CAMP offers more than space

Co-working isn't a new concept among Omaha's entrepreneurs. For years, small-business owners, designers, website developers and other creative types have hunkered down in coffee shops, friends' homes, restaurants and other places to work, have fun and push their entrepreneurial peers to do better.

But until recently, people like Megan Hunt, Eric Downs, Matt Secoske and Steve Gordon Jr. didn't have a physical, official place to call their own, to meet with clients, or to get away from distractions at home.

Enter CAMP Omaha, a warehouse turned co-working hub in the Mastercraft Building at 13th and Nicholas Streets in north downtown.

Other members of what is called the city's “creative class” have expressed the need for such a place, but this is the first collaborative space geared toward creative entrepreneurs.

The AIM Institute, Scott Technology Center and Halo Institute have incubator spaces with collaborative workplaces for startup businesses, but entrepreneurs must apply and be accepted. They aren't simply open to paying customers. Additionally, EncompassC3, at 3803 N. 153 St., has offices for rent, but it caters to a more traditional business clientele.

At CAMP, people can purchase office rent in one-month increments for $350, or they can buy punch cards allowing a certain number of “daily drop-ins” each month.

CAMP is the brainchild of Hunt, who runs Princess Lasertron, a custom bridal firm; Downs, owner of Downs Design; Secoske, the man behind nimblelogic, a software development company; and Gordon of RDQLUS Creative.

Last winter, the four friends often gathered somewhere to work into the wee hours of the morning, making pancake runs and planning events such as Bar Camp Omaha.

Eventually, Hunt and her friends started kicking around the idea of getting an office together.

One of the options they considered, Hunt said, was to move into a co-working space being planned at the time, called Jailbreak Omaha.

Jailbreak was to be a co-working office and incubator for startup companies, but the project never came to fruition, said Dusty Davidson, a co-founder of Silicon Prairie News who also worked on Jailbreak.

“Our goals were very lofty,” Davidson said, and at the end of the day he and his partners wanted to focus all their energies in the short term on Silicon Prairie News.

“I think (CAMP) is fantastic. The reason we wanted to put together Jailbreak was because there was a need for that kind of thing. I think it's going to be a big component to building the overall community,” he said.

Being the owner of Omaha's first co-working office has Hunt a bit on edge, since she ultimately is responsible for paying the rent, but she is excited about promoting the city's entrepreneurial culture in the growing north downtown area. And she said dozens of interested tenants have contacted her, even before CAMP opened Aug. 1.

“I keep joking that I feel like a real grown-up. It feels like I was just in college and now I own a business and now I'm starting this venture.

“I never would have even thought to do this if I hadn't started hearing about co-working a few years ago and having my friends Matt, Eric and Steve with me. I wouldn't have thought to do it on my own, it's just because we were all looking for a place together that this even happened.”

The four friends and two other tenants, Michael and Kristin Dekay, of Image Made, an identity, print, and Web design company, moved into CAMP in July, before it opened to other tenants.

A co-working space might not work for everyone, Hunt said, especially those looking for a quiet, serene place to crank out reports like Peter Gibbons in the film “Office Space.”

“We didn't have a model that we based this off of,” Hunt said. “It's not going to work for everybody ... but the people who are here now, it's working out well.

“If you're the kind of person who likes to work alone, you're probably going to go to a library or a coffee shop. I think that just the nature of the business predetermines what kind of people are going to come visit.”

On a recent visit to CAMP, the laid-back atmosphere of the space and its tenants was evident.

Gordon zipped around the concrete floor on his long board, an extended skateboard. Hunt organized her workspace and visited with Downs and Gordon. Secoske tapped away on his Apple laptop before fielding a call on his cell phone. And Michael and Kristin Dekay remained focused, working at their computers.

But the fun could turn serious quickly when necessary, as it did when Downs and Gordon, focusing on finishing up the afternoon's work, hunkered down at their laptops, headphones on to avoid distractions.

The relationship between CAMP's tenants, Secoske said, is a type of “communal pressure.” They have fun, then push each other, no matter what they're working on. If one guy stays an extra hour or two to crank out a project, it motivates the others to work just as hard, he said.

While co-working is growing nationwide, Omaha finds itself a bit behind compared to other metro areas, such as Des Moines.

Impromptu Studio, the first co-working office in Iowa's capital, opened in August 2008. Last November, Foundry Coworking opened its doors, giving Des Moines two hubs before CAMP even got off the ground.

Like many trends, which typically start on the coasts, it took a little longer for the concept to catch on in the Midlands.

“The Midwest is definitely a little different,” said Alexander Grgurich, director of Foundry and a former city council member in Norwalk, a Des Moines suburb.

He said Iowa and Nebraska aren't design or Silicon Valley-type havens.

“It really takes more of that design or technology background where you're working collaboratively with people, and the nature of most occupations in the Midwest didn't lend themselves to co-working very well,” he said.

But that is changing, as creative entrepreneurs in Iowa and Nebraska “started crawling out of the woodwork and saying ‘I'd like to work in that kind of atmosphere,'” Grgurich said.

A Des Moines-based artist who legally changed her name, Cat Rocketship handles daily operations at Impromptu Studio. Co-working will grow, she predicted.

Impromptu has 16 members, even though downtown Des Moines has an abundance of vacant office space at comparable prices, Rocketship said.

“People are responding to the idea of people working together.”

Contact the writer:

444-1414, ross.boettcher@owh.com

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