Improving Your Network...

Residents of the Phoenix area who may be in a range of technology fields from SEO to web development to graphic design to computer science may have already heard of GangPlank. GP is a unique effort that began a few years ago to bring people of disparate fields together by having them work in close proximity in a common workspace. The logic is that interesting things are likely to happen as a result.

A few years on, that logic certainly appears to be correct. I had known about GP for some time but hadn't had the opportunity to go until a few weeks ago when they hosted a collaborative social event called Phoenix Blooms. After attending that night I had to come back for more. I joined the group there today for a brown bag presentation by Mark Rukavina of iMemories, and the former COO of KnowledgeNet, a company of which I was a part for many years. Mark's talk on entrepreneurship was great, and salient for a motley crew of people who may be looking to start the next big thing.

But on top of that, the environment at GP is just plain cool. The group pays for its space by offering educational services to the city of Chandler. The space is run efficiently, and each person simply brings their own equipment to work on. And what can I say about the reception? Never having met anyone there previously, it was as if I had already attended a few times and gotten to know a few people. We should all only be so lucky as to have the chance to try working in a place where you can make all kinds of new friends and contacts, and bounce ideas around.

I'm definitely going to try to make a habit of going more often. Thumbs up to GP for a strong proof of concept, and for taking a different look at work and collaboration.