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I have written several times about coworking and think it's a trend that could be the way all techies work in the next 10-15 years. Whether it's more traditional coworking at Citizen Agency and Independents Hall or the more social coworking space at cooperBricolage, coworking provides a way for independent workers to not only find a place outside of the home to work, but a way to network and increase business.

Earlier this week Alex posted about some awesome supplies Belkin donated for Independents Hall. At the same time, I read about a campaign that Starwood Hotels is running in NYC, Boston and Chicago where they "wrap" an entire train car to provide a more relaxing ride (of course in NYC they are only running the campaign on the 1 stop shuttle, blech). Check out the awesome photos. The price tag in NYC is $30k a month for 2 short train sets. So far, Starwood believes it is successful and riders enjoy seeing more comforting imagery than "Learn How to Speak English/Spanish/Slavic in 12 hours" or "Been in a Car Wreck, Get Oodles of Cash Even if it's Your Fault!". 

So this got me thinking - what would a corporate sponsored coworking space look like? Imagine if Google, Apple, Microsoft either offered a floor at their office for independents/freelancers to use either free or at a reduced cost. The space would be wrapped with the brand that sponsored the space. I know this might sound like a horrible/crazy idea, but let me explain a bit further.

Let's use Google for the example. Google provides a coworking space for 50 independents. The space is branded Google, the water is Google water, the pens are Google pens. I move into the space for free and in return I offer Google to listen to 4 hours a week of informative presentations on using Google services for my clients. Or perhaps I offer for 4 hours of work a week for Google. Another option could be that the independent agrees to use Google services for themselves (gmail, google reader, etc.).

I love this idea as it's win-win. It could even lead to job opportunities within the sponsor company and for companies who may have a semi-negative reputation (see Microsoft/Yahoo), it could be a great way to raise product awareness. 

So let's open this for discussion: Do you think this idea has legs?

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 at 7:30 pm and is filed under Insights, Coworking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.