Wellington
[caption id="attachment_2711" align="aligncenter" width="640"]
Part of Wellington's BizDojo, showing the all-important kitchen and cafearea[/caption]
I had the pleasure of working out of Wellington's BizDojo about four years ago on a project to collate just who were the local Wellington companies using R&D in their businesses.
If I had to give a description then, I'd have said it was a cool co-working space, and it wouldbe interesting to see how it evolves.
Well, heck has it grown up.
Not only has the Wellington site on Vivian St moved upstairs and now has 90 or so fulltimeresidents in a swish 'boy, I wished I worked there' space, there's another right next-door 70 x 50m2space that is being developed to cater for companies of 1 – 12 people.
BizDojo's main space sees the company started by Nick Shewring and Jonah Merchant, looking likeit means business and fun at the same time. This is in no small way through the jointventure/working showroom arrangement with 'Haworth by Europlan' furniture that populates the office.There's height adjustable (standing) desks, moveable tables and desks, quiet (soundproofed) cubiclesand private meeting spaces dotted around the light and airy space.
A desk in this space costs $300/month, including the furniture, with all the wifi you caneat.
It is little wonder that some government workers/departments who use the space for one-offprojects find their own employees wanting to permanently locate there.
Wellington isn't the only location that is seeing the BizDojo model of co-workingness gellingwith entrepreneurs and others who (like me) dislike working alone.
New Zealand's now has 280 BizDojo (ers, ees, whatever the collective noun is) spread across itsChristchurch, Wellington and Auckland sites.
But this co-working space is doing more than creating interconnections between individuals'networks, skills and ideas.
As Shewring commented, there's plenty of other co-working spaces tried to get off the ground inNew Zealand (and around the rest of the world).
Shewring makes the observation that many of those other plays have been 'rental'arrangements...bums on seats.
In comparison (though naturally it has to make a profit), BizDojo's success is very much based onits members' success. When they do well, grow, take on more people, BizDojo does well. Of course theultimate success is when the new company leaves its BizDojo home, and so far it can claim ??? havemoved on, while staying close!
But wait, there's more.
Shewring and Merchant believe they're got the model humming along in the right way to replicatetheir system in other countries.
They're now busy, very busy, looking to set up in other countries such as Thailand.
From what they've seen and observed, the collaborative networking (and fun) co-working spacesthey've refined here, will work overseas.
Indeed, it can pretty easily be argued that this type of 'office' will increasingly become thenorm as work develops.
Whether it is replicable remains to be seen.
But, if you don't try you'll never know – and given that one of the objectives of thecollective BizDojos is to network across sites, you wouldn't put it past being an under-the-radarconduit for Kiwi businesses looking to enter new markets...just like BizDojo itself.
(sticK is written by Peter Kerr, who also operates Punchline - Message that matter )