Working within the gig economy
Co-working is a great way for multiple small businesses and startups to share overhead costs by cohabitating in the same building. Many startups owe their success to coworking spaces, as the cost of renting and outfitting an office can be prohibitively expensive for many entrepreneurs.
Big businesses are starting to notice the trend, and to see opportunities for engagement with startups – right within coworking spaces. When the up-and-coming new city of Fishers, Indiana, opened a 52,000 square foot coworking space, telecommunications giant AT&T decided that they wanted to be involved.
Launch Fishers coworking space
Fishers, Indiana is one of the fastest-growing suburbs in the country and its coworking space, Launch Fishers, is the largest in Indiana. The city has attracted companies like Braden Business Systems, STANLEY Security Headquarters, Top Golf, Eleven Fifty Coding Academy, Ball State University’s Entrepreneurship Center, Bluebridge, Recovery Force, and Agency 360.
Launch Fishers, opened in March of this year, is a nonprofit that is “focused primarily on drawing technology, developers and Internet-based businesses” to Fishers, according to a statement.
How is AT&T involved?
AT&T hosts an “engagement center” within Launch Fisher’s facility. Modeled after AT&T’s other centers inside Yankee Stadium and in San Francisco Park, it is the first engagement center of its kind within a coworking space. The kiosk serves as “a way for both AT&T and Launch’s 575 members to absorb, discuss and develop ideas around industry innovations,” said a representative via email.
Besides providing some conveniences such as a device charging station and information about AT&T products and services, the kiosk also offers opportunities for entrepreneurs to collaborate and share ideas, as well as to seek information from subject matter experts. AT&T will also host events, such as new product demonstrations. Recently, the engagement center hosted a Civic Hackathon to encourage developers to create “technology-driven solutions” to community problems.
The AT&T engagement center, located within an entrepreneurial co-working space, is the first of its kind, and shows a strong example of how large corporations can engage with small businesses and startups in ways that are mutually beneficial.
