One of the best decisions at the Atlanta Tech Village was knocking down walls in prime office space and creating a 4,000 square foot event space. Over the past year, we’ve hosted hundreds of events from small 15-person meet ups to a number of large, 250-person gatherings (see the Atlanta Startup Village at the Atlanta Tech Village). Without experiencing it first-hand, it’s hard to appreciate just how important and valuable it’s been to host several thousand people in our facility.
Here are a few thoughts on providing public event space:
- Engineered serendipity happens when people interact with other people face-to-face, and events are one of the best forms of bringing people together
- Community strength comes from the number of interconnected people and quality of relationships, making a large event space that much more important for building an eco-system
- Word of mouth marketing is one of the most valuable, and difficult to facilitate, yet it happens naturally when people come into a physical space based on their own initiative
- Talent wars for software engineers and salespeople are real, so why not provide a great facility to host events for the target audience, which will then help with recruiting and brand awareness
- Brand, corporate culture, and style are readily apparent based on the facility, location, and ambience of the event space, so use it to reinforce a specific message
Organizations or companies serious about long-term community building and recruiting would do well to evaluate making their facilities available for local meet ups and gatherings.
What else? What are some other thoughts on event space for community building and recruiting?
David Cummings on Startups 