Coworking is on the rise, particularly in New Jersey, where collaborative ventures are springing up, giving traditional and nontraditional workers a place to harness inspiration and creativity. At vi Collaboration Hub, a venture coworking space located in the historic Bell Labs building in Holmdel, where live, work and play are coming together in its revival. Bringing people together is at the heart of it all.
Unlike traditional office space, coworking brings together a variety of industries into one space. At vi, music video distributors work right alongside architects who work alongside videographers and photographers. The result is collaborations that wouldn’t happen elsewhere.
“The key is that you are not hiding yourself away,” said Sean Donohue, co-founder of vi. “You’re working in an office setting where other workers might be working on completely different projects for a different company, but they see someone working on something that they feel they could add value too so they decide to chat with that person. Maybe it’s some free advice, maybe a mentoring opportunity, a partnership opportunity, maybe a whole new idea comes from the discussion that could disrupt an entire industry.”
Increasingly, suburban coworking is becoming more diversified in age, gender and industry as professionals age out of city life and head to the suburbs for grass and kiddie soccer. And New Jersey, with its transportation infrastructure, proximity to Manhattan and concentration of educated, well-heeled talent, is a logical place for workers to retreat to. These new suburban workers here have similar needs to their city counterparts: flexible, affordable office space and community. But it’s not just freelancers and the work-from-home-two-days-a week crowd populating New Jersey’s emerging coworking spaces. It’s also startups.
Roy LaManna and his startup Vydia have worked with big names in the music industry. People like Nick Cannon, and Andy Grammer. And LaManna, who was raised in Middletown, NJ, chose to headquarter his venture at vi because of the tremendous opportunities that exist for collaboration and innovation.
“It’s such a creative workspace and there’s a great potential for collaboration here,” LaManna, NJ said. “We have room to grow here.”
Vydia helps creators monetize and distribute their video content across multiple platforms. The music and video industry has moved direct to consumer, so Vydia allows creators to maximize revenue and efficiency at the same time. (Think of them like the FedEx of music video delivery.) Since incorporating, the startup has partnered with major video outlets like Vevo YouTube and Daily Motion to help musicians profit from online video streaming. Check out more on LaManna here.
“The most important thing I always tell people about coworking and about the work we do at vi and Bell Works, is that community is key,” Donohue said. “People want to be able to work in an active, evolving environment. They need places to focus, but also they long for a sense of companionship and a work environment to collaborate with other like-minded people and a place to cross pollinate with others across different industries.”
Interested in taking a tour or coworking at vi? Contact Sean at [email protected].
This blog was written by Stephanie Eichmeyer of Marketing Rival, a full-service digital marketing agency with one of the most colorful offices at vi Collaboration Hub.