The Year Of Collaboration, which last year set-up MPTweets and worked on a TheyWorkForYou type thing for Manchester City Council, is starting up again with a hack day this Saturday (12th June) from 11am at FlyThe.Coop (36-40 Edge Street, M4 1HN).

Come along with any ideas for things you’d like to collaborate on. You’re welcome whatever your skill level and experience. Some of us will be updating the MPTweets project with new accounts for the new North West MP’s. Some of us will be getting the website working again – tyoc.co.uk is down! But the general plan is to hack / build / create whatever people decide to do on the day.

Feel free to reply with any ideas you’d like attendees to consider building and feel even free-er to come along on Saturday!

We’re offering a free desk each month.

Just tweet “I’d like to win a free Manchester hot-desk day at @fly_the_coop” and we’ll pick a winner at the start of every month. Follow us on Twitter @fly_the_coop and get tweeting!

Terms: The hot-desk day must be booked in advance, and be available. The day must be taken within a month

For only £200 per month you could have a desk in a vibrant space in the Northern Quarter with other freelancers and webby/techie folk. See our Members page to see who else works here. Don’t worry if you don’t do web design or are technical, co-working and collaborating with us could really help you out!

Becoming a member of FlyThe.Coop gives you ownership of our co-operative, exclusive events where we share what we’re doing and help each other out, cheaper desk hire (it’s £250 per month if you’re not a member) and a big smile on your face!

FlyThe.Coop shares our building with MadLab where loads of interesting and exciting events take place during the daytimes and evenings, check out their calendar. Working in the MadLab building will expose you to many different groups, people, skills and education opportunities.

If you’re interested, act quick and call Ben on 07811197374 or email him at ben@flythe.coop

Work for yourself, not by yourself!

Come along to meet other interesting freelancers and entrepreneurs, discover co-working, share what you’re working on, help and be helped, learn about collaboration opportunities and see the FlyThe.Coop space.

Celebrate the launch of FlyThe.Coop with us and learn what FlyThe.Coop can offer you – hot-desks, project room, community, etc.

To book your place (30 available) visit http://fly-the-coop.eventwax.com/co-working-day–flythecoop-launch

See you there!

Around 5 years ago, Co-Working days started happening once a month at MDDA, some of which were organised by Paul Robinson (our chariperson!). They were very well attended and showed the desire for a co-working space in Manchester. We then set-up FlyThe.Coop as a co-operative in October 2008 and it took a year to find a space which would work: MadLab.

So now were here and settled, we decided to celebraste the fact in-house with a couple of bottles of wine and a trip to Cord.

Watch this space for our Public Launch Co-Working Day!

Spirits have been high as we’re starting to get to know each other and find out what we each do. A couple of people have become members this week with the intention of using our co-working-hot-desks. Working in the City Centre, and the Northern Quarter in particular is exciting too, with plenty of places to grab lunch (if you’ve forgotten to pack one!) and have drinks in the evenings.

All the permanent-desk users have started using their desks except the Opera guys, so we’re looking forward to them coming in next week, then we’ll be a full house, permanent-desk-wise. Of course we have our co-working-hot-desks available too, so if you’d like to book one, call Ben on 07811197374 – we’re working on out online booking system, should be up soon.

We’re now open for you to come and share our space with us! We have 2 co-working desks available for you to use as hot-desks. Until we get the online booking sorted (which should be less than 2 weeks), please phone Ben on 07811197374 to book a desk. You will need to come with payment for the desk – £17.50 per day for members (membership is £1 per year), £20 per day for non-members. Cash or cheques accepted.

We hope our space will be useful for you to meet new people with different skill sets and interests, as well as a place to get some work done! We’d love to see new and exciting products/services/ideas emerge from the co-working and collaboration which will happen here, and we’d love you to be a part. Feel free to come and visit us to check our space out, see our Location page to find us.

Watch this space for news about an upcoming co-working day here on Edge Street!

And there is still alot to do, here’s is a list:

• Strip wallpaper from partition Walls in meeting room
• Paint non-partition Walls in light room
• Paint second coat on ex-green Walls
• Paint skirting boards
• Sand down plaster where wall was and polyfiller
• Wallpaper back wall of meeting room
• Paint non-wallpapered meeting room Walls
• Remove ceiling paper from meeting room
• Paint all ceilings
• Buy, transport and build desks and chairs

If you think you can help with one of the above items, please, please, please try to come along to 36-40 Edge Street, Manchester, M4 1HN on Saturday 19th between 11am – 6pm and Sunday 20th between 11am – 6pm. We really need to make a big push this weekend so any help is appreciated, even if it’s an hour in-between Christmas shopping!

Please bring friends, lunch, paint rollers & trays, steam strippers, wallpapering equipment and anything else you think will help.

This Sunday (13th) from 11am onwards, we will be painting and stripping wallpaper in the FlyThe.Coop space, 36-40 Edge Street, M4 1HN.

Please come along to help out and bring any paint trays, rollers, paint brushes, steam strippers, overalls, packed lunch, etc. that you have. We will supply the paint, one of our permanent deskers is able to source some trade price paints which is handy. Also, it’s important to bring friends!

It will be a great opportunity to meet other FlyThe.Coop’ers, see the space and have fun. Feel free to come and leave at any point, even if you’re only able to help for 15 mins, it would be great to see you! When we’ve finished, or done as much as we can, we’ll all pop to Common for a thirst quenching drink.