Alex Hillman
better coworking, better business, and better communities
better coworking, better business, and better communities
Beyond the buzzword, my take is that community is all about creating experiences where people feel trusted, safe, & supported.
This collection includes my full back catalog of articles about exactly how to start, grow, and nurture a thriving community.
This week I’m included in Technically Philly’s sponsorship thank yous as their first “philanthropist level” sponsorship. It’s no secret that I’ve been a long time supporter of what Brian, Chris, and Sean do, and that’s not because they’ve written about me and IndyHall a bunch ...
Continue Reading“We’d love to wait for you to come on board and help us, but fuck it, we’re gonna do it anyway.” – From Scene but not Nerd, January 2007.
Continue ReadingThe Summit is officially underway, and there’s a possibility that if you’re reading this…that you’re already at the Philadelphia Convention Center, or you’re on your way there.
Continue ReadingI write a lot about IndyHall on this blog, but I don’t think I’ve spoken at any great length about another local organization, Philly Startup Leaders. I’ve recently joined the organization as part of a newly formed advisory board, along with a number of other people from vario...
Continue ReadingI think I’ve identified three distinct phases to a community marketing plan.
Continue ReadingAs you may have heard by now, we’re considering moving IndyHall into a new, larger office on the other side of Market Street, 20-22 N. 3rd St.
Continue Reading“My name is Harvey Milk, and I’m here to recruit you” That’s a war cry, if I ever heard one. Over the weekend, I sat down to watch Milk, a documentary about the life story of Harvey Milk as the first openly gay public official.
Continue ReadingHow far we have come. There was a time where I was stepping out into the world and despite the quality of the industry connections I did have, I felt very alone. I longed for a scene. Not the San Francisco tech scene. Not the New York tech scene. I longed for a scene that embr...
Continue ReadingI’ve been involved in a lot of talk recently about community building versus community development, or even community design.
Continue ReadingThis past weekend we celebrated the one year anniversary of IndyHall’s grand opening. I’ve been making it a point to clearly define what we were celebrating, for a reason. At our party, I added some clarity to the point.
Continue ReadingThis is the weekend to end all weekends.
Continue ReadingAmazing how far we came from sitting on the floor to packing the house and tearing up the Philly Scene on a regular basis.
Continue ReadingClearly, I’m learning! Normally I don’t do anything to plan for SXSW until a month or two before. This year, I’m turning over a new leaf!
Continue ReadingIndyHall’s office is almost 1 year old. We signed our lease on August 10th, 2007, began occupying the space on August 13th, and over the next 2 weeks, built out our intial office. At the end of August, we threw our inaugral party.
Continue ReadingThe meta/double negative jokes ran wild yesterday, when Philadelphia became home of the first successful FailCamp (again, with the irony).
Continue ReadingAmy Hoy and I have been talking about an event for long enough, it’s time to put ourselves on the hook and make it happen.
Continue ReadingToday was the day I realized the value of live, citizen journalism.
Continue ReadingLast week, I asked a bunch of my twitter followers, “What does creative mean to you?”
Continue ReadingThe crew at IndyHall was talking this morning about all of the different definitions of creative, and how they vary from person to person. This is leading somewhere, I promise. But I need some reader feedback first.
Continue ReadingI’ve been in a funny spot for the last several weeks as I rock between my previous workflows of being wholly responsible for production work to being in a pseudo-management position and doing more advising, strategy, and writing. I’m still not entirely comfortable with it, mos...
Continue Reading