* Connection Court is more than your average Wi-Fi hot spot
A little over a year ago, the Internet Home Alliance – along with a team of technology vendors and a real estate developer – cut the ribbon on a new space designed for workers on the go.
Called Connection Court, the 2,400-square-foot work environment is trying to be the proverbial “third place” of refuge for mobile workers who want an alternative to their home office and corporate address. It’s located in a Plano, Texas, mall, and it offers visitors a place to go if they need a wired or wireless broadband connection, collaborative work areas, food services, and access to business services such as copying and printing.
So far, so good, says the Internet Home Alliance, which early next month plans to release usage statistics from the first six months of the pilot’s operation. Connection Court visitors logged more than 1,400 sessions per month, and 80% said they would recommend it to others.
According to the forthcoming report, wired and wireless Web access were the biggest draw. Nearly all users checked e-mail and looked at the Web. One-third said they did other kinds of work on a PC, and just as many bought refreshments from the coffee kiosk. About 12% used Connection Court to meet with coworkers or clients.
What makes Connection Court different from hotspots like Starbucks and Borders is its professional look and feel, says Nate Chandler, director of emergent business opportunities at Herman Miller. The interior furnishings designer and manufacturer is one of the Internet Home Alliance members involved in Connection Court from the start.
“The idea was to take all the ingredients that make a cafe a cool place to go, and balance it with what we know about how to create a more productive work environment,” Chandler says. “Could we create a place in a commercial setting, such as a mall, that people would find valuable to use and much more conducive to work than a café?”
The resounding answer from early Connection Court users is yes, Chandler says. Among visitors, 27% said they expect to come to the mall four times as often each month than they did before the workspace opened its doors, he says.
Efforts to make money off an idea like Connection Court haven’t always worked out, as earlier Telework Beat newsletters have covered. Gate 3 Workclub in Emeryville, Calif., for example, shut down recently:
http://www.networkworld.com/net.worker/columnists/2005/0321kistner.html
But there’s something different about the mall-based project. Mainly, it’s free.
Taubman Centers – the real estate company behind Connection Court – furnished the physical space, made the required infrastructure modifications, handles staffing, and coordinates the food element. But it isn’t trying to recoup that investment by attracting a steady stream of people willing to pay a monthly fee for access.
Instead, Taubman is measuring the project’s success by other factors, such as how its mall tenants benefit from traffic to Connection Court. In fact, Taubman has decided to keep the project up and running indefinitely due to its popularity with visitors… and retailers’ reports of increased sales.
Among the users who are particularly appealing to store owners are the men who come to Connection Court. Men, not surprisingly, are traditionally tougher to attract to malls than women. At Connection Court, 68% of users are men. For store managers, that’s a nice crowd to bring in on a regular basis.
It’s hard to say how often I would use a facility like Connection Court, if it were in my area. So far I haven’t been tempted by any of then nearby coffee shop hot spots. I just can’t imagine getting any real work done in that atmosphere. But the professional flavor of Connection Court just might convince me – especially this week, when we’re in the middle of renovating the one and only bathroom in the house where I live and work full-time. Right about now I’d really like to slip over to Connection Court and make that my “third place” for a few days until the rubble is cleared.
Have you found a mobile work environment you like? As always, I welcome your comments at mailto:abednarz@nww.com
