Nadworny: New co-working space impresses

Two months ago, I moved my office into the VCET@BTV space within the FairPoint Innovation Hub. After five years of sharing an office downtown with a colleague of mine, I decided that I needed to test out this new open co-working space.

VCET@BTV is the result of a donation of 11,000-square-foot space by FairPoint Communications — which once housed the telecom's directory assistance department — to the nonprofit Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies. The space is at the corner of Main and South Union streets.

My assumption was that this new workspace it would have a younger, technology flavor. My expectation was that there would be more opportunities for random creative collisions with other entrepreneurs and designers. I wanted to test out a recent headline in Forbes that asked "Coworking: Is It Just A Fad Or The Future Of Business?"

Here's what I found so far: in the first two weeks at the VCET Innovation Hub I had more non-planned, interesting conversations with people in the space than I had in two years in my previous office building. Within two months, I had picked up two new pieces of business. I had provided advice and recommendations to a number of the other businesses here, from providing help on an RFP to helping find freelance help.

The best parts, for me, are the workrooms. Large whiteboard or chalkboard wall space gives me room for my design work. I can fill them with those classic colored post-it notes to review and rearrange and stimulate new ideas. I love inviting clients and collaborators to work there. They seem to love it, too. In short, I get to have all of the advantages of working in a high-end workspace for my independent company.

I wondered if others were experiencing the same thing, so I asked them.

Marguerite Dibble is founder of Game Theory. She and her team recently rebranded their Birnham Woods gaming company and moved into the space. She had this to say:

"We are interacting with people every day who we have so much in common with, people who face the same challenges and have overcome similar obstacles, which adds infinite value to a workday. Since we've been here, we've experienced additional benefits of being able to expand our team without worrying about breaking leases or renting new space. We just add chairs to our total count."

Artur Adib, senior software engineer at Twitter, a tenant who works remotely with his teams, says this:

"The opportunities for collaboration, learning and networking present themselves almost on a daily basis. In the first months working there I already met amazing startups, made introductions to venture capitalists, and helped developers solve pressing issues. Co-working clearly fills a gap for individuals and small teams that are like-minded but previously isolated."

Others are finding ways to take advantage of the Innovation Hubs workrooms in off-hours. Girl Develop IT teaches women how to code and hosts its meeting in the new works space. The group Burlington Healthcare Innovators also uses the space for its meetings.

Right now, there are 65 members in the space. Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies has a target of 100 for the space created for both startups and independent workers. For startups, or even part-time startups, VCET wanted to provide the benefits of a real office that could impress new hires, attract new investors and give them the ability to staff up or down easily without having to look for new office space every time something changed.

For independents who either work from home or who travel for business, the space gives them a place to operate and connect. As VCET President David Bradbury pointed out "The remote workforce here in Vermont is one of the most isolated groups there is."

Most of all, the Innovation Hub plays an important role in Bradbury's mission to foster startups in Vermont, one of the initiatives to provide a long-term commitment in support of entrepreneurs, students and emerging companies.

We'll have to wait and see whether the VCET@BTV space delivers on that. One thing is for sure: it is one of the coolest best-designed workspace in the state. Designed by Tania Kratt Interiors of Stowe, the workspace is a delight to work in and causes "oohs" and "ahs" of every visitor I've had. And that reaction is typical even when we don't play on one of the three ping-pong tables in the space.

EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this column incorrectly named a user of the space and misspelled Tania Kratt's name.

Rich Nadworny is principal at Empatico, an innovation and design firm in Burlington. You can connect with Rich at www.empatico.us or follow him on Twitter @rnadworny.