When I was tasked with the job of pulling together a coworking open day in less than 2-Weeks, I will be honest...I questioned if it was possible. After being furloughed for just over 18 months I felt pretty rusty in my organisational skills. I felt scared and a little overwhelmed, nevertheless, I wrote my to-do list and decided I would just take it step by step.
Today, the day after our open day, I have a great sense of relief (that the manic organising is over) but also a huge sense of pride at how my brilliant colleagues and I managed to pull it all together. The day couldn't have run much smoother than it did!
Here's what we got up to and the fantastic people who came to visit our fantastic venue!
Our first visitor of the day was the lovely Lisa, a marketing manager from Parsons Chartered accountants. After meeting Lisa at a local networking event, I had invited her to come and check out our brand new serviced office spaces and finally see what's behind the doors of the quirky 1980s building that she has often passed.
What they thought:
"Possibly the most glamorous boardroom I’ve ever stepped into! Enjoying a nosey around The Hive at PAB Studios in #Wakefield - a superb co-working space in a very funky building." - Lisa Butterworth - Parsons Chartered Accountants.
Whilst Lisa was having a nosey around our private office spaces, we were joined by another Lisa, the face and brains behind a brand new Wakefield small business, Miller & Olive. Lisa very kindly designed and produced our eco-friendly Wifi signage for The Hive. Lisa brought along her adorable little girl Olive who was more than impressed with the goodie bags and our tasty Hive branded cupcakes made for us by Jan at Tiffany Cake.
Our next visitor was Beccy, a local Storyteller, Game-maker, Podcaster, and mastermind behind Story Trails UK. Speaking with Beccy, I learned about how she is able to create engaging, fun, and interesting activities for children and adults through walking story trails and immersive shows. Inspired by Beccy's creativity and ideas I recognised, that these are the kind of innovative minds we would love to attract to The Hive community.
By lunchtime, the hive was buzzing with new visitors including Liz and Daniel from Heart Radio, who were both delighted to be reunited with one of our current Hive coworking residents, Radio and Podcast company man, Roger, from White Label Studio.
As the Radio professionals spent some time catching up in our bright and spacious coworking room, I was able to give Victoria Fox from We Are Wakefield a tour of our building. Swapping stories on the pains of remote working, we spoke about the demand for a local workspace for businesses in the Wakefield and Leeds area. An opportunity for those one-day-a-week ideas sessions and catch-up meetings. What better place to host these meetings than right here at The Hive Wakefield.
Our private office spaces and meeting rooms are ideal for small businesses and teams to work together.
Learning more about the work of We Are Wakefield, I couldn't help but feel excited about the prospect of our growth working alongside organisations like these. As a passionate ambassador of Wakefield and driver of business success in the local area, Victoria and her team can offer an abundance of support for new and established Wakefield businesses.
I had such a lovely time at The Hive Wakefield at their open day today. Thanks so much Natalie Wood for showing me around! Can’t wait to work with you in the future, exciting times to come 👀 🐝 - Victoria Fox - We are Wakefield
The day seemed to be flying by, a mixture of nerves, excitement, and hunger ( I was absolutely starving) was overpowered by the buzz of meeting new faces, hearing people's stories, and feeling driven by future prospects.
The afternoon brought a further influx of interesting inspiring visitors, Sarah, a Superwoman who is admirably juggling a professional career, parenthood, and studying for a master's degree! I think it's safe to say, Sarah will be glad for a place away from the home working environment to get her head down and focus on her studies. Sarah was even the winner of our prize draw and won a £20 Costa Voucher - Congratulations Sarah.
Helen, a professional Yogi of Pureland Yoga, is currently working on building her business. The pressures of the pandemic have been tough on many small businesses and in doing so Helen has been looking for a space to give her the focus to re-develop her business. The great thing about being part of a community like ours is the opportunity for collaboration. Idea sharing and creativity will help businesses grow and flourish in a way that will be difficult to achieve working in an isolated working environment such as working from home.
Melanie, one of our newest Hive members, who will be joining us in early November, came to take another look around the venue and secured her dedicated window desk. Following our initial meeting, we knew we wanted people like Melanie in the Hive. A friendly and chatty professional with a passion to support our business in our growth is like a dream come true. We are very much looking forward to welcoming our new co-worker and can't wait for her to become part of our growing community.
Just as the event was coming to a close, I finally had the chance to sit down and enjoy some lunch, just as I was savoring my last bite, I was pleasantly surprised to be notified of two more visitors waiting for their tour of our building.
James and Suzanne from McManus consulting who provide "Technology as a service" with a range of managed print, visitor software, cloud software, and digital solutions, knew more about our brand new SMARTboard TVs than I did! With the services McManus consulting offers, I could see many opportunities for cross-pollination within the hive and hope we can welcome both Suzanne and James in the very near future.
All of our visitors received a goodie bag and a cupcake and a guided tour of our hot desks, private offices, and two luxurious meeting rooms.
As the day drew to a close, my feet were in bits (heels were the wrong choice!) I think I had burned more calories running up and down the stairs than I have in the past two years. Reflecting on the success of the day and thinking about all of my new connections, I couldn't help but feel excited about the future of the Hive.
I just want to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who supported, attended, and shared our event. I am so pleased you all love our space as much as we do and I am looking forward to working with you all in the near future.
I also couldn't have done all of this without the support of the PAB Studios design team, social marketing manager, and everyone who assisted on the day so thank you to all who helped pull this together.
It's now I realise - This is what brings the magic to co-working and collaborative meetings, the chats, the idea creation, the "can I just have your eyes a second" are absolutely priceless. Working alone can feel super isolating, lonely and it is easy to get "stuck". Immersing yourself amongst like-minded people who want to create, innovate and get involved is where businesses can flourish and grow. We are passionate about making The Hive Wakefield the place where you and your business can thrive.
If you are interested in our co-working spaces and meeting rooms then you can contact us on 01924 201 711, email us, info@thehivewakefield.co.uk, or follow us on our social media