#tbt Baseball Inspires Coworkers
The World Series reached it’s historic climax last night, with the Chicago Cubs winning for the first time in 108 years. Everyone, whether you’re a fan of the team or not, is talking about this monumental victory. With baseball buzzing in everyone’s ears, I couldn’t help but be reminded of my very first company outing with Brooklyn Creative League this past summer.
You see, way back in August, BCL invited our members out for a night of bonding and good, old- fashioned fun down in Coney Island for a Brooklyn Cyclones game. In attendance was one of our members, Carolyn Cirillo. I was still newly hired as a community manager, and was dealing with the overwhelming task of memorizing the names and faces of our over 250 current members. I was thrilled to be welcomed into the community with open arms. I also have a deep, unwavering love of Coney Island- so there were perks all around! I snapped a few pics for the BCL instagram, ate ice cream out of a plastic baseball cap and later, fellow community manager Brittany and I took to Luna Park for some carnival rides (I even won a stuffed hamburger toy.)
The following day I had an email in my inbox from Carolyn, asking if I wouldn’t mind sending her a picture I had taken of Neil, one of the co-founders of our space from the game. She let me know she was writing a piece for her website about how coworking builds community. I happily sent her all of the pictures I had taken from my phone.
A candid of one of our co-founders, Neil Carlson on the day!
Carolyn published a fantastic article on her website called Baseball, Hot Dogs and… Co-Working? On August 10,2016. She wrote about how, through coworking, she had met countless individuals who she’s been able to collaborate with, has had successful interviews with or who have helped her when she’s needed it.
She goes on to explain that, while it has proven to be quite the benefit, collaboration was not her top priority when she first decided to try coworking.
“I wanted a space where I would have sufficient privacy to work alone, but where I would be surrounded with colleagues with similar work habits. Of course, it would be great to have someone to bounce some ideas off of on occasion, something I missed working solo, or maybe even work on a project together.”
She says that what she appreciated about Brooklyn Creative League was that we are a “space for grown ups”. We have cold brew iced coffee on tap, instead of beer. We host low-key, but still loads of fun, salad potlucks every week in lieu of having a foosball table. And that our diverse catalogue of members extend beyond just those in the tech community or start-ups (though we do have some, and they rule!) but venture into non-profit and small business territory as well. She could relate to many of our members who are also working parents (including our cofounders Erin and Neil!). And that Brooklyn Creative League, in many ways, exceeded her expectations for coworking.
Carolyn’s love-letter to Brooklyn Creative League and coworking is a great read. I urge you to read the full article here. Thank you so much, Carolyn!
