Christopher,<br><br>I'd say that you just need to find 1-3 people with interests compatible to yours and a little extra money. If one person wants a space to get away from his kids while he's programming and someone else needs a place to work on his Jeep, you can probably get a combination office/warehouse space at a good price. Once you actually do it, people will start showing up to your events. <br>
<br>With a shaky economy and companies moving out to cheaper areas and overseas, you're in a good time to negotiate rent and terms. Just make sure you have a couple of people who can float the expenses without a big group being there just yet.<br>
<br>Arclight<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, May 11, 2009 at 11:09 AM, Christopher J. Pilkington <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:cjp@0x1.net">cjp@0x1.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
I'm interested in what steps you're taking to "get the word out".<br>
<br>
I made attempts although limited to try to get the word out in<br>
Syracuse, but the only people I found that were interested were only<br>
looking for co-working space. It seems that the hackerspace concept<br>
is lost in this city, as most people really are just clinging onto<br>
their employment.<br>
<br>
Have you had similar responses?<br>
<br>
The problem with Syracuse, and likely other similar cities in the<br>
North America is sprawl. The city itself has lost over 50% of its<br>
population since its peak, most of which has moved to the suburbs and<br>
rural areas around the city. This has also occurred in the commercial<br>
real estate, businesses prefer a nice shiny new office building 10 km<br>
outside of town with ample parking rather than an older building with<br>
no parking.<br>
<br>
I'm not sure if Buffalo has suffered the same fate to the same extent.<br>
<br>
Ultimately, if there is a substantial community of individuals<br>
interested in this sort of thing, geography/socioeconomics can be<br>
overcome, but Syracuse has been brain-drained for a long time now,<br>
there is little growth here in tech.<br>
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