L-R: Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak; CoCo co-founders Kyle Coolbroth & Don Ball; Google Chairman Eric Schmidt (screengrab from StarTribune video on their website article referenced below)
Google’s chairman, Eric Schmidt, paid a visit to CoCoMSP’s Minneapolis Grain Exchange facility on Wednesday, November 30th after his speaking engagement to a small audience at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs.
The StarTribune this morning had a print newspaper Business section front page article by Steve Alexander called, “Face of Google Faces Minneapolis” and the online version in that link has a short video that will give you a good sense of what transpired during his visit to CoCo. It’s well worth a read and the video is short and well done AND it’s a lot easier to see who’s who at the facility (vs. the “Where’s Kyle and Don?” photo in the printed newspaper looking at Schmidt, captured with a sadly goofy look on his face).
The article states, in part:
Later Wednesday, Schmidt appeared with Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak at the small business incubator CoCo Minneapolis, based in the former Minneapolis Grain Exchange, and visited with several local technology entrepreneurs.
Schmidt praised the incubator concept, in which entrepreneurs meet to share office space and ideas, and the city’s role in helping promote it.
Schmidt said it is a better alternative to people working alone out of their homes.
“Distance-working is a disaster,” Schmidt said. “People want to work in a group. People are social.”
Don Ball will be on the Minnov8 Gang podcast which will be recorded Friday morning at 8am CST at the CoCoMSP facility and posted by early afternoon. We’ll talk with Don about what’s new in co-working and, especially, about what transpired during this momentous visit.