Interesting Trend: Nightowl Co-Working
Add comment August 22nd, 2010
Jenna Wortham’s “Fraternity of the Wired Works in the Wee Hours” in the New York Times on July 25 highlighted an interesting new trend in co-working: the 10pm to 4am shift. Profiling the “New York Nightowls” (tagline “New York Nightowls is a late night co-working club for professionals”) she opens with: (hyperlinks added)
After college, most people do their best to avoid having to pull any more all-nighters. But for some, even after graduation, the wee hours of the morning are the most productive.
That is what led Amber Lambke and Allan Grinshtein to start a group called the New York Nightowls, a sort of study hall for entrepreneurs, freelancers and software developers who gather at 10 every Tuesday night and stay as late as 4 a.m.
“The goal is to come, get inspired, meet new people and get work done,” said Ms. Lambke, a creative consultant. “It’s six hours of uninterrupted, productive time where you’re surrounded by other creative people doing awesome things.”
It’s an interesting concept and complementary to Bootstrapper Breakfasts that start at 7:30am (although it’s hard to imagine much in the way of a common attendees). One of Cecily Drucker’s Startup Secrets was to “embrace the fertile void of sleepless nights. Lots of creativity can occur then.” I blogged about it in “Productive Larks and Creative Owls” inspired by Tim Berry’s observation: “As a morning person, I’m generally more productive. As a night person, I’m generally more creative.”
Also folks that are part of global teams may be up at this hour if it’s part of the workday for the bulk of their team. The New York Nightowls have met weekly for at least the last 17 weeks according to their Meetup site http://www.meetup.com/NY-Nightowls/ and groups have sprung up in a number of other cities:
- Boston Nightowls
- Los Angeles Nightowls
- Melbourne Nightowls
- San Francisco Nightowls
- Stockholm Nightowls
- Tel Aviv Nightowls
I think there are interesting implications for co-working facilities, running a second and third shift in some locations might appeal to not only to natural nightowls but also members of global teams who are working time shifted.