Jelly returns to Birmingham tomorrow!

PICT0033. NotanMBA/FlickrBirmingham’s coworking movement started as a result of weekly Jellies at coffee houses across the metro area (and Innovation Depot). It just makes sense to start it up again – so we are!

Jelly starts tomorrow morning at The Red Cat (formerly o kafé’s) in Pepper Place at 9 a.m. (though I’ll probably be there shortly after 8 a.m.) and will go until we’re finished.

There’s an invite on Facebook where you can RSVP if you want to, but I figured I’d share a portion of the description that we included over here:

“Jelly is casual coworking. We invite people to work from our home (or our favorite coffee house) for the day. We provide chairs and sofas, wireless internet, and interesting people to talk to, collaborate with, and bounce ideas off of.

You bring a laptop (or whatever you need to get work done) and a friendly disposition.

We’ll bring a couple of power strips and a willingness to meet some new people!

We see a lot of designers, developers, and internet types, but we’ve also had musicians, cooks, sound designers, tea sommeliers, product designers, photographers, writers, and more.

Some of us are entrepreneurs or freelancers. Others work in an office most of the time, but work at Jelly for fresh ideas and a change of pace.”

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Photo: PICT0033. NotanMBA/Flickr

What is coworking?

In advance of Wednesday’s meeting about coworking, what options currently exist and the feasibility for a new space associated with The Terminal, it sort of makes sense to give people a better idea about just what it is.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeJR3biNW94[/youtube]

Hopefully you’ll see this video, which includes interviews with coworking pioneers Brad NeubergChris Messina and Tara Hunt as a great primer of what it actually is.

Whether you see it as “BarCamp everyday” or as a chance for independent works to form the same types of long-lasting deep relationships that they’d find at companies, it’s safe to say that it means much more than a shared office space to work. It’s an opportunity to develop and contribute to a community and those relationships.

It was originally recorded in 2007 but still resonates as much today as it did then. Enjoy, pass the link along and hopefully we’ll see you on Wednesday evening!

The results are in…

The results of the survey have been in for some time actually. I apologize for the lengthy delay in sharing them with you, though it was for reasons that I really could not control.

We had sixty-six (66) respondents to the survey; sixty-two (62) of them are represented in the results that have been posted to the site. Please feel free to share the results with anyone that you think would be interested.

We’ll be hosting an interest meeting about coworking next Wednesday, July 14, from 6 – 7:30 p.m. along with Main Street Birmingham at Woodrow Hall in the Woodlawn commercial district (5504 1st Avenue North).

We’re hoping this will give you a chance to network with others interested in joining a coworking community. It should also give you an idea about what’s currently available in metro Birmingham and a chance to discuss what a new coworking community could bring to the area.

We’d invite folks to bring their tasty beverage of choice; we’ll provide the snacks.

We’re not asking for RSVPs, but if you’d let us know if you are attending by contacting us at info@bhamterminal.com, we’d really appreciate it.

Here’s the situation…

Those of you who’ve been wondering why The Terminal’s been so quiet in recent weeks, you’ve finally stumbled across the first virtual representation of why.

Birmingham’s hub is looking into becoming a physical space. We’d be a coworking community during business hours, Monday through Friday. After hours, we’d occasionally host events related to content on our site as well as allow user groups, photowalks and anyone else interested in expanding the connections among the creative community in Birmingham the opportunity to use it. That’s the idea in our head right now at least.

That’s why we’ve created this new section. We want your input and want to make sure you know what we’re doing every step of the way – within reason. We’ve already identified a great location but want to make sure that we serve our community’s needs – and see if this location will work.

That’s why we’re hoping that as many of you as possible will fill out our coworking interest survey. BTW – we’d like to thank the folks at Homebase in Tallahassee, FL for making it possible to use their survey thanks to their Creative Commons license.

After you’ve finished doing that, you can help us spread the word by passing along the link to anyone that you think may be interested.

We’re looking forward to getting your input as we work towards our target opening date of July 15.