November 14th, 2007 by Alex Linsker
Tony Bacigalupo is a 24 year-old Project Manager for Desktop Solutions. He graduated from the University of Delaware in 2005 with a BS in Computer Science. Tony is an active member on the cooBric governance committee.
How did you get involved with coworking?
At the start of this year I didn’t know anybody in the New York tech scene. When I found Jelly and Meetup, I was able to jump into the community and participate immediately.
How did that happen?
I found Jelly online when I was researching coworking. Jelly’s such an open thing that it was very easy to meet friends who were very talented, friendly and open.
The other half was at the beginning of this year thanks to the first Diggnation Meetup.
I showed up and there were maybe twenty people there. And actually it was in the Two Boots Theater, and after that we went to a bar, and after that we went to another bar, and after that some people left, and the three remaining of us went to another bar.
And the more bars we went to, the closer we got to each other as friends.
And what happened to the other people?
Each one of them had their time to go. I was so energized by the fact that I had found a way to meet people with common interests; I couldn’t bring myself to leave!
That was that first night. So having participated in a Meetup in its very first incarnation, I got to meet the people starting it and be part of the beginning of a very new club.
Now that Diggnation Meetup has grown to 100+ people.
Are you still part of that?
Yes, and I still see friends from that Meetup at events regularly.
One of the things that surprised me is how it’s so easy to meet people who are so successful and exciting. I suppose it’s both a testimonial to the attitude of New York City and to technology, since groups like the NY Tech and Diggnation Meetups use Meetup’s platform to reach people.
What were you doing a year ago?
I was and am still working as a project manger for a web design and consulting company. I telecommute.
What do you like best about project managing?
A lot of my typical day is answering questions or moving things along when somebody’s done with something or stuck with something.
I enjoy keeping things moving along at a level a little bit above the specific activities. I make sure the activities are getting done and things are working out okay. That being said, I still get my hands dirty a lot.
What frustrates you most or what do you dislike the most?
The fact that in many cases what will hold up a project from being completed in a timely or cost-efficient fashion is something which is out of my control. My job is essentially to deliver projects on time and on budget, so it can be frustrating when a project isn’t on time or on budget for reasons that I can’t help.
I do a lot of things to help ensure things get done faster or more efficiently. But sometimes things are out of my hands. Clients can change their minds midway through the process, or we might discover something that hadn’t been anticipated in the earlier stages.
I quickly learned that the job is not just managing myself and my developers, but the client as well. If someone’s supposed to deliver a photo of their storefront, I have to manage the client the same way I’d expect to manage an employee. “Tuesday? Okay, I’ll expect it from you Tuesday.”
It’s a very nuanced job and the way I communicate is very important.
You’re on the CooBric governance committee. Who do you want to be looked to as?
‘Facilitator’ is a good word. I can’t really be too much of a decision-maker when it comes to coworking, because the people in the community decide how the things will take shape.
With Café Fuego, we essentially said, “Café Fuego’s the home for coworking. Everybody come here.” But the setup we had didn’t match the needs of the coworking and potential coworking community, and it showed in the attendance.
It was a valuable lesson learned – the best you can do is listen to what the community wants and do what you can to make that happen.
Who is the community?
It’s the group of people who participate in discussions of cooperBricolage and coworking.
But there are many other people out there who would benefit from a community like this. That’s one of the reasons my main focus now is on getting the word out and growing. There are a lot of people out there who simply don’t know something like this exists!
We decided first on Fuego, now we’re at Gramstand. How was that decided?
Gramstand’s owner heard about our community and reached out to us—he believes in coworking and was happy to help.
It was decided in a physical in-person meeting. Those are every week. If you want to help, come to the meetings. It’s open to anyone who wants to participate.
The consensus at one meeting was that Gramstand is the best café to work in terms of overall experience and the friendliness of the management with it.
What else?
What’s fascinated me is how many different needs people have for coworking.
And what happens with those different reasons?
Coworking meets needs that I may not have even realized existed. For instance, the other day, someone said that they were here partly because they had just broken up with someone and they needed to get out of the house and get distracted. I’d never heard of that before; that’s great!
Coworking as a break-up remedy. Who could anticipate that?
That’s what’s great about this community – it doesn’t matter why you need it, it’s just there for you to join.
There’s a large and growing population of people out there with laptops and flexible work schedules, and I hope an organization like this can help give those people an opportunity to be social and to connect.
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Squeezing in one more event before year’s end: an event for burgeoning Android developers to work on their projects together and compare their progress and questions.
One week from today, CooBric and Lunasa will be hosting Tech Drinks II– our second casual happy hour for the Tech Community.
