Creative Denver

5280 magazine had a sidebar on coworking facilities in Denver/ Boulder this past month. They highlighted 4 firms:

Denver Coworking at the Hive, Creative Farm, ID345 Space

The Hive Cooperative - at $199 per month located at 2401 15th street in Denver.

The Creative Farm - between $300 and $700 per month, located at 4900 W. 29th Ave.

ID345 SPACE - between $250 and $750 per month is located in North Downtown at 2936 Larimeter Street.

Coworking in Boulder - Carbon Space Co-Op

Create Denver in combination with Tamarac Square is running an open house on June 11th from 5PM to 7PM.

Please join us for an open house to learn about exciting creative space opportunities at Tamarac Square and the Create Denver initiative including the new Creative Space Agent Web Site!

Free parking is available (because Tamarac Square is a largely failed suburban mall that is trying to find a new purpose). It could actually work quite well as a "creative" office space, especially with the Whole Foods and light rail stops nearby.

There is a Create Denver Expo coming up on March 21.

Looks like it will be pretty valuable. The event will have a variety of vendors and workshops available. It is located in the Wellington Webb building in downtown Denver.

A List Apart is a group blog run by Happy Cog, a design firm from San Franciso. It also happens to be an amazing resource for people whose job is based on building this crazy thing we call the internets.

What is Coworking?

Freelancers and small businesses are starting to learn the benefits of "Coworking." Coworking is the word that's been invented to describe situations where people get together to rent office space as a group. It's similar to a co-op but based more on the idea that people inside the coworking facility are more likely to be renters for a relatively short term instead of the long term and contractual obligations that are part of the co-op model.

I've written previously about the state of newspapers and physical vs. digital media but there was a development recently that may change some of that industry's situation. Specifically, Google, perhaps the most successful advertising brokerage online has started offering Printads - it's adwords for print media. Google previously experimented with inserting ads into print media and they didn't run forward with it.

This is too good: If Architects Had To Work Like Web Designers

The Denver Office of Cultural Affairs (DOCA) is an organization that works to promote Art and Creativity in Denver. Within DOCA, Create Denver: Art & Economic Development is a group that works to use Creativity and Art as a catalyst for Economic growth in the city. The popular Creative Class book and theory have made this a popular concept and Hickenlooper is wise to embrace this popular concept.

There was recently a review of iBiz on MacWorld. Anita seemed to like the idea.

iBiz is out for me since it only runs on Mac.

I've tried out QuickBooks and found a homegrown spreadsheet to be more than sufficient for my needs.

What works for you?

So, is print media dead? Yesterday we briefly discussed whether print media (e.g. newspapers) are "dead". Part of the fuel for the fire was the news that the Denver Nespaper Agency is laying off 5% of it's staff. Bummer.

On the flip side, RR Donnelley 3Q Profit Up 61 Percent. It's not clear exactly which business unit inside of the mega-company was responsible for the growth, but it's safe to say that it has to do with physical print media.

So, perhaps those 5% of laid off folks can take solace in the fact that more jobs in the print media are out there - they just have to find them.