Come down to this free event and enjoy the indie/folk feel of a Reno band that just might blow up. With a sound comparable to Tom Petty, Wilco and Delta Spirit, Ditch the Pilot pride themselves on a style rooted in songwriting, lyricism and music played for the love of music.

If you’re the front-row-of-the-show type, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more intimate venue than a Collective Desk Concert. Come share our space with good friends, good music and hopefully a good story or two from the band.

Music starts at 5 p.m. – show up around 4:30 p.m. for Beer:30, and enjoy a cold brew while the band warms up!

All Collective Desk Concerts

Sterling got a picture of me getting a picture of Mike.

John got a picture of Sterling getting a picture of me getting a picture of Mike.

Dave got a picture too.

At which point, Mike noticed what was happening.

And he took this …

So, yeah. This happened today.

In the meantime, two illustrious Collective members are running the show. Don Morrison and John Jusayan were integral in setting up the first annual Hack4Reno back in October and the Collective wouldn’t be the same without them. If you haven’t met them both, say hi next time you see them and in the meantime, here’s an informal introduction.

John @jrbj

John Jusayan helps manage the Reno Collective and writes iOS and Mac apps for his company, Treeness. A UNR alumnus, he earned a B.A. in Creative writing and an M.A. in Computer Science while attending there. In what remains of his spare time, he enjoys running, reading, and listening to music. He’s lived in Reno since 2000, after falling in love with the place.

Don @elskwid

Don Morrison works with Amphora Research Systems and is a community manager at the Reno Collective. He is a family man and long-time denizen of Reno, Nevada. He spends his time programming, mostly in Ruby, and drumming, mostly on DW drums. He loves Reno, open data and has a new love affair with the martial art Aikido.

Well, this is Reno Collective, so let’s continue to do things differently.

Let’s host a show. Let’s host several shows – shows by local bands in a stripped-down style at our more-than-modest venue. In the spirit of NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts, let’s showcase talent in a non-standard venue and open them up to the public. We’ll have a show every other week. And hey, if these little shindigs catch on, maybe we’ll go weekly.

First up: Lander Street’s own, Big Remote – featuring Reno Collective Marvel Don Morrison.

Come out and watch these guys slappa da bass. It’s free and friendly. Stay for the company. If you can’t make it, we’ll publish a few songs on our concerts page after the fun.

Hope to see you there!

All Collective Desk Concerts

Whatever your preferred work schedule is, we have a plan for you. Choose from one, two, three, five, or seven days a week, all which include access to our conference rooms, open seating, and Collective classes and events. And the only cliche thing you’ll find about our co-working space is our pricing motto : “The more you buy, the more you save!” Your price per day goes down with each larger plan, which is great so we’re OK with being cliche there.

Pricing is billed on a monthly basis, and payment is accepted via cash, check, credit card or PayPal. We can take care of it in person so drop by to get yourself set up, and see Don or John.

We think these revised plans will serve our current members better and also attract you work-at-home holdouts who still aren’t sure. With all this new flexibility, now is the perfect time to come check out the Collective for a day. We always have our $10 drop-in available if you’d like to see the space and meet some of our members. It’s the creativity and enthusiasm of our regulars that make the Collective a community. Join us!

Our existing members will see the updated pricing on the next bill. If you have any questions about membership or the plans, come by and talk to Don or John or email them at membership {at} renocollective {dot} com.

Don Morrison (@elskwid) works for Amphora Research Systems and helps out as a Community Manager at Reno Collective.

Community members and Reynolds students meet up for a WordPress crash course - Photo by David Calvert

Two of Reno’s leaders in interactive technology education and production have joined forces. Beginning this spring semester, UNR’s Reynolds School of Journalism (RSJ) and Reno Collective (RC) will bring higher education and professional coworking under the same umbrella. The quietly anticipated partnership between the two communities—both of which emphasize the value of interaction on a personal and global level—is finally official.

As part of the coupling, eight Reynolds School graduate students will receive free semester-long memberships to the Reno Collective coworking space – where they will be able to pick the brains of some of the most talented designers, programmers and creative types in the city. The eight memberships share a combined value of $800 per month, but the intrinsic value is priceless.

“These grad students will be able to work within the space, hack on their projects and practice their thesis defenses,” said RC member Don Morrison. “They’ll gain some valuable insight on the apps, websites, games and materials they’ll be designing throughout the semester.”

Reno Collective will gain a respected ally in the Reynolds school, adding a talented core of communicators, journalists and PR professionals to the group’s flowering member base. The Collective, which recently made news by hosting the city’s first ever 24-hour civic hackathon, will further the educational goals of RSJ by offering short courses and job-shadowing opportunities for grad and undergrad students.

Donica Mensing, acting dean of the journalism school, said this combination of entrepreneurs and academics will make for a richer, brighter future for everyone living in The Biggest Little City.

“We plan to partner with the Collective to provide training, offer workshops and sponsor events that will benefit our students, the campus and the community,” Mensing said. “In addition, we hope to benefit from the energy and expertise of the members of the Reno Collective in helping us be more innovative, engaging and entrepreneurial in our work.”

# # #

Reno Collective is Reno, Nevada’s best and brightest coworking space. Members of the collective are skilled in a multitude of platforms, including (but not limited to) programming, design, communications, fundraising and accounting. Anyone can join Reno Collective and benefit from a fun coworking space filled with Reno’s best talents. To join, stop by the space at 522 Lander St., or visit renocollective.com.

Press contact:
Don Morrison
Reno Collective
522 Lander Street
Reno, NV 89509
775-391-3023

Download as PDF

Once a quarter, a handful of Reno’s most gifted and geeky gather to share some of their best kept secrets. Reno Collective and friends will celebrate the 10th installment of Ignite Reno Thursday, January 26 beginning at 7 p.m. at Se7en Tea House in downtown Reno off West Street.

Ignite’s “lightning-presentation” format encourages speakers to keep their wits about them, said Don Morrison, member of the Reno Collective.

“Speakers have 5 minutes to showcase their knowledge about anything…and I mean anything,” said Morrison. “The catch is they have 20 slides that automatically rotate every 15 seconds. So they have to be quick, concise and entertaining! It makes for a really fun night.”

Previous Ignite topics range from Unbunching Your Digital Panties, Insignificant Action Heroes, Lessons Learned from Sci-Fi to Basic Science Behind Basic Bread. With such a wide range of zany presentations, Ignite audiences always leave the events with big smiles and bites of quirky knowledge. Past presentation can also be revisited at ignitereno.com.

Reno Collective began hosting Ignite Reno in Spring 2009 with the goal of “building community” between Reno citizens, said Colin Loretz, founder of the Reno Collective.

“Ignite was started in Seattle in 2006,” Loretz said. “Reno Collective hosted the first Ignite here in Reno in Spring 2009. We really wanted to promote personal development for members of Reno’s community. Since 2009, over 75 presenters have showcased their passions at Ignite Reno.”

Ignite Reno
ignitereno.com

Don Morrison
Reno Collective
522 Lander Street
Reno, NV 89509
775-391-3023

Download as PDF

Reno Collective by the numbers

• 2 year anniversary in January
• At our 2nd building, 3600 sqft – moved in January 2011
• 46 members in the arts, tech and social good

Key points from the Town Hall

• Colin will no longer be managing the space starting in January as he is temporarily relocating to San Antonio for 3 months to a start a new company that will be relocated back to Reno in April.
• Don Morrison (@elskwid) and John Jusayan (@jrbj) will be managing the space starting in January
• Reno Collective is transitioning to a non-profit organization by the end of January 2012.
• We are exploring funding options through local and federal grant programs
• New proposed membership plans and prices have been created for 2012 (to be announced shortly)
• Reno Collective exists outside of the “recession” – we started in the recession and we are still open
• Several members are contributing significant amounts of money on a monthly basis to pay the bills
• No one has ever made money from the Reno Collective company
• We are introducing 2 new conference rooms as of Jan 1
• An audio/visual studio will be available by February for video and audio work, editing, podcasting, etc.
• We are reaching out to organizations and community resources for partnerships and collaboration.
• Developing systems to help answer key business questions: membership levels, income, etc
• Better automation for building access and security

Keeping the Lights On

As mentioned above, Reno Collective is not making enough money to pay our monthly expenses. Several members have stepped forward to help the Collective through this transition. The Reno Collective is currently open because of significant, monthly contributions from Colin, John, Don and Chris but we are within arm’s reach of being entirely sustainable. While this assistance is not a long-term solution, it does allow this important resource to continue to function. We think the Collective is very, very important and we’re keeping it going. It is common for coworking spaces to not reach break even until after their 2nd year of operation which is pretty much spot on for us.

Recent Fervor for Economic Development

If you’ve been paying attention to our area recently, you have probably noticed that there is a lot of discussion around economic development. Look even closer and you’ll see that this discussion is not just between our elected officials and companies in town. It is taking place amongst the people! We believe that we can have a positive impact on the economic future of this region and are actively pursuing funding to help make this belief a reality.

We see Reno Collective as a model for economic development that puts the focus on opportunity identification, talent incubation, and member support. We are in a great position to be among the first to hear about new opportunities and initiatives in and around our area. We have a core group of extremely diverse and talented members that can mentor, guide and support new companies and ideas. Who better to provide support for people that want to build something for themselves than members of Reno Collective?

Creating an Open Source Community

Most organizations and companies are structured as a hierarchy. Reno Collective is not. We are a community. A collective. Or at least we want to be. This has always been our goal but it’s something that we haven’t done as well as we had hoped. Moving forward, this organizational structure will be a priority. We are going to practice what we have been preaching – we want the Reno Collective members to help shape the future of the Collective. We are transforming the Reno Collective into a decentralized, open source project that allows anyone to contribute at any level. Help grow the community, the workspace, our events and classes.

What does this mean?

Reno Collective is going to be an open source project as soon as we are officially a non-profit organization. Reno Collective will be managed by Don and John – they will make sure the bills are paid, and keep the power, internet and of course, caffeine flowing. To this day, not a single person has been paid a salary to run Reno Collective. It has always been a volunteer organization – we’re just making it official.

Who decides what events/classes occur? What about the direction of the Collective as a whole? Who will pick what projects are started? The answer is: You. Want to see a class taught or have skills you want to share? Create the class, get members to pitch in and make it happen. Do you feel like you’d be a great mentor? Do it. Think the building should be wired with ethernet? Looks like we’ll be having a wire pulling party! If you’re great at speaking to media, we’d love to have you involved in promoting community events and the successes of our members.

Open Direction

The direction of the Collective should reflect the direction of the community and the members within. If we have more technical members that are driving us to do projects and outreach, the Collective will be more technical. If we are full of artists, perhaps we’ll focus more on artistic projects and support. It’s up to us.

Open Dollars and Cents

We value the “open” part of open source and to us it is synonymous with transparency. In keeping with that key tenant, we are going to be transparent about everything. Where we get our money, where that money goes, the impact of our funds, etc. All open for anyone to see.

Open Membership

We are introducing new membership levels to make Reno Collective fit more types of work schedules and be flexible enough to make sure our members love working at Reno Collective.

Open Space

We are actively working on a new system to allow better building access with the eventual goal of 24/7 usage possible for our members.

Open Organization

Running like this, as an open self-organizing collective, we will not only show each other what we are capable of (individually and as an organization) but we will be demonstrating to the city and the region what can happen when you are truly passionate about your craft and the work that you do.

Upcoming Events

Mark these in your calendar!

• January 27th: Ignite Reno #10 – the big ONE ZERO! We are announcing details and call for speakers next week

Release the Hounds!

Over the next few days and weeks we will be releasing information and behind-the-scenes information about Reno Collective and how it runs. If there is something that you want to be involved with, we invite you to join in and build the future.