Coworking Belfast

Over the past week quite a number of people have asked me to define coworking and Coworking Belfast and explain why renting space there might be in their best interests - something I’m apparently not very good at doing on the spot. We’ve done quite well writing buzzword-rich descriptions for proposals - but I wanted to talk about what coworking means to me personally.

Coworking, at the end of the day, primarily provides workspace for freelancers. It’s basic principle is to provide dedicated workspace for those who don’t have it - which typically populates most coworking spaces with freelancers, startups and individuals working within the digital domain. The advantage of similarly minded people working vaguely within technology and the web is then the knowledge and resources everyone can share quite naturally within the space - which is what then ultimately nurtures new businesses. That is what coworking is to me - a space where small ideas become big through conversation, feedback and sharing ideas and knowledge.

The coworking space will have a open-plan office at its core, but there are other key resources that will be generally required to keep such a space self-sustaining - namely a meeting room and a “quiet” room for taking phone calls, etc. A small amount of incubation space for either ideas that grow too large for the coworking space itself or developing ventures ready to take a private space immediately would also be good to include in the geography of the overall project.

The potential coworking space that’s been identified on Bradbury Place has the ability to facilitate all of these ideas at an agreeable cost and also has the advantage of being in an immediate catchment from Queen’s University and South Belfast residential - as well as being fantastically serviced by public transport, restaurants, cafes and bars.

The project is pending in various key stages right now. We’re awaiting public funding to take the initial financial pressure off, we’re currently registering as a not-for-profit so the space exists as a separate legal entity, we’re currently still enlisting those who will definitely rent a regular space - and we’re currently getting a website up and running. The frustrating part is most of those key decisions are now outside those trying to get the space up and running as soon as possible - so we’re simply playing the waiting game until the ball returns to our court.

Preceeding more coherent listings on the regular meetups going on around Belfast, I thought it would be worth mentioning XCake - a relatively new local meetup to “share thoughts, tips, problems and ideas to do with Cocoa and writing applications for the Mac and iPhone”. The group have recently put a wiki online, and will presumably be meeting again in the near future.

http://xcake.org/

BelfastOpenCoffee June
Thursday 3rd July, 6pm
Charlies Coffee Shop, Bradbury Place (map)

Easily the strongest local meetup, Belfast OpenCoffee combines all things tech, web and startup in Northern Ireland. At least one Thursday evening a month, an ever-expanding group take over Charlies Coffee Shop on Bradbury Place to chat over delicious coffee and buns with a view to networking with some of Belfasts up and coming entrepreneurs, developers and investors. Worth a look in!

BarCamp Belfast
Saturday 21st June, 9am - 5pm
Queens University Belfast, Peter Froggatt Centre (map)

BarCamp Belfast is an ad-hoc unconference on the internet, web development technologies, open-source software, social networking, blogging, online video - and more. Anyone can and should attend and talk - you can find out more on the BarCamp wiki.

Coworking Belfast will bring silicon valley thinking to Belfast by creating a cutting edge work space for digital and creative workers. It’s goal is solely to improve these industries and provide a creative atmosphere to allow ideas and companies to grow in an organic way.

Currently, we’re playing the waiting game. We’ve applied for funding to underwrite the rent for the minimum lease term, and we’ve forwarded our paperwork to the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action to apply for chariable status and allow us to seat a board to manage the space. Once those things are processed, we should be in a pretty comfortable position to contact the estate agent with final contract negotiations, get the ball rolling with refurbishment - and most importantly of all - start buying essential commodities such as bean bags (read: desks) and XBox 360s (er… computers? yep).

We’re also hoping that Coworking Belfast both on and offline will become the definitive resource for everything-meetup in Belfast. Make sure you’ve subscribed to the RSS feed for regular updates on related events such as OpenCoffee and new programming meetups - as well as information on how the space is developing and how you can become a part of it.