CAMP Coworking

Badassery at Work: our coworking talk at Meet the Pros

Meet the Pros is a two-day event sponsored by Omaha’s American Advertising Federation chapter to connect design students with local experts representing a wide scope of careers in design. This year’s February event featured workshops, keynote speakers, student portfolio reviews and lots of one-on-one time between area professionals and the next generation of design talent here in the Midwest!

CAMP co-founders Megan Hunt and Eric Downs were invited to deliver a keynote talk about how coworking is changing the way people work, and what a typical workplace may look like in the next 5-10 years as coworking concepts continue to become more accepted and pervasive in mainstream corporate environments.

The talk? Badassery at work: Collaboration, creativity, and coworking.

One thing we talked about was what we have learned working at CAMP in the past year—here is a list of some of the lessons we shared with the students:

Marshmallows shoot better when they’re soft, but hurt more when they’re dried out.

• Investing in some extracurricular activities for your workspace is well worth it. You might be surprised when you take a break by throwing a frisbee, riding a scooter, or shooting marshmallows at a pal that your downtime turns into something productive. Bouncing ideas off of each other and collaborating to think of new solutions to frustrating problems is an everyday occurrence in a coworking space.

You can do whatever you want at work.

• One of the reasons so many employees in corporate America are so disengaged is because mainstream employers haven’t accepted that there are many “working styles” that lead to the greatest productivity for different people. A space like CAMP is a great once-a-week retreat for a group of coworkers who flourish in a social, collaborative work environment. CAMP has hosted small teams from several of the country’s largest companies based here in Omaha, and each of those teams experienced not only productivity, but happiness and satisfaction which resulted in an increase in overall morale. In other words, not everyone works well in a desk, and why should they? Coworking spaces empower employees to be in charge of their own style of getting things done.

We want to impress our peers.

• Put simply, we work harder when we are surrounded by people who are working hard. When one of us is working late, everyone is motivated to put in a little but of extra time or effort into their own projects. 

Despite working in different industries, we have more in common than we think.

• At CAMP, we have had coworkers with all kinds of jobs—a multitude of graphic/print/web designers, computer programmers and developers, apparel designers, reporters and freelance writers, lawyers, accountants, photographers, marketing experts and consultants…the list goes on and on. Although we work in different businesses, we share our triumphs, challenges, and solve problems together and everyone benefits. Hooray!

Entrepreneurs need support.

• One of the reasons we go into business for ourselves is to make our own rules, but over half of entrepreneurs abandon their first businesses because they aren’t prepared for the emotional and financial commitment to making a startup succeed. One of the ways to beat those odds stacked against you is to surround yourself with people who have gone through—or are going through—exactly what you are, and people who are willing to share their network of support with you. With coworking, that’s exactly what you get—a sounding board when you develop a new idea, a support group when you need to commiserate, an advisory board when you’re ready to take a leap, and a drinking buddy to go out and celebrate!

The talk at Meet the Pros was a great opportunity to connect with students and people about to enter the workforce. We’re eager for the creative industries to adopt coworking principles—it will increase morale and improve the quality of life of so many creative minds.