You’ve seen them in the coffee shop, drinking java and toiling away on a computer. Or maybe you know a friend working at the kitchen table in her pajamas. Independent contract workers, set loose of their corporate cubicles due to budget cuts or preference, are looking for new places to work — temporarily as needed.
It’s called coworking and Anchorage has at least one spot, called The Boardroom, where users buy memberships and enjoy hot coffee and collaborative workspace. It’s located downtown near the Alaska Center for the Performing Arts.
Coworking is a part of the new “sharing economy,” where couches, vacation rentals, bikes—just about anything you can imagine, is rentable, temporarily. “Just as we saw social networks emerge, now we’re going to see sharing networks emerge,” the owner of a coworking space in Silicon Valley said. “The physical world is becoming socialized and democratized.”
Learn more about coworking and the sharing economy on Hometown Alaska, when Kathleen McCoy hosts the two young entrepreneurs who founded The Boardroom. Where did they get the idea? How did they finance it? What have they learned about their customers so far?
We’ll contrast this new space with insights from a long-time manager of business suites for rent, also downtown. How are they different? Are their services different? Is one a more modern version of the other, or something completely different?
GUESTS:
- Katherine Jernstrom and Brit Szymoniak, founders of The Boardroom
- Mike Thomas, operations manager, Pacific Office Center
LINKS:
- How the sharing economy is changing the places we work, NPR All Tech Considered
- Coworking spaces, You Tube
- Coworking wiki, resources
- Shareable, a coworking magazine
- All eyes on the sharing economy, The Economist
- The sharing economy goes corporate, Wired
- The Boardroom, website
- The Boardroom, Facebook
- Pacific Office Center, website
- Midtown Executive Office Suites, website
- EVENT: Entrepreneurial Edge panel of young entrepreneurs, Feb. 21
PARTICIPATE:
- Call 550-8433 (Anchorage) or 1-888-353-5752 (statewide) during the live broadcast (2:00 – 3:00pm)
- Send e-mail to hometown@alaskapublic.org before, during or after the live broadcast (e-mails may be read on air)
- Post your comment or question below (comments may be read on air)
HOST: Kathleen McCoy
LIVE BROADCAST: Wednesday, February 12, 2014. 2:00 – 3:00 pm (Alaska time)
REPEAT BROADCAST: Wednesday, February 12, 2014. 9:00 – 10:00 pm (Alaska time)
SUBSCRIBE: Get Hometown, Alaska updates automatically — via email, RSS or podcasts
