Clothing swaps, hackathons, sharing markets, and swap meets are some of the events that would be included in the Events Network. Sign up at launchrock.shareable.net.
Do you want to hold a sharing event or attend one in your community? When we listened to our readers this summer, that was the number one message from the focus groups and survey we conducted.
We'd like to confirm that this need is real by gauging readers' interest before we invest resources to build an events network.
If you want Shareable to do this, please click on this button now:
Here’s what we’re thinking the events network would look like. If you’re interested in hosting events, you’d have access to:
- Sponsorship in the form of small seed grants and / or promotion by Shareable to our 50,000 monthly readers
- Advice and online resources to help you organize your event
- A place to list and promote your event to thousands of Shareable readers
If you’re interested in attending events and meeting other sharers, you’d be able to find and attend all kinds of sharing events near you created by other sharers:
- Gift circles
- Meetups & gatherings
- Swaps & share exchanges
- Conferences & panel discussions
- Classes & workshops
- Book clubs
- Hackathons
- Happy hours
- Shared meals
- Neighborhood events
- Whatever else the community wants to create
Does this interest you? If there's sufficient interest, we’ll go ahead with plans to launch this in 2013. If not, we’ll have to take this idea back to the drawing board.
Everyone who signs up will receive an invitation to join and preview the events network before it launches publicly, will have a chance to give feedback as it's developed, and will help the service to be successful. Sign up today, and ask your friends and colleagues to join too.
Please let us know what you like or dislike about this idea in the comments, and share any suggestions for what would make it better for you.
Comments
Seth Schneider wrote on 11.13.12, 11:51am:
Thanks for your interest, Marge! Our readership is global, with 56% of our readers coming from the U.S. Although we do have a lot of readers in the San Francisco Bay Area, they are spread throughout the country. One thing we learned from our reader survey this spring is that our readership is mostly urban, with 71% of the readers who responded indicating that they live in cities.
So, all of that is to say that you'll find Shareable readers all over the place, with a concentration in cities.
Marge wrote on 11.13.12, 12:28pm:
Thanks so much for your prompt response Seth, much appreciated. We will sign up then and give it a chance and hopefully we will hear back from other folks in our rural area of the state.
Seth Schneider wrote on 11.13.12, 12:41pm:
Glad to hear it! Assuming that enough people are interested, we'll look forward to offering this to readers everywhere, including sharing enthusiasts in rural areas who may have a harder time finding each other.
Stirling Morris wrote on 11.14.12, 8:32am:
I would love to host a Shareable event in Albuquerque, NM. I've only recently started following Shareable but I love the mission and the vision. I feel there would be a tremendous reception to an org like this locally and look forward to hearing more about it.
jessy schingler wrote on 11.14.12, 11:28am:
i would be more very interested in events, but i would prefer them to involve "doing" rather than "presenting" or "networking."
for example, an event to try out a new mode of sharing, to compare different approaches, or to seed a new site with content, or to experiment with setting up and using a new or different currency, or to visit a space with sharing foundations, or workshops on designing sustainable organizations based on sharing... my 2c.
Seth Schneider wrote on 11.14.12, 12:25pm:
Stirling, thank you so much for your positive feedback and enthusiasm. We'd love to have you host an event in New Mexico! I see that you signed up, so we'll be in touch in the not-too-distant future as we have more to share. And, in the meantime, if you have any thoughts about what would be most helpful to you in an events network, feel free to add more to the comments or to shoot me an email at seth AT shareable DOT net.
Seth Schneider wrote on 11.14.12, 12:35pm:
Jessy, this is great feedback! Thank you so much. There are plenty of people who share your interest in doing things and not just talking and networking (although those are valuable too). In fact, during our focus group this summer (http://www.shareable.net/blog/shareables-community-helps-to-shape-its-fu...) I definitely heard from people who would be interested in hosting "doing" events, such as trying out new modes of sharing, and sharing markets (where people could try sharing, swap and exchange, give and receive gifts, etc.). And I'm excited about these new ideas that you're proposing: adding content to a site, trying alternative currencies, etc. If you haven't signed up yet I invite you to do so (http://launchrock.shareable.net), as we'll be able to keep you updated about the Events Network as it develops. And if you have additional thoughts about what would be most helpful to you for the events network, feel free to add more to the comments or to shoot me an email at seth AT shareable DOT net.
Eric Strayer wrote on 11.24.12, 11:25am:
Could we share zip codes to see how we cluster?
93933
Then allow for monitored communication by area and allow folks to then share personal means of communication without it going all over the internet.
es
Seth Schneider wrote on 11.26.12, 1:28pm:
Thanks for the suggestion, Eric. To make sure I understand, do you mean that there would be a way for people to indicate roughly where they're located (by ZIP code for people in the U.S.)? And the goal of this would be so that people could choose to communicate with other people who are located near them?
Are your readers mainly in the Bay area? I am so interested in outreaching in this way and love reading your publication but live on the east coast. Your thoughts please. Thanks much!