Wednesday March 25th, Impromptu Studio held a town hall meeting inviting the community to join our discussion about the future of Impromptu Studio.
Andy Brudtkuhl, 48Web and Doug Mitchell, CreateWow media talked about how they use the space, their current projects, and the opportunities that have been presented to them by working from Impromptu Studio.
Nathan Wright, Lava Row, spoke a little bit about SXSW and announced that he and several others that attended SXSW will be putting on a presentation to share with us all the fantastic new things he learned while there. He also talked a little about the WhatNow? Lunch and Learns that he and Andy Brudtkuhl have been putting on and how nice it is that we are around to use as a location for all of the cool events and presentations that he has been able to put on.
Dan also wanted to show that we are not the only space in the area that is around trying to make Central Iowa a better place. So we had Brian Anderson of Ames CoLab speak to us a little about the coworking space that they are opening in Ames and how we plan to work together to offer member reciprocity for both spaces. Scott Kubie of Market Street Media Foundry also got up and spoke about their new space which specifically caters more to Artists and and creative media fields.
Dan announced a few of Impromptu Studio’s membership goals and a membership drive, which he asked the community to help us with. With those goal Dan announced an event series that he would like to get started entitled cultivate:dsm which as we meet our goals we will begin implementing.
We will be talking more about these items in separate blog posts to cover them more in depth. We hope everyone who attended our town hall had a great time. There are some great things happening at Impromptu Studio we want all of you to be a part of it. Stay Tuned . . . .
Brett Trout and Adam Steen speaking at What Now?
Brett Trout , Law Offices of Brett Trout and Adam Steen , 25 Connections spoke about Character in Business and how to not be an @$$hole for part 5 of our WhatNow? Series. Brett gave the group solid advice about developing their own moral “code” by watching others. He pointed out that just because something is “legal” does not necessarily make it ethical and that each person will have to decide for him/herself what is right. He also reminded us that ethical people struggle early on because ethical decisions often don’t yeild positive results quickly. Brett encouraged us by sharing that in 5 years the tables will turn and those that have behaved ethically will have a much better overall position. Adam Steen discussed how in his unique business model relies on trust to work, and that ethically his entire business is gray area because there are few if any precedents. He talked about several specific ethical decisions that he has been faced with and how he’s handled them.
Adam and Brett related their ethical decisions to how quickly with recent technologies unethical people are “outed” as opposed to how long it used to take with traditional means of communication.
Don’t miss our final installment of WhatNow? Friday April 3rd , our topic is Marketing: How to get Creative in a Tight Economy. Our speakers Mike Ferrari, SmartyPig.com and Mike Wagner, White Rabbit Group.
Our big Townhall meeting is just two days away! If you haven’t figured out what our meeting will be about, look no further.
The Townhall meeting is aimed at three types of people and part of the meeting will address each:
- Those who want to learn more about coworking and Impromptu Studio.
- Those who interested in finding out what big announcements, including upcoming events, and changes Impromptu Studio has in store for it’s community.
- Those who are interested in lending a helping hand to make Impromptu Studio better than they found it.
The Townhall is a meeting where you can bring your questions and suggestions about coworking or Impromptu Studio. This is an open invitation to shape the way Des Moines works!
For those that are curious about who you might see at the Townhall…. some of the speakers that will be either talking about coworking, Impromptu Studio, or making an announcement include:
We hope to see you there! During the Townhall meeting we will also be collecting video testimonials in our green screen room.
If you like, RSVP on Upcoming.
View of Downtown from Impromptu Studio
Impromptu Studio is asking those out there that support us and our mission to come out be a part of our Town Hall style meeting and discussion Wednesday, March 25th at 7pm. Initially we are organizing a community driven marketing committee headed up by Holly Eggleston and Andy Drish that will need volunteers to help with their goals and ideas. A main component of this will be a membership drive. We will also be announcing our next big event and giving you a sneak peek of Impromptu Studio 2.0.
If you are interested in volunteering to help Impromptu Studio continue on its mission then please come out Wednesday March 25th at 7pm to our space and see if there’s anything that you can help us with.
Update:
Agenda and additional details have been posted.
Des Moines Web Geeks Hack Day
DSM Web Geeks has re-convened after the Holidays and is bringing “Hack Day” to Impromptu Studio. Hack Day will be held Saturday March 28th starting at nine o’clock. Two topics will be voted on and chosen for the development of “solutions” for the day. One will be Wordpress and the other Drupal. Teams will form to tackle the tasks and at the end of the day everyone will get back together and show off what they’ve accomplished.
If you’ve never been to a DSM Web Geeks meeting you should definitely stop by and check them out. Their next meeting is April 6th at 7pm and Josh More will be speaking.
Gabriel Glynn and Michael Libbie
Gabriel Glynn, Asset Protection Specialist founder, and Michael Libbie, President of Insight Communications, were at Impromptu Studio for Part 4 of our “What Now” series for entrepreneurs. They gave us some great advice about bootstrapping and how to get your business up and running for less. Check out who was there in the Des Moines Register .
Check out Part 5 of our WhatNow series this Friday, March 20th and listen to Brett Trout, Law Offices of Brett Trout, and Adam Steen, 25 Connections, discuss “Character: Don’t be an @$$hole” Sign up for your tickets today!
Part 3 of our “WhatNow: a six part entrepreneur survival guide” lunch and learn series was on February 27th.
Ron Wagner, comic book & storyboard artist and Teri TeBockhorst, serial entrepreneur & former owner of East Village Books spoke with us about how they have dealt with the daily struggles of staying inspired and motivated. Ron shared with us his how he often would move to a new city or learn a new job to continually stay motivated and interested in what he was working on. Teri talked about how she strives to avoid “Negative Nelly’s” and to surround herself with great positive people to stay motivated, especially in tough times.
As always a big than you to everyone who attended, Nathan Wright of Lava Row and Andy Brudtkuhl of 48 Web for putting together the series and to our fanastic speakers Teri TeBockhorst and Ron Wagner.
Aaron Web of Webboy Consulting
Name: Aaron Webb
Title: Web Developer
Company: Webboy Consulting, Inc.
Personal Blog: Aaron’s Web
Twitter: @aaronwebb
