Are you starting up a small business and wondering where to begin when it comes to an office? You’ve already decided that working from home is too distracting and every time you look to find space at a coffee shop you run into noise, slow Internet and often times no space to sit. Finding an office is your best option, but you have no idea where to start.

If this sounds a lot like your situation, CoLab Nashville has a great Lunch and Learn coming up next week that will answer many if not all of your questions. Our Panel includes some really great speakers that have been in coworking for several years. Join us at Wednesday at noon to hear from the following speakers:

Thomas Scott

Thomas Scott – Brand Journalists

Thomas is a pioneer in the Brand Journalism movement and has created breakthroughs for his clients using journalism tactics to fuel PR and social media campaigns. His campaigns create trust and engagement in consumers that drive increased sales and brand awareness. An accomplished photojournalist awarded the Oakes award for environmental journalism, two Pulitzer nominations and inclusion in the Best of Newspaper Writing annual, Thomas also has a strong background in franchising having owned and run top performing franchises and owned an run Showhomes home staging, a top performing franchise system that posted large gains in the worst of the recession. Thomas believes that tough markets call for creative, outside the box thinking and present golden opportunities for those that can visualize a path.

Ryan Weaver

Ryan Weaver – KNP Labs

Ryan is the founder of KnpLabs US in Nashville TN, and an avid supporter of Symfony and open source in general. He’s passionate about code that does less, is a stickler for consistency, and writes unit tests so he can sleep better at night. If you’ve written open source code, Ryan probably loves you, but hates your documentation. Ryan is available via ryan.weaver@knplabs.com, on Twitter, GitHub, and Slideshare.

Kailey Hussey

Kailey Hussy – CoLab Nashville

Kailey graduated from Belmont University in Nashville in 2009.  An Orlando native, Kailey knew that Nashville was the best place for CoLab to open its next location.   Under Kailey’s direction since January of 2010, CoLab has expanded to 60 members and two floors, and continues to grow the company beyond expectation. While directing a coworking community is a 24/7 job, she is an involved member in the Nashville startup community.  She loves music, sushi, and is an avid runner.

The Lunch and Learn will be May 16 from noon to 1 on the first floor of CoLab Nashville, 230 4th Ave. North. Come out and learn more about the fastest growing trend in office space!

Seeing double? Don't worry - we know.

If you were lucky enough to be a part of last week’s Lunch and Learn, then you got a taste of how creative Joel McAfee and Gabe McCauley can be. But if you missed it, here are some highlights:

1. Audio: A fundamental aspect of video that’s often overlooked. Look for an external microphone to be heard loud and clear.

2. Lighting: Don’t light from behind, from above, or create lighting that’s too bright or too close.

3. Visual Storytelling: Keeps audience engaged. Use text AND graphics to keep things interesting.

4. Environment: Make the best with what you have! Get creative and use space wisely.

And that’s not all.

Recently, Lil’ Dragon, with the help of some CoLab Nashville members, entered a video contest for the Coworking Unconference Conference in Austin. This short video meant to introduce the public to CoLab Nashville won first place! Check it out here to see what prizes they won, or watch the video below!

CoWorking = High Fives from lilDRAGON on Vimeo.

If you aren’t already chomping at the bit to have Joel and Gabe work on your next video, why not check out their website or come into CoLab to sit down and talk with them about your next project. While you’re at it, why not take a tour of some of our coworking space? With a company like Lil’ Dragon working right next to you, the networking possibilities are endless.

And speaking of Lunch and Learns, be sure to join us tomorrow for Dr. Dodd Galbreath who will be talking about sustainability.

Sustainability is revolutionizing everything from cultures to corporations. What does this movement really represent in the context of personal and professional practice? What must every business know to grow in the slow but increasingly steady shift to a sustainable economy? Come to share your questions, frustrations or dreams in regatd to sustainability and your business with the founding director of Lipscomb University’s Institute for Sustainable Practice.

We're turning two!

Time sure does fly, doesn’t it? Here at CoLab it does! We’re about to celebrate our second birthday and we’d like to honor you, our members, because that’s why we’re here today.

We’ll be celebrating all day tomorrow with several different events that you can be a part of. Festivities include:

-Free lunch! You can find a delicious spread in the first floor coworking area.

- Can you resist cake? We can’t. And no birthday is complete without a (cookie) cake.

- Get your corn hole skills sharpened because we’re playing at 4! And of course we’ll be providing beer and prizes for winners.

Let’s hope for some nice weather so we can move this party outside and we can’t wait to see all of you tomorrow!

Been a few years since you’ve played corn hole? Here’s a review:

Lil' Dragon Entertainment

When it comes to video, Gabe McCauley and Joel McAfee of Lil’ Dragon Entertainment know their stuff.

The two video veterans have worked with some big names: Sony BMG, BNA Records and Vanguard on things like music videos, ads, promos, short films, and more. To help educate coworkers on the dos and don’ts of creative video making, Lil’ Dragon will host a Lunch and Learn this Wednesday, March 21st at CoLab Nashville.

Just because you can make your “really cool” video on YouTube public, doesn’t mean you should. With that in mind, the duo will be talking about how to create better looking and sounding video with limited tools and resources for both personal and business uses – specifically social media.

“We will be touching on some content aspects of video, such as how to structure a video and what makes good content,” says McCauley. “We’re going to discuss how statistically video is practical and important. We will also make the audience feel a little awkward at least once during the presentation.”

CoLab’s Lunch and Learn series aims to help entrepreneurs and small business owners alike learn new skills to further their knowledge through peer guided presentations. Not only do participants get a wealth of information they may never have realized they needed, but we also offer a free lunch!

So make sure to visit CoLab this Wednesday at noon to learn how video can be used as a business advantage, get some free food and let Joel and Gabe get you out of your comfort zone.

Jen Way of Way Solutions

Are you a small business owner or manager who struggles to hire the right people? At today’s lunch and learn, we talked about how to compete for top talent even as a small business. Spend your limited time and energy wisely by following these top 5 tips:

1. Spend your time on planning and screening. Carefully design the role around what you want as an outcome. Don’t build it around a person. Plan for who will be involved in the hiring process and block off time for your interviews. Review resumes and check for required skills, career progression, and holes in their timeline. Try to narrow it to the top 10 people and phone screen them to decide the 3-5 people you will interview. Focus on a few questions that will really help you decide who you should meet.

2. We hire people for skill, but we fire them for HOW they do the job. Use the resume to determine if someone has the right skills, the phone screen to narrow it down, and the interview to figure out HOW they do their work. Use behavioral based questions to focus on how they will perform. Will they keep their cool under pressure? Will they handle conflict with a customer appropriately? Most of the time, as long as you get someone who has the basic skills, you can teach them the rest. It’s a lot harder to teach the soft skills.

3. Interview them. Be cautious with casual conversation. You might be trying to get to know a person, but that can lead to inappropriate questions and raise issues related to age, nationality, family status, disabilities and more. Conduct behavioral based interviews, use questions like ‘tell me about a time when…’ or ask about their successes and failures. Be sure to ask how they handled that circumstance and what they might do differently if faced with that same situation today. This will allow you to gauge someone’s behavior and personality which is equally important to their specific skills.

4. Select the best person for the job. Ask the same questions to each candidate so when it comes time to select and hire one, you will have the same information on each which is easier for comparison and will help you make a better decision. Money is not the only motivator. Create a vision for what your company is trying to achieve. Use your culture, flexibility, the opportunity to do great work and other incentives to level the playing field.

5. You are the entrepreneur. It is your responsibility to manage the process and make sure you’re using your time wisely. Remember, don’t hire someone just like yourself. It may sound like a good idea, but this isn’t the time to make a friend, it’s the time to invest in someone with talents and skills that compliment yours to help you and your business succeed.

You are either creating or solving future problems when you hire someone new. Invest in your process and make sure you’re solving problems.

Click here for more information about Jen Way and Way Solutions. Also, stop by CoLab Nashville Wednesday, March 21st for our next Lunch and Learn with Lil Dragon Entertainment.

Don't let these go to waste! Photo courtesy of Tobyotter on Flickr.

One of our New Year’s Resolutions at CoLab is to create a greener office environment and help lower our carbon footprint. We’re making an effort to recycle more and waste less. This means we’ll be rolling out some new initiatives to make this happen.

One minor change we’ve already implemented is the use of re-manufactured toner for our printers. Ink cartridges take years to disintegrate in landfills. Re-manufactured toner cartridges are reused instead of being thrown away. We also recycle our empty cartridges because one returned cartridge keeps about 2.5 pounds of metal and plastic out of landfills.

In addition, we’re implementing a program our members can be a part of as well. Those crumpled up pieces of paper and empty Diet Coke bottles don’t have to be garbage. In the coming weeks everyone will see individually marked bins in the kitchens and kitchenettes to allow our members to separate their recyclables into the correct bins. This, with every one’s effort, will be a huge ongoing step in the right direction.

We understand that although it sounds simple, it’s not always straight forward as to what materials can go where. For this, and many other recycling tips, we are hoping to bring in a member of the newly formed Institute for Sustainable Practices at Lipscomb University for our Lunch and Learn on April 4th. We are sure this will not only be very informative as to what we can do around the office but how we can make it as simple as possible. As an added bonus, you’ll also gain some skills you can take home with you.

More information about our green initiative will be rolling out soon, but in the mean time, keep your eyes peeled for our changes and give going green a shot in your own office. Every little bit counts.

For more information about CoLab Nashville, Lunch and Learns or coworking downtown, visit www.nashville.colabusa.com.

Colin Callahan of Acklen Avenue takes part in the Swap Meet.

Coworking is a creative and social alternative to stuffy executive offices and many coworkers will tell you that the community in a coworking space is what keeps them coming back.

This week, CoLab Nashville hosted something new: a swap meet on the 3rd floor.

Don’t fret if you didn’t have a chance to come by, there will be more.

So what is a swap meet?

CoLab’s very own, Colin Callahan of Acklen Avenue, was the brains behind the event. The concept came to him when he was brainstorming ways to engage the many entrepreneurs of CoLab and staring at the pile of unneeded items in his office.

Coworkers, after all, tend to be creative and social. Besides unwanted items, many are artists and have arts and crafts they like to swap or sell. The idea behind a swap meet is that you can trade your items for others or sell them. It’s both fun and helpful to members.

“I just thought this was a great way for our members to get better acquainted with fellow coworkers and it turned out to do just that,” said Colin.

If you are interested in joining a community of coworkers who get down to business but also like to have fun, CoLab Nashville is the place to be.

And coworkers – be thinking of what you have that you might want to swap at the next swap meet!