#cross-pollinization

Holy moly! It's been waaay too long since I've last written a blog post here on Tumblr. So much cool stuff is happening right now like new music from Andrew Bird, Nick Waterhouse, and a collab between Bon Iver and The Flaming Lips! But what I'm most excited about has nothing to do with music (at least not directly).

There seems to be a lot of buzz and momentum surrounding co-working spaces. Most recently, I briefly suggested the idea of bringing a co-working space like WeWork to my hometown of Fresno. (We already have a small, yet thriving co-working space here in Fresno called Hashtag; though, it is my hope that more will be developed in various parts of our city.) In August of last year, The Next Web wrote a post on The 5 Coolest Coworking Spaces in New York City; earlier this year Business Insider toured the offices of General Assembly with great photos of their work space; and last week the Wall Street Journal did a piece titled, Looking for Ideas in Shared Workspaces. The most interesting part about the WSJ article was the following paragraph:

In some cases, companies are renting desks in co-working spaces, with an idea that workers from different companies, and with different skill sets, can complement one another. Some companies are also turning to shared workspaces as a way to save money on pricey leases or to house employees in areas where they don't have other corporate offices.

I love this idea of cross-pollination of employees. It's something Tom Kelley (IDEO co-founder) recommends you do as an organization in his book, Ten Faces of Innovation.

You see my city, Fresno, is not looking so hot as evidenced by today's headline in the Fresno Bee, Fresno ranks low nationally in recession recovery. I think places like WeWork, General Assembly, and Hashtag will be the impetus of new ways of thinking about how we "work" and help cities like mine grow sustainable businesses; while also, reducing unemployment and brain drain from our city limits.