Florida Creatives – Creating a Community of Innovation

Etan Horowitz of the Orlando Sentinel's weekly tech column, was at last night's CoLab Open House. Here's what he had to say.

Orlando Sentinel - A recap of the CoLab Orlando open house

Below is a video of Hussey, and Greg Pollack, a local web developer and one of the CoLab organizers, speaking about the space at last night's open house.

Pricing to rent a desk in the CoLab space ranges from $225 a month for a six-month membership to $300 a month for a month to month membership. There are also entire suites adjacent to the CoLab space which are available for rent. Several people asked about rates to rent a desk for a day or a couple days a week. Day rates are a staple of other coworking spots like Independents Hall in Philadelphia and they contribute to the laid back atmosphere. Although no day rates were listed on the pricing sheet handed out [...] Hussey said he is open to it if that's what the community wants.

"This is like a restaurant, Hussey said. "We just want to get it open. Then we can work everything out."

John Hussey, the owner fo the building, promised us that Tuesdays will be free until the end of the year, in honor of the Coworking Tuesdays we've been holding at Stardust for the last 6 months. Right now the only amenities are the space and the internet connection. Lots of folks asked about print/copy/fax, and John himself mentioned having some seminars by lawyers (whose offices are in the building) about whether to set up an S-Corp vs. and LLC and other such legal advice for small tech companies, and possibly hooking up a small business loan program with the folks from Seaside Bank.

One thing that seems to be missing right now is administrative help. A big hurdle in the way of having day rates is the lack of a door man or woman to regulate who is allowed in. If said door guard were someone who was using the space anyway, that could work out well. If the space had to support an administrative person's salary, it would probably have to be larger or charge higher rates.

There is also a concept of a few community leaders acting as advisers for the space, namely, David Rogers, Gregg Plloack, and myself (Ryan Price). I'm sure this will all take better shape in the next month, and particularly in the first 3 to 6 months that CoLab is open. Until then, the concrete answers, traditions and culture of the space will be in transition, so just relax and keep your eyes open and your ears pricked for news and updates.