One of the cool things about coworking spaces is the variety of people that are attracted to working with others from different backgrounds. What happens is that you get a mashup of skills, talents and services that generates new ideas and opportunities.

C⁴ Workspace is just like that. Check out our new Member Skills and Talents page. If you’re looking for someone to help out with a project you’re likely to find them there. And if you find something missing that is a skill you have to offer it might give you some food for thought (“Why don’t I join?”).

So check out the page and then come down and rub elbows with these folks. You never know what will develop.

Members: If you see an error or omission on the list let us know and we’ll update it. If you don’t see yourself listed that means we just don’t know what you do. Tell  us and we’ll add you!

C⁴ Workspace and a bunch of others are hosting a Pink Slip Mixer on Thursday, September 17 from 5:30 to 7:30 pm to help connect under employed professionals with the companies and agencies who may have opportunities for them.

What’s a Pink Slip Mixer?

Pink Slip Mixers had their start when Wall Street got clobbered in the fall of 2008. Frankly, their soirees were more about drwoning their sorrows than connecting with the right people.

The Pink Slip Mixer is a non-threatening, social event. It is not a job fair. It is not for entry level people. The event is for for mid level, experienced professionals who have gotten the short end of the economy’s stick. And it’s for people in a position to hire the aforementioned professionals to meet and mingle with them outside a sterile interview or [shudder] The Job Fair.

We currently have 2 search firms lined up and are talking with two others as well as a few corporate HR departments.

The evening will start at 6 pm with sign in, name tag affixing, wrist banding and door prize ticket acquisition. It will run through 8 pm with breaks to give out door prizes. In between it’s all about talking with people. People looking for work and people looking for good employees and contractors. There will be snacks and refreshments throughout the evening. And attendees will have a chance to get a professional profile picture taken to flesh out their online profiles on sites like LinkedIn.

Register Now!

This Pink Slip event is right in line with our mission here at C⁴ Workspace. We’re all about a sustainable professional community. Sustainability starts at home with bringing home the bacon (or soy substitute). We know not everyone is cut out for running a solo business and not all solo’s are cut out to work in traditional office environment. But we all gotta cowork in some fashion. So Pink Slip brings together San Antonio’s professional community to work together and network.  And that’s what C⁴ Workspace is all about.

The Pink Slip Mixer is brought to you by:

• C⁴ Workspace
• Madhatter’s Teahouse
• MyLabelNet

It’s back to school time and for many of us and that means back to (serious) work with the kids in school.

Back to school for me is always about starting fresh. So how or what do you do to start fresh at Back to School time?

BrownBag Lunch: Back to School, Back to Work

Wednesday, August 26

11:30 am – 1 pm

C⁴ Workspace

Come on out for our first Brown Bag Lunch and share!

(You don’t have to share your lunch but ideas are great!)

Our motto down here at C4 Workspace is “Building a Sustainable Professional Community for San Antonio.” That means we’re building an internal community that is connected to the external community. And that the coworkers in our community will prosper together which will in turn benefit the the San Antonio community at large.

So it looks like New York City is thinking the same thing. In this article from the New York Observer, Mayor Announces $1.5 Million Bailout Plan for City’s Media and Tech Industry, you can read about a variety of things Mayor Bloomberg and company are trying to do to help the city recover from the financial meltdown.

I like this part…

Finding affordable office space among the city’s tech startups has been an ongoing struggle for many entrepreneurs and freelance new media bloggers in New York, too. New Work City on Varick Street, a co-working space for freelancers and startups, offers memberships for $50 to $500 per month. But discounted office space, with enough juice to power computers and servers, is in high demand. So the city is also partnering with economic and business advocacy organization Downtown Alliance to build “hives,” or coworking spaces. The first, called “Hive@55,” will be an affordable co-working space for up to about 50 freelancers at a time in a 5,000 square foot space at 55 Broad Street, the high-tech highrise built to attract more tech companies to the city.

Small and micro business have the same problems all over. One of the biggest challenges freelancers and other home based businesses face is having an affordable, professional, physical presence. And having other professionals to connect with. Which solves the universal problem of isolation. That is what coworking is all about. And it looks like New York is about to tap into that in a serious way.

So…what does NYC got that San Antonio ain’t got? KnowotI’mtalkinbout?

[Thanks to our friends at OpenSpace Coworking in Charlottesville, Virginia for the link. Hi Nikki! Hi Jeff!]

Here’s a little Flickr set of the set up and screening for the film “King Corn” recently hosted by Christa Emmerick of C-ME Change. Christa is San Antonio’s only Certified Raw Food Chef.

We sat about 40 people in about half of the space.

C4 Workspace was founded to give freelancers (and other independent professionals) a professional office atmosphere and presence that will help benefit their brand. And nothing says “brand” better than a theme song!

So, sing it loud! (There’s a karaoke section midway through.)

Freelance National Anthem

Sustainability is an important concept at C⁴ Workspace. Sustainability can mean different things to different people: green, long term, viable. Well, in order to be sustainable in the viable, long term sense people need to be comfortable and healthy when they work. That means they’re happier and can work for a longer part of their life. (Which I contend is, and am resolved to being, a LONG time.)

Working comfortably is what ergonomics is all about. The interplay between your desk, your chair, your monitor, keyboard and mouse determine if you’re a happy camper in your office.

A tweet by @SacCoworking pointed out this article over at Freelance Switch. “What Freelancers Must Know About Ergonomics” has lots of good information about ergonomics for desk users, freelance or not. It’s a good worthwhile read.

Coincidentally, C⁴ Workspace is all about people who use desks. In case your were wondering.

Celina Peña, Director of the South Texas Women’s Business Center (STWBC), stopped by a couple of weeks ago and interviewed Debbie, Perla, Andrew and I for their newsletter and the article came out today!

So, what is the STWBC? From their site:

The South Texas Women’s Business Center is an accessible resource in a friendly setting for all entrepreneurs, especially women and minorities. The Center is committed to providing bilingual services in training, counseling, and guidance to empower those who want to start or expand their business.

Key Services:

• Training
• Technology
• Individual Business Counseling

STWBC is just the kind of diverse community C⁴ Workspace was created for.

Rather than the “usual suspects” we were created to be a resource for the entire business community. We have a vibrant software, design and media (video, film, social, new) community here in San Antonio. But a coworking space like C⁴ Workspace can’t be sustained by that alone. Bringing in a wide variety of businesses and disciplines provides the opportunity to create a “perpetual business machine” with new opportunities popping up all the time for all the space members. That is what will keep us going long term.

So, think less “club” and more “community.”