#cocrawl

"It was a rainy, balloon-toting, drink-filled good time that, at the end of the night, made me appreciate where I'm spending my days and who I cowork with even more." - cocrawler & coworker Lisa O'Leary

On November 21, Desktime handed out the party hats for our inaugural cocrawl - part traveling happy hour, part tour of coworking spaces in Chicago, all friends and big balloons. Getting people to do the brand new can be a challenge, but the spirit of coworking means a willingness to try the unknown for both people and spaces.

Desktime's Sam Rosen gave the motivation for the cocrawl as a chance "to get to know some of the faces and places of some of the fantastic spaces and folks that use Desktime in Chicago."

Heathyr Ditts, director of operations at Grind's Chicago space echoed that sense of community building. She shared, “We wanted to participate to spread the word that coworking is a real thing that real people do, and that we're all a part of a community of coworking spaces with a common intent of making work work better.”

She noted all the different participants including “people in the industry, people looking for a workspace outside the box, people who love and adore their current coworking space, but are interested in what and who else is going on in Chicago.”

Moises Arevalo, who coworks out of Level and works for Descubre, a company catering to the Spanish-speaking traveler and visitor in Chicago, agreed, adding that "the cocrawl created the opportunity to see the many faces behind the growing community of coworking and it serves as a great ice breaker."

Winter may be settling in but we’ve got plans for a Spring cocrawl here in Chicago. If your space would like to be involved or, even better, if you want to help organize a cocrawl in your city, get in touch with us and we’ll help you plan! Email [email protected] for ideas.

A big special thanks to NextSpace River North, Industrious, Grind and Level Office for hosting this great event and making it spectacular.

Here are some glimpses of the good times.

The cordial invitation.

Sam Rosen makes an entrance.

Johnny Michael starts the party.

The Cocrawl carries onward and through the rain.

All smiles at Grind.

Mixing and mingling at Industrious with their insanely good Mandarin old fashions. (photo courtesy of Industrious)

Johnny Michael, Sam Rosen and Ashley Aspiranti get together for a good photo and good times.