You are invited to work at Design Kompany.
No, we won’t pay you. But then, you won’t have to listen to us, either.
It’s called casual co-working. There’s a number of co-working sites like this popping up everywhere. We are calling ours Dream Kitchen. It’s happening this Friday, March 14.
Dream Kitchen is a bi-weekly work-together. And a short seminar/presentation/discussion over a long lunch. It’s an opportunity for a self-starter like you, to…
- Network: Looking for a new gig? Someone to collaborate with on your secret project? Who knows who you might meet here that could lead somewhere.
- Brainstorm: Need feedback on your current project? Ideas for a new product?
- Create: We’ve got wifi, a big table, and a couple of other places where you can prop your laptop on and get busy. If you are a work-at-home guy/gal, this is a chance to dress up;)
- Socialize: Change is fun!
- Learn: We will feature something new at each event—an informative speaker or discussion forum on an interesting topic
This week, Melody Biringer, a power entrepreneur and founder of Startup Junkie and Crave Party (”an exclusive, festive, glam-gal gathering”), will be on hand to share with us her wisdom on fostering a community.
Interested? Please get in touch with us to reserve a spot! (letsplay[at]design-kompany[dot]com)
Dream Kitchen I
Friday, March 14
Kornerhaus, the new office space of Design Kompany
10 AM - 2 PM
Q&A with Melody Biringer and lunch (bring your own) at noon
10am-2pm, drop in any time
In case you need more serious, on-going office spaces… In Seattle, there are two full-time co-working locations (more like hourly rental offices, these): Office Nomads and MyDayOffice.
What a great idea! Have a potential conflict this Friday, but I’d definitely look to attend some of the future episodes of this, if not this one.
Sounds good. We got a lot of feedback from the series of six Dream Kitchens we ran last summer. One of them was to set a theme for each session, to give people a focus to decide if they’d like to attend.
So then we invited a guest speaker from the Artist Trust to talk about grants–that was popular. Here were some other ones:
Dream Kitchen: ‘Hit the High Note’
Launching Dream Kitchen: The Art of Dialogue
Tomorrow we’re going to learn all about Melody Biringer’s event company Crave, and two weeks hence we’ll have a guest speaker share his experiences as a small indie publisher.
If anyone out there has suggestions for topics or speakers, drop us a line!
Also: keep up with Dream Kitchen and other Design Kompany events on our new events page.
Sounds like the company you have when you are not having a company. Interesting.
Totally agree, change is fun and so socializations are. Here you got my feedback.
Greetings
Now here it’s the feedback www.betterkitchens.co.uk
Guess its all over now - did it go well?
Planning on holding other similar events?
Its interesting idea however it seems that with the new social media websites that networking has changed from the face to face meet and greets to more online approach or a mixture of them booth. I would be interested in knowing on average how many people attend the Dream Kitchen meetings
@Kitches, dude what are you talking about? A company when you dont have a company? huh?
What a novel idea. I’m cruios to know how this works out.
Gerry, you can read the roundup of speakers Design Kompany invited for our Dream Kitchen’s spring 2008 series. Great topics, including small press publishing, art inspired by math, and cardboard furniture that’s been featured in galleries around Seattle this year.
Tons of fun, but most important, spontaneous face-to-face conversations among people who got inspired to get creative and make new stuff.
Hmmmmm feeling hungry after seeing this post.
can you upload your meetings on your website? I mean for those who can’t make it. Atleast an insight to such meetings can be a good learning experience.
Chef Anya,
About future events: check out Design Kompany’s events page to see what’s coming. We started hosting events in 2006 with a photo show called ‘Dazzle’ . The biggest event so far has been ‘Sugar,’ a dessert party—70 people turned up for that. Most of our events are much cozier, though, and small by design.
Abyss,
The whole idea for running Dream Kitchen was to get people together in real life, for the kind of creative inspiration impossible to find outside of face-to-face conversation. That said, sometimes we’ll post the highlights of what we hear and learn. See notes about Dream Kitchen at Design Kompany.
This is an interesting concept and great idea. Just having social support or achieving whatever idea you may have can go a long way to keeping yourself motivated!
Hey nice idea there. This gives me an idea to pull out my friends this weekend for a similar meet.
Good use of synergy there. Business is a team sport and networking is essential.
This would be an interesting for a self-starter guide..
Thank’s for your nice idea
Business is just like sport, cooperation is definitely essential for things to go well with you.
I’m glad everyone commenting here thinks this is a good idea. There are some down sides, though.
The people organizing always have to be there, even if it’s unclear how many others will turn up. It can be a little tough to get speakers to commit, too, which is why we host series of Dream Kitchen sessions instead of doing this every week. Hosting takes time and energy. Anybody who hosted Thanksgiving yesterday gets what I mean!
Then again, getting people together is one of our favorite things to do at DK. New energy, new inspiration, new connections… all that leads to what we love to seek: new meaning, new ideas.
Very interesting and great idea. Business like a team game
This is something what you can really rely on…! Since long time I look here at regular intervals and read the interesting and well written contributions. Its really appreciating.
The information you gathered is really true.
Thats great to great piece of information you shared here through post…
If there are anymore episodes coming, please post
well nice idea but not paying is a negative contribution
Can you provide more information on this? I was looking for this additional information, just bookmarked to check the updates
Very nice! You’re pretty smart, i’ll be keeping up with this blog in the future.
this can be a new way of meeting people all over the world. nope i wont be too busy for the next episode.
I must agree, a great way to meet new people and have new connections. Great idea, I must say!
I wish I could be there. been far from turkey phrase
have good information on a good site would be useful to people thank you
This is an interesting idea, but it seems that new media, social networking sites, which changed from front to meet and greet more on-line or in a mixture of cabins. I want to know on average how many people participated dream kitchen Meetings…..
Nice way of working. Casual working is really great where people focus on work rather than pointing fingers and all. All the best you guys.
nice article thank you for sharing
tabldot yemek
Nice way of working. Creating a casual atmosphere at work place helps everyone to be comfortable but at the dame time professional work related strictness should also be there.
This is like democracy. I really appreciate this concept. Every one is free to express opinions in a free atmosphere. Brilliant working. Impressed.
@bestkitchen,
The whole idea for our Dream Kitchen session series was to meet in real life, because we live in Seattle and everybody knows people in Seattle are totally glued to their laptops even in public places like coffee shops at Greenlake and stuff. I was in San Francisco just a week or so ago and this is what people there think of us! Wow. Anyway, I had an inkling that this was sort of weird, so Akira and I thought about Dream Kitchen as a way to invite people to one spot. We actually got the idea in a brainstorming session with a truly talented and bright individual who said you should get a chance to talk about what you do outside of work sometimes. That’s where we started out—lunch, and your big dreams.
I’m glad everyone commenting here thinks this is a good idea. There are some down sides, though.
So what do you actually work on? Like website graphic, commercial graphic, abstract graphic?
Kind of broad field to join on a simple keyword. D:
I’m glad everyone commenting here thinks this is a good idea. There are some down sides, thoughh
Thanks for showing all the detailed information in such a lovely blog as i was searching on the net and got connected with this blog. I appreciate your hard work you have put in for compiling such an amazing & informative blog!!!
i will be monitoring all your updates from time to time. Maze of information, clustered in one place, Great!
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- have good information on a good site would be useful to people thank you
Great blog. Have bookmarked and will be reading through more posts later.
Interesting idea, but may take a while to catch on. Be interested to know how it is going now.
Hey flat pack kitchens, thanks for the comment.
Well, we have moved and are yet to start Kitchen here in Durham, but the idea of co-working has caught on seriously now.
I know there are at least half a dozen commercial co-working spaces in Seattle now, and in Durham, there are three that have just opened or starting soon. I think the non-profit approach (e.g., taken by a Durham initiative called Bull City Forward) is catching on, and more loose, Jelly! like co-working events like this Kitchen are happening around the globe. Check out this co-working event list to see if there’s one happening near you.
looks like you have a good company. Great site. Got a lot of insights here. thanks
can you upload your meetings on your website? I mean for those who can’t make it. At least an insight to such meetings can be a good learning experience.
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