Satellite Telework Centers wins Red Herring “100 North America” award
June 25, 2010
Satellite Telework Centers announced today that it has been named a winner of the Red Herring 100 North America awards for 2010. The award, whose past winners include Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, Twitter and Salesforce.com, is given to companies demonstrating the ability to disrupt an industry or create an entirely new industry via an innovative business model.
SC Sentinel – Felton work center expands to downtown Santa Cruz
April 29, 2010
From today’s Santa Cruz Sentinel:
SANTA CRUZ – Out of the coffee shop and into the cubicle.
That’s the trend in downtown Santa Cruz, anyway, as Felton’s Satellite Telework Center opens its second work space for telecommuters, independent consultants and the self-employed in the New Sentinel building on Church Street, next to Internet provider Cruzio and nonprofit Ecology Action.
Satellite, whose current location offers rentable cubicles, cafe tables, conference rooms and office necessities like printers and phones will be the second such business to open off of Pacific Avenue. NextSpace Coworking + Innovation offers similar benefits on the corner of Pacific and Cooper Street.
But the heads of both shops say their businesses are so unique – and demand so great – that they should be able to thrive just a few blocks away from each other.
“You hear a lot about work-life balance, and this is a part of it, separating between work and home,” said CEO Barbara Sprenger.
The difference between each business is palpable. Satellite’s Felton location is understated, with a noise cancellation system keeping cubicles quiet and tasteful paintings by local artists on the wall. The business’ target demographic, said Sprenger and Marketing Director Jim Graham, is telecommuters, consultants and startups who need to rent office space by the hour, day, week or month. They feature a key card system similar to a hotel’s that tracks time spent inside Satellite, what printers or other office machinery was used and bills clients accordingly. About 50 people work there.NextSpace features red trim and Santa Cruz artist Steve Hosmer’s wall-covering, whimsical paintings. Customers purchase flat-rate “memberships,” which CEO Jeremy Neuner describes as buying into a community. NextSpace’s target demographic is independent, creative professionals seeking like-minded folks to work with. Nearly 200 people work there.
While some telecommuters base out of NextSpace, they don’t comprise one-third of its members like at Satellite, Neuner said.
“The nature of work is changing. People are going to continue to seek alternative work arrangements,” Neuner said. “We provide work arrangements that will work for some people. Satellite provides work arrangements that will work for some people.”
Even expansion plans are different. Along with downtown, Satellite is eyeing other locations in Westside Santa Cruz and Scotts Valley, along with Pleasanton, Campbell and Morgan Hill. Sprenger and Graham said they research census data to learn commute patterns and income levels of communities where Satellite might be a good fit.
NextSpace, on the other hand, is seeking out “urban cores” where creative entrepreneurs now hole up in coffee shops with their laptop computers. Neuner declined to specify where NextSpace will open next, only to say that it will be in a major market outside Santa Cruz County.
With more commuters working from home and laid-off residents becoming self-employed, Sprenger and Neuner said demand for both types of space is only growing.
“We offer the same type of service, but it’s a slightly different clientele,” Graham said. “Both of us are taking advantage of this change in how people work.”
Satelllite member Randall Brown published in “Base Ball – A Journal of the Early Game”
April 12, 2010
Baseball historian and Satellite Telework Center member Randall Brown just had a piece published in the Spring issue of “Base Ball“. Brown’s piece, “Doubleday Diamonds; or, Digging up Graves” looks at the conflicting claims over whether Abner Doubleday was the actual inventor of the game.
The Satellite featured in Pamelab
February 12, 2010
Pamela Biery came by the Satellite yesterday afternoon for a chat about coworking, telework and the changing nature of work in general. She posted to her blog, Pamelab, this morning…
Bucking the “Over the Hill” Drive
I dropped by the Satellite Telework Center today, a co-working space in downtown Felton, California. Founding partner Jim Graham poured a cup of coffee and sat down with me to report on this growing business’ progress.
Satelltie CEO to speak at second annual Green Trade Network conference, Santa Cruz on Sept. 25
September 21, 2009
Satellite Telework Centers CEO Barbara Sprenger will give a presentation on the nature of “21st Century Villages” at the second annual Green Trade Network conference on September 25 in Santa Cruz.
The conference, hosted by the Monterey Bay International Trade Association, will be held at Cocoanut Grove at the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz.
The U.S. is in the best position to set the global standards to create the 21st Century eco-city model for world consumption, The vision of developing an eco-city that is inexpensive to develop and much smaller in size than ones being established in Abu Dhabi and China and that can be replicated easily to meet the demands of millions throughout the world is possible.
Independent, efficient and more secure local energy sources utilized in conjunction with the major utility providers are also key elements to new sustainable cities in the U.S. An expanded view of a future power generation model that includes municipal, local and co-op power utilities including a consumer choice for ‘green energy’ options will be discussed.
Examples of new ‘mini-grid’ point of us generation technologies that can bridge technologies and effectively integrate the central grid with regional, municipal and local inputs of power will also be presented.
Author Joel Postman’s presentation on social media for small businesses – the video
July 1, 2009
UPDATE: Joel sent me his excellent PowerPoint presentation. You can download it here.
If you missed Joel Postman’s June 24 presentation at The Satellite, “Social Media: The Latest Get Rich Slowly Scheme“, you can watch the video online. Thanks to Michael and Michelle of UnRadio for producing the video.
“First Friday” free co-working day – July 3 at The Satellite
June 30, 2009
It’s the day before a holiday weekend. Traffic on Highway 17 will be insane. Isn’t that enough of a reason to stay on this side of the Hill?
Join us this Friday, July 3 for a free co-working day at The Satellite. You bring the laptop and we’ll provide the T1-based WiFi, all the coffee you can drink (we buy it from The White Raven) and a comfortable space for you to spread out, get some work done and meet some interesting people.
Our cubicles and café space will be available on a first come, first served basis and we’ll be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. (Some of them might be reserved for our members).
If you have any questions or want more information, visit us online at http://www.thesatelliteinc.com or call The Satellite at 831.222.2100.
We’re at 6265 Highway 9 in Felton. We’re within easy walking distance of coffee (the White Raven is two doors down), food (Redwood Pizza, Taqueria Vallarta and the phenomenal deli counter at New Leaf) and Don Quixote’s, for those who want to do some after work brainstorming.
Did we mention it’s free?
Hope to see you here!
How to Find a Low-Cost-of-Entry Home-Based Business – July 22 at The Satellite
June 30, 2009
Seminar and Workshop
Wednesday, July 22, 7- 8:30 p.m.
Satellite Telework Centers
6262 Highway 9 in Felton, California
In this engaging presentation by Andy Van Valer, CEO of Zyzyrgy, he will disclose the significant opportunities available to people who want to take advantage of the fastest growing segment of consumer sales and uncover if this business is the right one for you and your passion.
This presentation will:
- Dispel some of the myths of home-based business and identify the truths
- Identify what your passion is to run a home-based business. This business model is not right for everyone, so find out if you fit the success profile for a home-based business.
- Discover how to choose a business once you have identified your passion.
- Identify steps to take to insure growth and financial stability of the home-based business.
- Enlightening question and answer session on home-based businesses.
Tuition for this event: FREE
About Andrew Van Valer
The CEO of Zyzyrgy and author of more than 10 books related to business success with home-based businesses. Andrew has often been called “Mr. Solutions” and a “Visionary” by many of his friends and peers. He has the ability to take the complex and make it simple to understand. Andre has extensively studied the home-based business market and works closely with the learners in the industries to distill the critical success points and help guide people way from the pitfalls.
Social Media: The Latest Get Rich Slowly Scheme – June 24
June 5, 2009
Event: Wednesday, June 24, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
Satellite Telework Centers
6265 Highway 9 in Felton, California
Join our special guest speaker Joel Postman, veteran communications expert and the author of SocialCorp: Social Media Goes Corporate, for a discussion of how social media and social networking have forever changed the world of communications, and how anyone can participate effectively by following a few simple steps.
Facebook has been adding 600,000 users a day, with no end in sight, and recently passed the 200 million mark. Twitter, once mocked for its silly sounding name and supposedly trivial style of communications, is nearly doubling in size every month and has around 12 million monthly visitors. CNN Breaking News, jetBlue, Comcast, Barrack Obama, Oprah, Ashton Kutcher and P. Diddy all use Twitter, but not to make money. What’s going on? What’s all the fuss about? Should you pay attention? Find out Wednesday, June 24. Pizza and drinks at 6:30. Joel takes the stage at 7 p.m. Copies of his book will be available.
About Joel Postman
Joel Postman is the principal of Socialized, a consultancy that helps companies make effective use of social media in corporate communications, marketing and public relations. He is an avid user of social media, and his blog http://www.socializedpr.com is ranked by Advertising Age among the top 250 PR, advertising and media blogs.
Prior to founding Socialized, Joel was EVP of Emerging Media at Eastwick Communications, where he developed and implemented social media strategy and initiatives for companies like Seagate, Fujitsu, and Ustream.TV. Before that he has over a decade of Fortune 500 corporate communications leadership experience, including four years as the speechwriter to the CEO of Sun Microsystems, and three years as a director of internal and executive communications at Hewlett-Packard.
Joel has a BA degree in communications, and experience in print and broadcast news. His book, SocialCorp: Social Media Goes Corporate, was published in December 2008 by New Riders/Voices That Matter, and is available on Amazon and in major bookstores. http://is.gd/73Sh
To the extent that he can be said to have grown up, Joel did so in Silicon Valley. Joel lives in Boulder Creek, in the Santa Cruz Mountains, which means he can get to the Valley in under an hour, but he’s far enough away to see deer in his backyard and a million stars at night. He holds several technology patents and is an experienced Zamboni driver.
We’re on Yelp (and Facebook, and Twitter)
June 3, 2009
If you haven’t had a chance to check us out, I just added us to Yelp. If you’ve had a chance to visit the facility, we’d love it if you’d write a review.
We’re also on Facebook, Twitter and Flickr. Let us know what you think!
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The Satellite Twitter
- 2 days ago--What's new with Satellite Telework Centers - September - link #coworking #telework
- Aug 6th--It's a free #coworking / #telework day here at the Satellite in downtown Felton. Come on in and set a spell.
- Aug 3rd--Just fired off our August email newsletter: link I <3 Constant Contact analytics.
- Jul 29th--We're hosting a free seminar on protecting small businesses from data theft tonight at 7 p.m. - link
- Jul 28th--Someone's doing a model photo shoot here at the Satellite
- Jul 26th--Our mid-month email newsletter, now brought to you by Constant Contact: link
- 2 days ago--What's new with Satellite Telework Centers - September - link #coworking #telework