This is the second of two posts in which Patrick Tanguay, Co-founder of Station C, location of the recent Mediaville All-Media Mixer, answers a few questions to help freelancers better understand the concept of coworking, and see why working in a professional, creative space like Station C beats the distractions of the home office or the coffee shop.
D: What was the initial inspiration for Station C?
We were looking to share a space between a few freelancer friends but also wanted extra tables to bring in collaborators and to offer space for out of towners dropping in. Before we could get our act together, we heard about Queen Street Commons in P.E.I. and then Hat factory and Citizen Space in San Francisco, it was our ideas taken further and we decided to open a coworking space.
D: How does the space work on a practical level?
P: My business partner Dan and I setup a company which signs the lease, got a loan, outfitted the place, signs contracts, receive payments, etc. Then between members I guess it’s kind of like room mates. Everyone pitches in a bit and takes care of their space (Residents) and helps each other out. Since the opening we also managed to start paying for a clean up service and one of our members is now also the “Intendant” and takes care of some of the admin stuff. The company is setup to just cover expenses and be stable, we don’t take a salary, it’s just a tool we gave ourselves and our members, as long as it’s self-sustainable, we’re happy
D: What kinds of things are encouraged and what is not tolerated at all?
P: Meeting others, organizing things and collaborating are encouraged. We haven’t had to “outlaw” much of anything, we make sure everyone reads and agrees with our manifesto (http://station-c.com/en/community-manifesto) and once we have like minded people, it’s pretty smooth going. It’s more of a community than a business service so people act in a respectful manner within their community.
D: There are several such spaces in Montreal, what is Station C doing differently?
P: Well there aren’t that many spaces calling themselves coworkings and following the movement’s values. There are only two I know of. The other non coworking spaces are shared offices or business centers. What coworking does is build a community and simply host them in a space, the space isn’t the heart of it. I don’t think we do anything different from other coworking space, we were first and have a pretty good network so we were probably more visible.
D: You’re in Mile End – Do the people who work in the space tend to be locals? In a particular industry? Is Mile End full of wordsmiths/graphic designers/videographers/etc?
P: A lot of our members do come from around here yes. We loved the area and felt it was the best place to be close to our potential members. Yes, all of the above and we have some of each. For a while, just through both of our networks, we ended up with a lot of web developers and designers but we now have translators, writers, Mac and iPhone developers and some early stage startups.
D: Do the people in the space tend to be long-term or even resident users, or is it more sporadic, with workers appearing for a day or two at a time?
P: Our longest standing members are Residents, there’s a bit more of a turn over with Lites and we usually have 8-10 regulars dropping by the hour randomly.
D: Mediaville is concentrating on helping freelancers partner with others in different industries, thereby enabling them to pick up/pitch for work they may otherwise not have been able to. Do you find that running a coworking space there is a lot of this that occurs naturally in the space?
P: Yes, absolutely. I’ve covered that in a few of the above answers and it’s something we will put more emphasis on in the future. It used to be that all our members were friends of ours and already knew each other, now it’s more diverse so we’ll start having member’s events for everyone to better know each other and soon we’ll have member profiles on the site so it’s a good resource to find collaborators.
Tanks to Patrick for taking time to talk with us. To find out more about Station C, visit their website:
http://station-c.com/en
