theSkiff

Here’s a cheap, easy way to use The Skiff a bit more.

Over the last five months we’ve welcomed more than 200 of you through our pink doors to cowork, participate in community events and collaborate on various projects. One of the things you’ve asked us most is how much we charge people to use the space. We’ve always been clear on what it costs if you want to become a part-time member with your own key (£150+VAT per month) or a full-time member with your own desk and key (£250+VAT per month). However lots of you don’t want to make that kind of commitment but do want a nice little place to work in the middle of town where you can comfortably:

• Collaborate on projects
• Get some work done
• Use a reliable internet connection
• Charge a laptop
• Spend time with like-minded people
• Help yourself to tea and coffee
• Organise events

 
We want to see more of you enjoying The Skiff and at the same time make sure that what we’re doing brings in enough money to keep the space going. Since we opened in November we’ve been very happy for people like you to stop by up to once a week for some free coworking. We’ve been hesitant to change this but what we now ask is this:

If you feel you’ve got some significant value out of spending time at The Skiff, or if you’ve spent more than around three days trying the Skiff for free, please consider either of the following:

• Contributing £15 including VAT per day of use using this button:
  
  
  

• Becoming a Mate of the Skiff for £20 including VAT per month using this button:
  
  
  

As a Mate of The Skiff you’ll get the following:

• About 10 hours use of The Skiff over each month. Applies to: Coworking, meeting, project and events spaces subject to availability
• Additional days at £5 including VAT per day using this button:
  
  
  

  (that adds up to around £55 per month for 2 days a week usage)

• As much tea, coffee, WiFi & power as you can drink while you are here
• Recognition as a long term member of our community - you and your projects will be featured on our wall of Mates both online and in the space

Bookings

If you’d like to book one of our spaces for exclusive use, maybe for a meeting, workshop or event the following charges will apply:

• Commercial use - basement £25 + VAT per hour, meeting room £10 + VAT per hour
• Events with an admission fee - The lower of £25 + VAT per hour or 50% of takings.
• Mates use - basement £10 per hour, meeting room £5 per hour
• Free Community Events - FREE
• Crew use - FREE

Please email bookings@theskiff.org to make a reservation.

We still consider the development of The Skiff to be at an experimental stage. We’ll be accepting signups at these rates until the end of May and then we’ll review them to make sure they are having a positive effect on space. If you have any specific needs that don’t seem to fit with what what we’re offering, please let us know and we’ll see if we can work something out.

Updated 28th April: We’ve had feedback from a few of you saying that some of the above was a little confusing. We were saying that we were happy for people to drop in for free while also asking people to pay for 10 hours use a month. This wasn’t very clear so we’ve decided to instead say that we’d like people to consider paying for use of The Skiff once they’ve spent three days trying it out. You being here is more important to us than you paying for it but if none of us pays for it none of us will be here.

Government isn’t very good at computers. They spend millions to produce mediocre websites, hide away really useful public information and generally get it wrong. Which is a shame. Calling all people who make things. We’re going to show them how it’s done. If you can make things, and think you can do better than government this is for you!

Applications for attending the main London event have now closed, however, The Skiff will be hosting the Brighton Outpost and we still have space for a few more people to join in.  The plan is to start the day at 10 am on Saturday 7th March and be ready to present at 7pm. Teams at the Brighton Outpost will be in the running for the same Prizes on offer at the London event (they’ll be good).

This event has already caused quite a stir and the really brilliant thing is that a team from UK government are actually getting involved and supporting it!.

Click here to sign up.

Next Saturday 28th February we’re running our first one day event at The Skiff.  MobileCampBrighton will be a barcamp style unconference for mobile developers and designers to meet up and share their knowledge.  There’s loads of exciting things happening in mobile at the moment and this event should provide a good opportunity for people working on the various technologies to swap notes.

Sessions suggested so far range from user experience techniques to monitisation.

The event is being sponsored by Vodafone Betavine and Inuda.

To find out more and sign up please visit: MobileCampBrighton

skiff_pics, originally uploaded by fellow_creative.

Carl Jeffrey of Fellow Creative has now moved into The Skiff and he’s taken these wonderful photos of the space.

We’ve still got room for two more full-timers to take on the desks opposite Carl’s, so get in touch if you’d like to join us. Remember occasional coworkers are always welcome for a day at no charge, just give us a ring on 01273 697366 to make sure we have space on the day. If you find you want to come more regularly we have a few sets of keys available for a reduced monthly fee.

Our events space shown in the bottom left photo is now open for bookings. We can comfortably seat up to 30 people but it works equally well for small groups. We’ll post more details soon, in the meantime if you’re an organiser of workshops, talks or other activities and you like the look of it please email bookings@theskiff.org for more information.

On Friday the 5th of December we’re holding a launch party to allow as many people as possible to have a nose around our new space, meet each other and drink some local beer and cider.

The event is listed on Upcoming here: http://icanhaz.com/skiffwarming

Although we’d love it if everyone could come, we’re only a small space so we’re asking that everyone who wants to get in grabs a free ticket here: http://icanhaz.com/skiffwarmingtickets

Looking forward to seeing loads of you there!

It’s time to start firming up how exactly we’re going to make The Skiff open.  We’ve had a bit of a read up on coworking and have been particularly inspired by Citizen Space in San Francisco.  Since the great people there have been kind enough to release their content under the Creative Commons (CC) Share-Alike license, we’ve decided there’s no need for us to reinvent the wheel.  We’ve updated our about page and added a pricing page using modified versions of Citizen Space’s content.

We’re now actively looking for people to join us at The Skiff.  We should be all set up and ready for new coworkers by Monday 17th November. Please contact us or leave a comment if you have any questions.

A few people have been wondering why we’ve named our intrepid little office in the heart of Brighton “The Skiff”.

First let’s look at the definition of the word:

skiff n.

A flatbottom open boat of shallow draft, having a pointed bow and a square stern and propelled by oars, sail, or motor.

The 49er Skiff is a high performance, Olympic-class sailing dinghy that usually features an asymmetrical spinnaker and requires that its small team use a trapeze to help balance the boat.  Great Britain won Gold in the 49er class in 2008.

We’ve always had a keen interest in the sea and sailing but we think this provides a good fit because:

• The Skiff is an open office which we encourage people to pop to and co-work or attend events at.
• The Skiff is located at 49 Cheltenham Place, Brighton.
• The Skiff is a high performance environment tuned to help people make a significant difference with their work.
• The Skiff has a logo that is modelled on an asymmetrical spinnaker.
• The Skiff is a place for small teams to come together and collaborate.
• The Skiff is an environment in which we all help balance time spent having fun and being productive.
• The Skiff was founded in 2008.

In addition “The Skiff” is easy to say spell and remember and is new media friendly.  This means we can track mentions on the web with ease and there are very few other things being discussed on the web with a similar name (http://howsociable.com/theskiff). If you take any photos, blog any blog posts or twitter any tweets about The Skiff please tag them with ‘theskiff‘.

The Skiff's logo, modelled on an asymmetrical spinnaker

The Skiff will soon be the new home of Inuda Innovations and a collection of exceptional individuals that are all searching for a place to work that is as close to paradise as a workplace can be.

In the Skiff we’re broadly focused on working together to make a difference with technology. We’ll try and keep you up to date on what exactly that means in the coming weeks…