“I moved here from Chicago only about 4 months ago, but I’m no stranger to Iowa. I went to the University of Iowa and majored In Cinema and Communication Studies. So, basically I am a Film Geek with a purpose. I always knew I wanted to be a Producer, so I kept working for free until someone hired me to do what I always wanted to do.

I’m a Producer—I love connecting talented creatives with great projects and great clients with talented creatives. All the while I watch the bottom line and cultivate relationships. I have mostly worked in advertising and TV, but did have the opportunity to work on a Sundance winning documentary a year or so ago.

Most recently I have been working with an amazingly talented client called Grasshorse that produces high end animation, design, and technology work…and they are located in Winfield, IA of all places! I’m currently broadcasting their name all over, so that people know that this kind of talent can be found here. I love what the Midwest has to offer.

I am loving Impromptu Studio as my coworking space. Working here offers great company, is affordable, and beats having my dog as company day in day out when I have to work in my home office. I mean, no one interrupts me to let them outside every hour. Or, at least not yet!”

Drop in anytime between 9am and 10pm the first Wednesday of every month and experience coworking for yourself.

Can’t make our open coworking days but want to learn more? Drop us a line to set up a tour.

It is time to start putting the world on notice. Des Moines is ready to step up.

Don’t let Des Moines’ polite people and little big city atmosphere fool you – it’s home to a tech savvy, hard workin’, ass kickin’ crowd of creative workers with opportunities to spare.

As local social networking consultant Nathan Wright puts it: “Des Moines is the greatest city in the world because you can make epic shit happen here, period.”

Des Moines is home to TweetUp Badges, the Sarah Lacy Square, a butter cow, 80/35, Market Street Media Foundry, and, of course, Impromptu Studio – the first (and most badass) coworking joint in the Midwest ran by Daniel Shipton. Des Moines has grown a lot in the two years since Fast Company proclaimed it “The Hippest City” in 2007 and it’s not slowing down anytime soon. Locals work hard and play harder, so we had to celebrate our first anniversary as part of Advance: A Week to Move Forward!

Advance: A Week to Move Forward

cultivate:dsm is launching with a week dedicated to collaboration, inspiration and Moving Forward. A partnership of Impromptu Studio and Market Street Media Foundry and the brainchild of Dan Shipton, cultivate:dsm is dedicated to providing a platform for big thinkers to rally the support they need to act big.

Advance will be held July 20-25 with events at Impromptu and Market Street. All Advance events are free and open to the public. The program is designed for creative and business professionals alike with useful, casual events encouraging people to work together and get to work.

Wednesday’s events will anchor Advance week with conversation, learning, and socializing. Acclaimed author Tara Hunt (The Whuffie Factor) will lead a presentation and Q&A about using social capital to build your business. A social meetup with conversation and karaoke led by local and national coworking and arts leaders will conclude the evening. Other Advance: A Week to Move Forward events include the Ignite Des Moines Remix luncheon, Your Baby’s Ugly aesthetic critique night, Rewrite copywriting workshop, Freelancer Friday, Expert Mode, and Market Day.

Bring on the Whuffaoke!

Did someone say Karaoke?  HELL YES.  Wednesday, July 22nd the Whuffaoke crew are helping us celebrate our one year anniversary in style!

“Shortly after the successful release of Tara’s book The Whuffie Factor, Tara desperately wanted a way to have the time and space to write her next book and continue to travel around. Taking a look at her current situation, she knew that, in order to do that, she would need to quit her job and move back to Canada (where she is a citizen). She picked Montreal, because it’s awesome and beautiful and incredibly affordable to be a writer in. Within minutes, it dawned on her that this was the PERFECT opportunity to pursue her dream of karaoke-ing across America. Why just move when you can move AND bring karaoke happiness in the process?” – via the Whuffaoke site

More information and the full schedule for Advance Week can be found the cultivate:dsm site.

Do you have a side project (or three) that you have been neglecting? Do you desire an open environment to exchange ideas, concepts and demos? Want to garner input and feedback on your TOP SECRET project? If so, Hack Night is for you!

Hack Night is an open invitation for everyone to come and work on their projects at Impromptu Studio. It doesn’t matter if you are working on a php backend for a website, a digital art piece, or knitting your Grandma a sweater. Come out and interact with others and see what everyone is up to!

Hack Night starts around 6pm on the 2nd and 4th Monday of every month. Hack Night goes until all the creative juices have been exhausted. Snacks are welcome. If a few people chip-in, pizza may get ordered. Of course, caffeine will be consumed in large quantities. We hope to see you at the next Hack Night!

Des Moines, Iowa - Impromptu Studio, a membership-based coworking community in downtown Des Moines, will house a salon-style art gallery featuring work from members of Market Street Media Foundry beginning in June.

MSMF member Cat Rocketship – recently named Best Artist in Cityview’s Best of Des Moines reader survey – will be curating the exhibits. Work will be updated every other month and feature an assortment of pieces from MSMF members.

“We’re really excited to be able to share this space with our friends at Market Street,” said Daniel Shipton, founder of Impromptu Studio. “Their business and our business are different sides of the same coin. I hope that the entreprenuers and professionals working at Impromptu find inspiration for their projects in this gallery.”

Market Street Media Foundry (MSMF) is a collaborative art and media studio located in Des Moines’ downtown Market District just south of Court Avenue on East 4th. Members of MSMF include photographers, painters, textile artists, video editors and other creative entreprenuers.

Scott Kubie, co-owner of MSMF, said that he is excited to offer this benefit to their members. “Unless you want to rent your own space or deal with the same stale crowds, there aren’t a lot of options to get your work on display in Des Moines. Impromptu attracts a uniquely connected crowd and wil be a great outlet for our artists.”

The MSMF gallery at Impromptu will only occupy a portion of their available wall space, leaving the coworking space free to host larger exhibitions for individual artists.

Artists interested in participating in MSMF are encouraged to visit http://www.marketstreetmediafoundry.com or contact Kubie at scott@therevuecreative.com.

Visitors are always welcome at Impromptu Studio and coworking plans start at $25 a month. Impromptu is located at 300 Southwest 5th Street.

Websites: Market Street Media Foundry – http://www.marketstreetmediafoundry.com
Impromptu Studio – http://www.impromptustudio.com

Our second new membership plan is our “Partner in Business and Innovation” plan this plan is $550 a month and allows for a full time desk as well as priority scheduling for events and classes. We’ve always allowed members to throw events but have had to work out additional fees for those wanting to use our space to hold a class which they charged admission for. Now with this plan everything is included in one price. We will also be recognizing our “Partners in Innovation” members with an additional “plaque” so that others who work here or stop by realize that they are doing a large part toward making Impromptu a sustainable reality.

If you want to inquire about either of these plans please contact us at info@impromptustudio.com or on twitter @impromptustudio

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 . . . .

The Townhall meeting is aimed at three types of people and part of the meeting will address each:

1. Those who want to learn more about coworking and Impromptu Studio.
2. Those who interested in finding out what big announcements, including upcoming events, and changes Impromptu Studio has in store for it’s community.
3. 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:

• Brian Anderson of CoLab in Ames
• Member, Andy Brudtkuhl of 48Web
• Scott Kubie of Market Street Media Foundry
• Member, Doug Mitchell of CreateWowMedia
• Nathan T. Wright of Lava Row

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.