Doug Mitchell

Operation Red State is a membership based website that offers technology and new media training. Operation Red State was conceived by Doug Mitchell after noting a distinct gap of effective technology use between the parties in the last election.

Impromptu Studio will serve as their home for training, creating video, audio tutorials, and political tech boot camps that will be held this summer.

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.

Doug Mitchell and J. Michael McCoy in the studio.

Impromptu Studio is excited and to announce that we now have a full audio and video recording studio. Our most recent additions to the space are Doug Mitchell and Paul Gratton of CreateWow Media who made the new studio a possibility. Doug Mitchell and Andy Brudtkuhl along with the help of Paul Gratton as producer will be putting out a weekly podcast from the new studio. We want to invite those of you thinking about starting a video blog or podcast, or even looking to try out a new studio,  to stop in a take a look at our facilities.  More pictures coming soon!

After the Ugly Sweater Party we took the donations to the Central Iowa Shelter and started organizing for a New Years Eve dinner at the shelter which we were helping Doug Mitchell and Claire Celsi organize.  Thanks to the Des Moines Register inviting volunteers to join us in serving dinner we had an amazing turn out that night and were able to go out and serve dinner to everyone. Claire was able to get cornbread donated by Famous Dave’s and our own Daniel Shipton made the chili for the evening. Volunteers brought cookies, drinks and all the chili “fixin’s”.

Overall we were very excited that for the holiday season we were able to have fun and really get out and help those less fortunate than ourselves. We want to thank everyone who donated items and their time. It wouldn’t have been a success without you.

Check out our flickr photostream for more pictures of the event!

There is an epic party on the horizon so start digging through your closets. Admission into the party is simple: wear an Ugly Christmas Sweater. It is happening Thursday, December 11th from 6pm – 9pm here at Impromptu Studio.  There is a link at the bottom of the post to RSVP for the party.

We will have Killer Sandwiches from B&B Grocery, beer donated from Olde Main, Live music by Jason Walsmith of The Nadas, and most importantly FUN. We owe the idea to Dallas Moore who is helping us organize and throw what we hope will be a huge bash!

In the spirit of the season we are also asking that people bring donations for the Central Iowa Shelter.  Doug Mitchell and Dan Shipton are helping to put on a New Year’s Eve dinner for the Central Iowa Shelter and will bring the donated items from the party to the shelter.

The list of items to bring for donation to the Central Iowa Shelter:

• Both male and female hygiene items/personal grooming supplies (shampoo, shaving cream, soap, you name it)
• Both male and female clothing
• Detergent
• Blankets
• Socks

Follow @danielshipton and @mrdallasjmoore on Twitter and check out Dallas Moore’s blog to keep up with whats happening and to vote on the beer for the evening. Please use the hashtag #uglysweaterparty when referencing it on Twitter.

We hope to see you and your friends there!

Thank you to everyone who presented that night! All of the presentations are were inspiring, and everyone did a fantastic job with the 5 minutes time limit. The improv power points were extremely funny and sufficiently embarrassed our own Abbie Shipton.

All in all we had a wonderful time at the event and feel so blessed to have the support of our friends and the community. Thank you all for supporting us, we hope you had as much fun as we did.

Check out some of our photos.

Video recap by CreateWowMedia: