It’s with great pleasure and nostalgia that I announce the winding down of TL01, Dublin’s first co-working space. I set up TL01 last June to provide a space for like minded individuals to work together under the coworking philosophy that I discovered first hand in San Francisco.

The last nine months have been some of the most productive, inspiring months of my life. Eamon Leonard and Eoghan McCabe took on the coworking philosophy and wore it proudly. Last February, Eoghan and I decided to go into business together. We share similar ambition, goals and ideals in business and in what we do and our skills complemented that wonderfully. Last week, we announced and formally launched Contrast, the two of us partnered with Belfast coworking champion David Rice and skilled usability expert Des Traynor.

Both Dave and Des were frequent guests in TL01 over the past few months. And during our time there, we hosted some big names from the international technology community. A bunch of friends joined us for our Christmas party. Earlier this year, we had drinks with LA blogger Sean Bonner. OS X developer and CouchDB contributor Jan Lehnardt joined us during his stint here for XTech Dublin.

For the Irish Open Source Technology Conference, Geoffrey Grosenbach of the Ruby on Rails podcast joined us, as did PHP Pear president David Coallier.

But perhaps what’s more impressive about TL01 was not what went on there, but what’s come out of it. Eamon has set up his own business Echo Libre, and is doing impressive client work with some exciting products in development.

Eoghan and I have moved to new offices in Merrion Street, where we hope to keep the spirit of coworking alive once we’ve settled in and got the place looking spick and span (the paint has only just dried!)

To TL01, I say goodbye, I’ve had a wonderful year and from the experience great things have come to my life, not to mention two good friends in Eamon and Eoghan.

To Eamon, I say thanks, you’ve been an inspiration and a mentor, as well as a true friend and a great guy to share a pint with.

To everyone else I say this:

If you’re a freelancer, home worker or teleworker and working from home is leading to the kind of drag where you’re just not getting out enough, or you feel that your creativity could do with some company, I urge you, I plea with you: set up or join a coworking space. Do it for yourself, do it for Dublin, do it for the community. And one more thing: just do it. Dive right in… at the very worst you can go back to where you were if things don’t work out.

Indeed, there are three spare desks as of right now in TL01 and there are a couple of spare offices in the building. Emmett Harten, our landlord, is one of the nicest men alive and he totally gets the whole movement. If you’re interested in setting up a space or joining an existing office, you could do worse to give him a call. His number is 085 718 3595 or you can email him at space28@mac.com.

Small Edit! to the Title!