BE A HIVE (Looking for Partners)
Shortly after opening the original BEAHIVE in Beacon in the spring of 2009, I was approached by Chronogram founder/publisher Jason Stern to consider opening one in Kingston. Our visions for the region were aligned, so we decided to partner and the Kington hive started accepting members several months later (December).
A couple years later, I got a call from Tracy Metzger in Albany, who had read about BEAHIVE in an in-flight magazine. She thought our approach to coworking would make a great addition to the city, so after several months of discussions, we decided to partner. The Albany hive welcomed its first members at an orientation event in February 2012, following a grand opening at which the mayor and several civic and business leaders spoke.
Others have approached me the last few years hoping to open a BEAHIVE — in Poughkeepsie, in Hudson, and in a few smaller towns throughout the Hudson Valley. For a variety of reasons I’ve held out.
But now I’m making a concerted effort to grow our community and our physical presence — and allow us to better support the growing creative economy and microbusinesses in the Hudson Valley. This all fits our vision of shaping a Localist (or Local Living) Economy in the region.
New Paltz, Poughkeepsie and Hudson make, I think, the most immediate sense for another hive, though I’m exploring — and would certainly entertain — other communities (I’m talking to folks from NYC to the Berkshires.)
I bring:
- an established model
- an established, engaged community
- a strong identity and recognized brand in the Hudson Valley and an ongoing marketing effort (I’m a professional communicator/marketer, after all)
- a solid foundation in programming and space management, connections and the like.
The ideal partner complements that — someone values-aligned, involved in their local community, and ideally, with space and capital to outfit it.
Interested in bringing BEAHIVE to an area, growing a coworking community and investing in the neighborhood — or know someone who is? Please contact Scott.
