Coworking Ireland

As part of the latest round of ad-hoc meet-ups in Dublin, I decided to arrange a Coworking / Blogger / Webby / Twitter (whatever) meet-up for people in Dublin. The date is Thursday 27th (evening time), the venue has yet to be decided (Depends on the numbers).

Hopefully some of the Irish co-working guys can pop along..

It has been suggested that we go for food followed by drinks. As a bonus, I have some freebies from WordPress.. More info over here http://www.jason-roe.com/blog/blogger-webby-meet-up-dublin-thursday-27th-nov/

Subsequent to some more frantic viewing, Andy McMillan and I have put the stake in the ground and decided that CoWorking Belfast will be opening soon.

As Andy writes:

we viewed a 1200sqft open-plan office (with kitchenette, disabled access & a shower) – on the first floor above the Black Box. The property ticks all the boxes – it’s finished to an excellent standard and could happily fit around a dozen coworkers simultaneously – and most importantly of all is mere feet away from coffee, pizza and beer.
Without negotiation on price – and with 10 coworkers renting full-time – its about £200pm – although obviously this price would fall when subsidized by hot-desking, virtual office services, room hire etc. As soon as we hit the 10 mark, we’ll be in a position to begin talking to the estate agent and actually open the coworking space.

We’ve also put funding into the Creative Industries Innovation Fund for desking and equipment so we’ll see where that takes us.

We definitely want to see permanent residents but also a smattering of Bedouin workers and temporary hotdeskers who just need a a conducive environment and some kick ass equipment.

CoWorking update on Digital Circle
CoWorking Update on Cimota.com

I have been keeping an eye on the commercial lettings market (mainly offices) for the last two years. I spotted an interesting trend, commercial offices lets in Dublin are dropping sharply in price. Availability of offices in Dublin also seems to be at an all time high!

Anyone that’s thinking about an office space (who is in the freelance IT space) should resist the urge to cut back on the essentials. You may be able to grab a bargain let while the market is an all time low.

Lets take one office let for example, a 4-5 desk office in college green (a premium location) is now showing on daft for €650 .. now if you do your co-working math’s, it works out at about €162.5 a head with 4 people (before VAT).  Not bad!

Pop over to some of the property websites and see if you can grab a barging let. Im sure it’s the same across the whole country!