace.

This is precisely why coworking spaces were invented—and why they're increasingly popping up in more cities.

While coworking spaces aren’t new, what they offer to bootstrapped tech start-ups for the price keeps getting better. CoCo, for example, is a 16,000-square-foot, sunlit space that makes use of the architecturally-interesting and historic trading floor once used by the Minneapolis Grain Exchange. Membership starts around $50 a month.

Now instead of traders yelling bids and waving arms around, the place is serene—khaki or jeans-clad entrepreneurs working quietly at their laptops while Pandora plays softly in the background. There’s a concierge who makes sure coffee and pastries are well-stocked and will order you lunch and introduce new members to others.

And the people working there look weirdly content. Some are wearing headphones, which, I learned, is code for “I’m head-down at the moment.” Others are chatting quietly with a neighbor. No one has that glazed-over I’m-bored-to-death look you sometimes see in regular workplaces. If you're starting to think you might need a change of scenery, consider the advantages of coworking:

You can work alone or bring a team. At CoCo, for example, there are many people who pay to use a café style chair and table from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.  But there are also start-ups with up to eight workers who have full-time 24/7 access to a “campsite” set up for a group. From an aerial view these campsites look like bee-hives with walls made up of white boards and transparent screening so as to not block anyone from what’s going on in the rest of the space. CoCo cofounder Kyle Coolbroth says walls and the territory they define keep chance encounters between members from happening. “Serendipity starts to dissolve when we can go back to our caves,” he says.

You'll build relationships. Frank Grazzini and Neal Tovsen, cofounders of AgSphere, an online platform that gives farmers real-time information about their farm equipment and inventories, say had it not been for CoCoco they wouldn’t have met several clients and potential investors. Not only that, but they’ve repeatedly tapped other start-ups there to bounce off ideas and get help solving problems. And unlike other office spaces, CoCo offers Happy Hour every Tuesday night to further encourage relationship building.

Coworking makes clients happy. Meeting with clients in a conference room is infinitely more professional than a coffee shop. Teicko Huber, founder and president of revenue performance management company Focus2Grow, says his team of seven uses CoCo space in either Minneapolis or St. Paul, depending on where the clients they’re working with on a particular day are located.

You could find your next start-up idea there. Web developer Toby Cryns runs two businesses out of CoCo—The Mighty Mo Design Company and Minnesota Wordpress Hosting. He founded the Web hosting company with someone he met there. Since moving into CoCo, his revenue has increased dramatically because other members have hired him to create websites. The beauty of it is they can actually see him working and walk over to review his progress at any point. He says the environment allows him to craft better sites.

Coworking spaces are reinventing communities. Tech startup communities outside Silicon Valley are thriving in some cases because of coworking spaces such as CoCo. Google Chairman Eric Schmidt even turned up recently in Minneapolis to check it out and talk with start-ups there. He was invited to CoCo by Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, who lured CoCo founders to the unique space because he had a vision of an entrepreneurial neighborhood in the city. Now he’s got one.

Coworkers have good attitudes. Michael Noble, who is launching the B2B social platform called Nitch, says one reason he uses CoCo is because of the positive energy the entrepreneurs there effuse. “Everyone is optimistic about what they’re trying to do. Sometimes you just need to be around other people who are wanting their own business to succeed and that’s kind of contagious,” he says.

Chances are there’s a vibrant coworking space like CoCo near you (Green Spaces!). Coolbroth suggests checking out Liquid Space to find one. Or visit this coworking directory, which lists hundreds of them all over the world.

NY Law Creates New Kind of Corporation

For Immediate Release:  December 13, 2011 CONTACT: Erik Trojian or Andrew Greenblatt at B Lab - (212) 608-4150; erik@bcorporation.net;agreenblatt@bcorporation.net NY Law Creates New Kind of Corporation Spurs Investment to Create High Quality Jobs and Use Business to Solve Social Problems State Legislators from Wall Street Sponsored the Bill Albany, NY: At midnight last night a law was enacted creating benefit corporations, a new class of corporations required to create benefit for society as well as shareholders.  Unlike traditional corporations, benefit corporations are required to create a material positive impact on society and the environment; consider how decisions affect employees, community and the environment; and publicly report their social and environmental performance using established third-party standards.  Continuing a national trend of strong bi-partisan support for benefit corporation legislation, the New York bill (S79-A and A4692-A), sponsored by Senators Daniel Squadron (D-25) and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-64) and co-sponsored by William Larkin (R, C-39), passed both houses of the New York legislature unanimously. “Political leaders like Speaker Silver, and Senators Squadron and Larkin understand that New York needs to attract businesses whose core purpose is to create more high quality jobs and to improve the quality of life in communities across the state,” said Andrew Kassoy, co founder of B Lab, the nonprofit organization that drafted the model legislation.  “The benefit corporation bill will unlock billions of dollars in impact investment capital and enable entrepreneurs across the state to start businesses that solve some of society’s greatest challenges.” "Benefit corporations will mean New York is open for business in an important new way. Benefit corporations will unlock billions of dollars in new investments in New York while empowering companies to do well and do good,” said Senator Squadron. “By offering this opportunity to entrepreneurs and investors, New York will bring new businesses into the state, new investors into the market and a new socially-minded approach for our entrepreneurs.” “By bringing benefit corporations to New York, we are showing that profit and social responsibility are not mutually exclusive,” said Speaker Silver.  “This law will continue our efforts to strengthen and diversify our economy while ensuring that New York remains a national leader in progressive policies that help our environment, protect consumers and bolster the rights of working men and women.” “I am very happy to see that this bill has finally become law.  It will enable businesses to grow without the infringement of state government, and will help New York become a more business friendly state,” added Senator Larkin. The new law addresses a long time concern among entrepreneurs who need to raise growth capital but fear losing control of the social or environmental mission of their business. These entrepreneurs and other shareholders of benefit corporations now have additional rights to hold directors accountable for failure to create a material positive impact on society, to consider the impact of decisions on employees, community, and the environment, or to inform the public about the company’s overall social and environmental impact as assessed against a credible, independent third party standard. New York is the seventh state to pass benefit corporation legislation, joining Maryland, Vermont, New Jersey, Virginia, Hawaii, and most recently, California.  The legislation has enjoyed broad bi-partisan support nationally, with a vote tally of 892 ayes and 62 nays, and the signatures of both Republican and Democratic governors. The New York bill had significant support from business (partial list below), including Eileen Fisher, City Light Capital, and UncommonGoods; and from more than 2,600 New York citizens, all interested in creating better choices for the growing number of entrepreneurs and investors who seek to create businesses that create both social and shareholder value. “The passage of benefit corporation legislation is an important and much needed step forward to grow our New York state economy and create more jobs which can also provide greater social and environmental benefit,” says David Levine, co-founder of the American Sustainable Business Council whose members’ organizations represent over 100,000 businesses. “At a time when the country is looking for solutions to build the economy, New York is helping to lead the way with an innovative and sustainable business strategy.” *           *           * See below for list of supporters and individuals willing to comment on the legislation B Lab: is a nonprofit organization dedicated to building a new sector of the economy that uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems.  B Lab drives systemic change through three interrelated initiatives: 1) building a community of Certified B Corporations to make it easier for all of us to tell the difference between “good companies” and just good marketing; 2) driving capital to impact investments through use of GIIRS Ratings and Analytics; and 3) advancing supportive public policies to accelerate growth of social entrepreneurship and impact investing.  For more information, check www.bcorporation.netand www.benefitcorp.net. American Sustainable Business Council: is a growing coalition network of business networks organizations and businesses committed to advancing a new vision, framework and policies to support a vibrant, equitable and sustainable economy. The Council brings the business perspective, experience and strength to stimulate our economy, benefit our communities, and preserve our environment. Today, the organizations that have joined in this partnership represent over 10065,000 businesses and social enterprises and more than 150,200,000 entrepreneurs, owners, executives, investors and business professionals and other individuals. For more information, check www.asbcouncil.org. Supporters of New York State’s Benefit Corporation law: Business Organizations  American Sustainable Business Council; B Lab; Syracuse First; Buffalo First; Ithaca First; Onondaga Citizens League; The JustGreen Partnership; Westminster Economic Development Initiative, Inc. Individual Businesses  City Light Capital; Eileen Fisher; CSRHUB; Green Forestry; Green Team; Greyston Bakery; Icestone; Management Resources; Mission Markets; Peeled Snacks; RecycleBank; Runa; Singlebrook Technology; Uncommon Goods; Vendorboon, LLC Other Individuals Willing to Comment On the Bill David Bolotsky, Founder of UncommonGoods, a catalog and online gift store based in Brooklyn, NY.  718.210.1175 Andrew Greenblatt, Adjunct Assistant Professor at NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service, a Professor specializing in social ventures.  917-885-9309 Tim McCausland, Vice President of Orange County Trust Company, a regional bank in the Hudson Valley.  (845) 467-6011 Gary Schuster, Senior Counsel, Jacobowitz & Gubits, LLP, attorney in the Hudson Valley.  845-778-2121 Ext. 230 Kyle Westaway, Westaway Law, attorney in New York City and Adjunct Professor at Harvard Law School.  626-942-2380

How to Write Story Angles - Outline for Teleclass

1. Think HEADLINES

2. What is the NEWS?

• Timely

• Events: elections, Occupy Wall St

• Special days: Earth Day, Martin Luther King Day

• Industry & trends

• Studies: facts, figures

• Announcing our NEW ____

• Innovation, cutting edge

1. EFFECTS (reader, audience)

• Behavior

• Choices

• Community

• Industry

NOTE: Be mindful of the writing style of the publication & journalist you're pitching

Social Innovation Needs Design, and Design Needs Social Innovation

By: Cheryl Heller
To view the article on SSIR please click here.

Social innovation is all around us. From Paul Hawkins observation in Blessed Unrest that grassroots organizations make up “the largest movement on earth,” to c-suite executives who have expressed renewed interest in intra-preneurship, to the millions of startup social entrepreneurs being supported by forward-looking foundations, and the venture capitalists who are prefacing the word investing with impact—some days it seems that there is no one left in the world who does not want to change it.

It’s as if we have woken up all at once—not just to the scariness of the challenges we face, but to the realization that we are not powerless to fix social problems and that deep satisfaction and well-being comes from working for good instead of just working. Take this year’s fellows at PopTech, the annual ideas and innovation conference in Camden, Maine. There was Michael Murphy, who has re-imagined the practice of architecture to heal whole communities, and Rose Goslinga, who has designed a way to insure 22,000 small-acre farmers in Kenya against crop failure.

But because social innovation is everywhere, it’s also all over the place. New silos of experts crop up all the time, each slightly restating the jargon. Added to the confusion of similar words, conflicting methods complicate and make simple truths obscure. The race to impact and scale often ignore business fundamentals; and there is not enough focus on unintended consequences. We are accelerating, incubating, and funding on the fly—before we know what works. Talk of collaboration is constant, but talk is still cheap and we continue to struggle within the organizational boundaries of the industrial age we’re trying to shake.

Now add design: the ability to create what’s new, and lead diverse teams through the creative process; to connect, integrate, see systems; to simplify, identify, and convey meaning; to tell stories; to visualize the unimaginable; to build and introduce order through beauty and elegance. Design allows an outsider to be “stupid” in all the right ways—by listening and observing. And that’s just the invisible part, before designers create artifacts that speak to mass audiences and create movements.

So far, though, while the d.school at Stanford and Amy Smith’s D-Lab at MIT have pioneered interdisciplinary programs that teach design thinking, there has not been a comprehensive MFA program to prepare visual designers to enter the world of social innovation—no learning path to a fully integrated role. Design has been for the most part just one more siloed discipline, a “nice to have” input after the technology and business strategy are in place.

Design can make a game-changing contribution to social innovation, but to do that, designers need a way to immerse themselves in the contexts where social innovation happens, acquire the skills they need to play a leading role, and a means to facilitate the process and foster collaboration. The big opportunity is to apply the creativity, skills, vision, and methods of design to the entire process of social innovation—to work from inside the system, helping people see the same things, connect the silos, and make sense of problems by making them imaginable and accessible. Design helps define a path forward. It untangles the complicated processes and players, helping us map what’s working and where.

Design for social innovation includes the design of everything: from conversations, communication campaigns, experiences, structures, technology platforms, systems, products, business models, strategies, art, and culture. It incorporates all traditional and new design disciplines and mediums— identity, interactive, film, product, movement, and game design. It has the potential to be the single integrating force we need to take on the challenges we face—systemically and sustainably.

We’re launching the MFA Program in Design for Social Innovation at the School of Visual Arts in New York City for the most practical reason of all: we see a tremendous need, and no other way to get there. If social innovation is our relationship with purpose, design is the means and the method to make that purpose manifest. That’s what we plan for our graduates to do, from inside corporations, communities, governments, entrepreneurial enterprises, and nonprofits.

Author and thinker Daniel Pink said that MFA is the new MBA. We believe that the goal is not to replace one degree with the other, or to further divide those that earn them, but to see that creativity and visual thinking are equally important and vital to successful endeavors.

Social innovation needs practitioners who are creative, visual, passionate, broadly curious, generalists, integrators, listeners, systems thinkers and doers, and people who know how to create lives filled with both success and purpose. It needs designers.

The Future of Fashion - Event Recap

From Holstee's blog : )

Last night, Dave joined a panel of amazing and inspirational champions of fashion and social change at the Be Social Change New York Meetup at Green Spaces.

The panel came together to discuss the question Can fashion be a catalyst for social change? And, if so, how can style and sustainable social impact merge to dictate a new future of fashion? This is a subject that is integral to the work that we do at Holstee, as we seek to create a more sustainable world through conscious design that makes a positive social impact. Here were some take aways of the goals in looking toward the future of fashion:

1. Raise awareness of what is happening in the fashion industry and where it is headed: We want to rethink why and how we are producing and work to create an environment of mindful consumerism. The goal is to use fashion as a tool to create awareness and social change. We want to create a conversation where our values extend from the aesthetics of fashion to the whole production circle and how our decisions contribute to the larger world around us. 

2. Address the current efforts being made by brands: A significant number of big brands are showing more and more support for social change, which is an encouraging reflection on the shift in consumer demand for positive social impacts. The more authentically these efforts increase within the mainstream, the stronger it allows our impact to be.

3. Explain how people within the fashion industry are developing innovative ways to create sustainable impact: Accountability needs to increase on the production end throughout the fashion industry. The goal is to create awareness through education, dialogue, and visibility to the supply chain so that we are more conscious of our impact. The more this knowledge is conveyed to consumers, the more you can hold us (the producers) accountable. As designers our greatest challenge is to create products that enable people to consume less. We can do this by designing products that last longer, that can be "tuned up" and/or in other ways easily upcycled and reused. 

4. Show how people’s responsible choices can create a positive impact: We vote with our money! Each decision that we make on an individual level has the ability to make an impact. It takes only one drop to cause a ripple in the ocean :)

Thanks to Be Social Change and Green Spaces for hosting the event! And many thanks to such a great panel: NOW Showcase, Source4Style, INDEGO AFRICA, Save the Garment Center, and moderator Carmen Artigas.

Gratitude & Revolution

Here is a post by Green Spaces member Parris Whittingham:

Parris Whittingham Studio (left to right): Michael Leary, Jessica Lehrman, Matthew Charof and Parris Whittingham.

In my last newsletter, I wrote to you about my continued experience in "letting go". Working from the heart, everything you create is your baby. We are social beings and the development of our babies, ideas, artistry and innovations require a community of support. As the wise African proverb is often repeated: it takes a village to raise a child.

The degree of love I experience because of Michael Leary, Jessica Lehrman and Matthew Charof are beyond words. As a whole, we continue to push each other towards artistic mastery. Collectively, we comprise the passionate team at Parris Whittingham Studio.

Today, we are proud to share Matters of the Heart with you! This film excerpt serves as an introduction to a four part series. In our view, the most courageous work requires an inward journey of self reflection and personal revolution: that's the space most essential for occupation and harmony.

Our Latest Newsletter - Lasting Change & Celebration

Abridged version for people who missed it! Click here for the full, original content. Click here to subscribe.

Each of us work hard. Whether we're at a startup or later-stage company, tough economic times are here that enter all of our lives.  That's why celebration is crucial. Recognizing what we have done and sharing our successes make things worthwhile, big or small. Whether you joined us on October 25th, or were with us in spirit by reading this, THANK YOU. At the party, we asked what it would take to make a sustainable world in our eco aspiration room. Click here to watch the video and suggest ideas.  We're proud to serve you for more than three years. We've been home to over 300 companies, currently host 60 in NYC, 40 in Colorado and we're close to capacity. People now recognize us as part of the infrastructure that makes the social entrepreneurship and green community in New York and Colorado. We're honored. Entrepreneurship is strong and growing, so here's to you!

Curated Connections BETA Launch

Since our inception, we have become connectors. We have nearly 10,000 subscribers, a network of 1,000 Green Leaders Globalmembers, 40,000 unique visitors annually, and 100 companies in two locations. We are ready to unite everyone. Click here to request a curated connection. Who are you looking to meet? Who should use you as a resource? Help spread the word & tweet/post "@GreenSpacesNY Curated Connections BETA launched today! Visit Greenspaceshome.com/curated-connections to get more connected with fellow social entrepreneurs!"

Smart Capital Mastermind Program: Jan. - Sept. 2012 Take matters into your own hands to get capitalized and funded! Identify and strive to achieve your startup's financial goal w/funding by program's end. WHO The group is open to new, growth, mature and declining stage service / product-based entrepreneurs. 24 participants will be chosen for this 9-month program. WHEN Application deadline 12/31/11 // CLICK HERE to request info on the program ASAP.

Blog for us! Share with 40,000 People This year, nearly 40,000 unique visitors came to our site! We're starting to blog more. Have a story idea? Click here to pitch. We'd love to share our platform with you. Relevant subjects include coworking, entrepreneurship, sustainable living, social enterprise and CSR. We're open minded though. Be creative!

Energy Transition Video Screening and Discussion With supplies of cheap oil in decline, fossil fuel industry is turning to deep water oil, tar sands, & hydrofracked shale gas without acknowledging limits - why not accelerate our transition to energy conservation & renewable power instead? WHEN Thurs 12/1, 7-8:30pm // WHO Dan Miner, Beyond Oil NYC  WHAT Screening of two animated video shorts from Post Carbon Institute - 300 Years of Fossil Fuels in 300 Seconds and Who Killed Economic Growth? - plus other video clips and facilitated discussion.  WHERE Green Spaces New York; 394 Broadway, 5th floor @ Walker & White Streets, south of Canal. CLICK HERE to RSVP. No cost.

Moxie Camp - A Playground for the Next Generation of Female Changemakers Coming June 2012: Over the course of one weekend in NY, join Alexia Vernon and her tribe of phenomenal speakers and coaches to generate new ideas, build leadership skills, test out strategies, grow relationships, nourish yourself, and play! If you are looking to develop the vision and voice to create positive impact in the world, get yourself a spot in Moxie Camp. Registration will open in Winter 2012. Click here to learn more about Alexia and her heart-centered, high-impact communication & leadership development work.

You're Invited to "Idea Bounce" Lunches Join us Wednesdays at 1:30 p.m. Green Spaces offers a complimentary lunch for members & guests to meet and present to one another. The group acts as a sounding board as well for members who want to "idea bounce" off one another. Learn about the format, CLICK HERE to RSVP or present. Read about our most recent visitor, FoodFight.

Facebook, Twitter & Foursquare Friend, follow and check in with us! We're working w/ Social Media Guru Amie Kershbaumand have fab updates : )

Coworking Office Space Survey Reveals Community, Trust are Factors

Coworking is not just a cool officing concept—it brings with it plenty of benefits. So says the results of Deskmag’s 2nd Global Coworking Survey.

Conducted at the Coworking Europe Conference, the study that coworking drives productivity and networks. That’s the good news...

More than 1,500 people from 52 nations participated in the survey. Here are some of the key findings from companies who use coworking office space:

• 93% said their social circle had increased a lot
• 86% said their business network had grown
• 76% reported an increase in productivity
• 88% said their isolation had decreased
• 96% of respondents said community is an important value among members in their coworking space

The Deskmag survey didn’t just take the participants’ words for it. In order to verify this concept of true community, the survey checked how many people knew the first names of their fellow coworkers. The result: 74% of people know all or many of their fellow coworkers’ names.

The trust factor is also a key to the success of coworking. Survey participants were asked if they would feel comfortable leaving the room without their laptop.

• 54% said “yes, always”
• 29% said “yes, for several hours”
• 2% said “no”

What do coworkers like most about coworking office space?

• 81% said they liked the people
• 61% said the location was the most likeable factor
• 46% said the price was the most important element

Thanks to Deskmag for this coworking survey report! Click here for the full story.

Coworking Is Better for You Than Previously Thought (!)

We've covered the benefits of coworking—the practice of sharing an office with random strangers rather than working by yourself at home—before, but a new European survey shows that the concept might be better for you than previously thought.

For example, 93% and 86% of people say their personal and business circles have grown, respectively, and 76% say they're more productive. More importantly, 88% said their isolation has decreased, which probably influences their productivity (and happiness). A good chunk of people even trusted these strangers enough to leave their stuff there unattended, because 96% of them thought community was an important value among coworkers.

Click here for the full story.

Visualize a Sustainable World

ECO ASPIRATION ROOM : ) Whether you were at our party or not, you can play the game...

Imagine a truly sustainable world. What would it look like? What changes would there be?

To become a healthy planet, we must visualize what that would take.

There’s no right or wrong answer.

Start blogging. Comment. Begin! 

Five big myths about coworking

As a concept, coworking emerged in the late 1990s among the tech crowd. In the wake of dot-com bust, the idea sputtered and lost its footing. Then, around 2005, it was revived by software programmer Brad Neuberg, who popularized the basic model of coworking as we know it today where workers have the community of an office and the freedom and independence of a freelancer. But over the last couple of years, coworking has evolved and matured. Here we tackle and debunk five myths about coworking to show how much it has changed and is redefining how we work.

Myth 1: “Coworking is just a glorified term for ‘shared office’ space.”

On a flight to San Diego I found myself getting flustered as I tried to explain coworking to an older woman sitting next to me. I described the set-up in plain terms: an environment and space where people from different backgrounds, who all work for different small companies or for themselves, work alongside each other and share the office equipment, internet connection, and facilities. Before I could toss in a few lines on ‘accelerated serendipity’ and community, she interrupted. “Oh, it sounds like a glorified shared office,” she said with a hint of mockery. “Only without the privacy.”

A victim of its own semantics, coworking still evokes the cubicle-tinged word ‘co-worker’, a throwback to the corporate world with its trappings of the conventional office. But the only kinship that a coworking space and an office share is that they are both places where people go to work. As a functional space, they both boast office equipment, facilities to hold meetings, WiFi access and storage space. Beyond that, coworking spaces are remarkably different.

Coworking solves several problems. First, small organizations and independent workers often toil in isolation-- either at home or in the local coffee shop or executive suite, which can leave people feeling despondent, burnt out at the end of the day, especially when faced with the manic highs and lows of being an entrepreneur.

Second, for the independent professional, cultivating homegrown innovation can be a challenge. That’s because almost every independent worker will eventually encounter— whether working from home or at a public venue like a coffee shop-- lack of productivity and distractions. It can be tough to stay competitive when you’re working from a small base. It’s economies of scale; it can be challenging to implement a project when your resources are limited and you only have your own expertise to rely on.

Coworking solves both these problems by putting you with people (bye-bye, loneliness) that are from a diverse range of fields and all have different areas of expertise (hello, accelerated serendipity!). In a coworking space, a cohesive community starts to form from the disparate groups. Need help on a press release? Ask someone who’s in the writing business or get PR firm recommendations. Need a programming tweak on your website, check-in with the developers two tables down.

At the heart of coworking is having access to a larger community than even your existing colleagues and clients, but also being part of a group of people just starting up or with similar goals. While others might see competition, more people see potential connections. It’s good not only for your mental health (no more sitting in pajamas alone at home), but also for your business. Affinity Lab, a coworking space in Washington D.C., cites that members “often partner with one another, backstopping and expanding each other’s capabilities and skills or forming entirely new ventures.”

According to Jeff Shiau, director of The Hub Bay Area, “You’re not just saving on rent, but you’re also able to make connections, to build a community around your ideas quickly— at a creative level that's beyond what you would be able to do if you were just working by yourself in a single office space, if you were working out of a coffee shop, or working at home.”

Being around others with different perspectives, expertise, backgrounds sparks new thinking. Says Suzanne Akin a former member of Cohere, “Not only does coworking help with networking and client sourcing, but it also gets the creative juices flowing.”

Myth 2: “Coworking is only for tech startups, solopreneurs, and freelancers.”

A friend of mine who works for a think tank that conducts impact evaluation of educational programs around the country was looking for a new place to work. She’s a data wonk, crunching and analyzing survey data in STATA. Statistical programming can be rigorous and her company lets her work out of the office. Skype and Gmail voice lets her check-in with colleagues when needed. My friend loves the flexibility but she was starting to feel rootless. I asked her if she would consider coworking instead of moving from coffee shop to coffee shop, lugging around her laptop.

“I thought coworking was only for freelancers and techies.” She shrugged her shoulders and grimaced as she finished her second cup of overpriced coffee for the day. “I work for a company. Wouldn’t that be weird?”

Sure, coworking is dominated by the usual startup crowd or freelance programmer or web designer. Deskmag’s 1st Global Coworking Survey found that the majority of coworkers are in the new media fields, working as web developers or programmers. Fifty-four percent are freelancers and almost 20 percent are entrepreneurs who employ others. Coworking also seems naturally more suited to smaller companies. Of the 20 percent or so that are permanent employees, the majority work for companies with less than five workers.

But employees of larger companies are starting to get in on the game, particularly with the rise of flexible work arrangements to minimize commuting costs for employees and the desire to reduce the need for a centralized headquarters. A 2011 survey of 600 executives from around the world conducted by Regus and Unwired Research found that over 60 percent of large companies are looking into remote and virtual work options for its employees. Fifty-nine percent of respondents said they no longer find it difficult to work outside the office confines. Seventy-nine percent feel that the technology is widely available to make working outside the office at any location productive and more than half think they are equipped with the tools and know-how to work un-tethered. Coworking spaces offer firms an opportunity to explore virtual working options and flexible schedules for its employees.

Spaces like Satellite Telework Centers in Northern California work with established companies looking to place their employees remotely in a professional business environment. In addition to the mix of startups, home-based business owners, and freelancers that most spaces boast, Satellite Telework Centers also house company consultants and telecommuters - the corporate crowd. In these spaces, coworkers work in an environment more “like the office”— without the deep overhead costs.

Parker Whitney, who works for a video game development companyFlyClops, housed in Indy Hall also agrees that telecommuters from bigger companies can thrive in coworking spaces. “We had a member who worked for Comcast when he joined us, and had the standard 9-to-5 job. He wanted to go a different way with how and where he actually spent his time, so he worked remotely from here and was really happy doing that for quite a long while. The point is— he could do work for a big corporation and still be independent.”

Myth 3: “Coworking only works in the big cities.”

Coworking isn’t solely for urban residents anymore. It’s also a serious option for residents in smaller cities and suburbs. For a lot of small town and rural businesses, what’s missing is the access to a community of entrepreneurs and the density of resources that a bigger city usually offers. By bringing coworking to smaller areas, these gaps can be filled. Maybe less young people would leave for the cities if they felt they could be entepreneurial where they are and have a support network.

One friend who lives in small town north of San Diego put it this way, “It’s tough being a startup in the middle of nowhere. You start craving the creative density of urban areas.”

Ironically, some urban areas suffer from the same issues as rural communities. Member Chase Granberry discusses how Gangplank is able to cluster and rally the disparate pockets of technology communities where he lives. “There aren’t a lot of people in the technology community working together mainly because the greater Phoenix metro area suffers from urban sprawl,” he tells us. “Because of the lack of density, you have to make an effort to find people that are doing similar things. Gangplank provides a central location for everybody to go any time they want. It provides a community hub.”

In the same way, collaborative workspaces can energize smaller communities by distilling entrepreneurial activity and getting people together. In many ways coworking is a throwback to town halls and community centers. If you live in an area that is spread out and diffuse, coworking spaces act like lightning rods bringing people together.

In small towns where you would think coworking would be an odd fit, not only is Satellite Telework Centers thriving (they are located in the suburbs outside Santa Cruz, California— Felton and Scotts Valley), it is revitalizing the communities there. Founder Jim Graham commented on how bringing people into the centers can impact the small communities that surround them. “The industry-accepted formula is that one full-time equivalent (FTE) employee supports 14 sq. ft. of retail space,” he explains. “It might not sound like much, but each Satellite can support up to 40-50 FTEs (representing upward of 200 members, since most of our members use the Satellite part-time),” he tells us. Redevelopment agencies and city officials with an eye on sustainability often find coworking spaces attractive for these reasons.

Myth 4: “Coworking spaces are noisy and distracting.”

When we first started checking out coworking spaces, we noticed a common theme. The spaces were never completely quiet-- but the people were unfazed. When members needed absolute silence, they slipped into their noise-canceling earbuds or headphones or sought out a conference or meeting room to have a private discussion. Most of the time, people welcomed the buzz of conversation around them as a part the space’s social fabric.

Some even say that the whole point of coworking is the openness. Branding expert James Archer even boasts about the lack of privacy for his company Forty Agency as a fundamental way of life. “Gangplankcan be noisy and chaotic at times, but that’s part of what makes it work: you overhear things. You find opportunities to jump in and help someone because you’ve dealt with their problems before.”

The buzz of activity is exactly the stimulus they’re looking for. Communications consultant Greg Roth tells us, “Some folks have felt that the noise level, which is not loud, but is above the hush of past cubicle farms I’ve worked in, can be distracting. I am oddly comforted by the other conversations going on in the space, in a way that it creates not only a sense of place, but also a sense of progress and activity.”

Still, that isn’t to say there aren’t conflicts. Paul Evers, who runs Bend, OR coworking space TBD Loft, tells us how activities related to fostering community can sometimes conflict with members’ business activities. “I think when you take the value of community and introduce it into a business environment, there's always going to be conflict because those two things have been engineered and designed to be different and isolated from each other.” To address these issues, TBD Loft holds regular community meetings.

For those who like a bit of privacy, check with your space and see about private offices. Many spaces offer a compromise, giving you the best of both worlds-- the openness of a coworking space with the privacy of an executive office. ThinkSpace founder Peter Chee, tells us, “We do have open coworking spaces here, but we also have private office space within our entire building, as well.”

It’s this flexibility that the established businesses there enjoy. “What we keep hearing from people is that they like the community, but they also like being able to keep some privacy. Something that we've tailored our model to do is create a sense of community, but also give people their privacy to run their businesses. [Members] love having the option to have a private conversation with their attorney or their CPA, or their investors, where being in an open room is not distracting them.”

Myth 5: “I can’t work at a coworking space. There’s no place to plug in my blowtorch.”

Some spaces aren’t even for the office set. Many workshops, do-it-yourself spaces, and hacker enclaves cater to inventors, steampunk enthusiasts, tinkerers, mechanics, and scientists looking for heavy machinery, equipment, and tools for their projects. They come here to satisfy their Tesla coil fixations, run their lab experiments, use 3-D printers, launch a robotics assembly line, and test prototypes. Artists also come here, looking for floor space not desk space, to solder and fuse sculptures or giant installations.

Many of these spaces like TechShop in Menlo Park, CA (they also have locations in Raleigh, NC, San Francisco, CA, San Jose, CA and soon Dearborn, MI) and Common Spaces in Brooklyn, NY pitch themselves as “pre-incubators” for small projects to be prototyped and played with, which may or may not later blossom into full-scale businesses or projects. Whether or not projects expand into something profitable, the spaces provide a low-risk way to learn new skills and experiment. From a cost perspective it makes sense to seek out shared spaces. Large machines and tools are expensive, too specialized, and cumbersome to keep and maintain for solo or pet projects. By bringing together different people, the infrastructure and equipment are maximized.

Phil Hughes, who developed data center cooling system Clustered Systems in TechShop, says that having access to the tools and facilities offered by their coworking space helped them cut costs and accelerate growth. “We started with an idea that neither of us had much experience with nor the experience to implement, so we had to first try to understand the dynamics of putting things together. That's really where TechShop helped because they had all the tools. We could build quick prototypes and try something out with immediate feedback. We also had all the tools we needed to update our prototypes and improve them.”

The social aspect of these spaces can be invaluable. Rather than a couple people in a garage tinkering away, you have a community of like-minded individuals in the same space. “Our tag line is ‘Build Your Dreams’, not ‘Build Your Stuff’”, TechShop CEO Mark Hatch points out. “Because typically, when somebody arrives, they’ve never had access to the tools, resources, or community that TechShop provides and as a result, their dream actually gets larger by working here.

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Genevieve DeGuzman is the co-author of ‘Working in the UnOffice: A Guide to Coworking for Indie Workers, Small Businesses, and Nonprofits’ (Night Owls Press, August 2011). Read a free preview of the ‘UnOffice’ at www.CoworkingGuide.com. An international edition looking at coworking spaces in other regions is their next project. Get in touch with Genevieve at Twitter @nightowlspress or drop her a line.

Co-working space sits next to a forest

This is our kind of coworking space! Hope to visit in Singapore sometime soon.

Just when we thought we’ve found them all, more co-working spaces have emerged to serve entrepreneurs who need a nice working environment but can’t afford a full-fledged office, which is expensive in land scarce Singapore.

Kennel, which brands itself as a “collaborative workspace” for creative entrepreneurs, is one such place. Nestled within the quaint, old world confines of Dempsey Hill and fronting a lush tropical forest, the co-working, or rather, collaborative workspace feels almost like a rejuvenative retreat for weary old souls.

Except that when I visited, Kennel was buzzing with activity and the chatter of energetic young people.

“There’s quite a diversity of people here. A few of them are startups, but the rest consists mainly of professionals who need a nice place to work and meet clients,” said Ho Renyung, Kennel’s co-founder, while showing me around.

I asked her to explain the curious choice for a name.

“We want to emphasise our view that we are all weird and wonderful individual species and that we embrace this diversity. Kennel also conveys a name that is fun, playful, and safe,” she said.

Indeed, Kennel is somewhat of a zoo.

Mark Wee and Ken Yuktasevi, the other co-founders of Kennel, founded its parent company UNION Experience, a design thinking school and innovation lab which focuses on encouraging multi-disciplinary collaboration and designing user experiences for organizations. Now, they head up anexperience design studio at Ong&Ong.

Ren, on the other hand, worked for three years in the hospitality industry at Banyan Tree Resorts before striking out on her own.

Occupying the desks at Kennel are people whose backgrounds resist definition — photographers, advertisers, social media strategists, interior designers, business consultants, and social entrepreneurs, where more than one of these labels apply.

I met briefly with John Roberts, founder of Heal the World, an organization which focuses on education in West Africa and South-east Asia. His flagship project, The University of West Africa, is an online university that provides lectures from iTunes University through smartphones.

He was working at Kennel but will soon be moving to West Africa.

Ren continued: “We want to attract people in portfolio careers because we understand that the nature of work is changing. It’s becoming project oriented; no one wants to be desk bound; work and life is no longer segmented. So, Kennel serves as an enabling environment for them.”

The co-working space did struck me as being like some sort of enclave. Similar to Hackerspace, Kennel is defined by the people and the activities they organize. But while the former is home to alpha geeks and technologists, the latter feels more like a bohemian community of eclectics and creatives.

Unique to Kennel is the idea that every member, or Kennelist, must contribute a certain amount of KBh (Knowledge Bank hours) of their skillsets or talents per month to the whole community.  Those can be in the form of workshops, lectures, or other activities.

And like all the other co-working spaces, multiple membership options are available, from a Day Pass to Communal and finally Resident (more details here).

Intimate events are becoming a fixture. They’ve invited Ferdrik Härén, author of The Idea Book, to speak at a workshop on creativity (see infographic).

They also host regular Kennel Nights, which has the simple aim of getting people together for a meaningful conversation revolving around a theme.

Here’s how they describe their latest:

“This week at Kennel its about human leadership and what that looks like. What powers social influence in the 21st century given the changing context of our communication infrastructure? What makes people want to follow? What is truly transformational versus purely transactional?”

Other alternatives: Startups@Sultan

If driving to Dempsey Hill is not your thing, another option you may want to check out is Startups@Sultan, which is walking distance away from Bugis MRT, Lavender MRT, and Nicoll Highway MRT. It’s currently accepting applications for their membership schemes, which start at S$30/day for a Day Pass to up to S$420/month for a Dedicated Pass.