We celebrated our existence last night, and it’s been a long road to get here.

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!

Well, our first week has been very cold! The heaters in the building were not on over Christmas since no-one was using it so it has taken a few days for the building to warm up properly. But we’re nice and toasty now, so feel free to pop by and say hello!

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.

FlyThe.Coop’s first day is here!

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!

Many thanks to everyone who helped paint and strip wallpaper in the weeks running up to Christmas. Also thanks to FlyThe.Coop member Guy Dickinson for loaning the money to pay a professional decorator to work his magic in the meeting room and on the floorboards just before Christmas. The results look like a massive improvement!

This coming weekend (19th & 20th) will be the last weekend we have to get the FlyThe.Coop space looking lovely before everyone is on holiday. So basically, whatever it looks like on Sunday evening, that is what we will be moving into on Jan 4th.

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. We promise you won’t get as messy as these people:

Now that we’ve got a lock on the door and knocked down a wall, it doesn’t mean there’s not hard work yet to do!

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.

Many thanks to Cornerstone Construction for taking down the partition wall so that more light can fill out wonderful space!

They also installed a much needed lock on the door, picture gallery below:

Now that we have got the space in 36-40 Edge Street, we need to make some changes so that it is a lovely and vibrant place to co-work.

The space is currently made up of 3 rooms which we call the Light Room, the Large Room and the Dark Room. The Light Room has a big window which let’s in loads of light, the Dark Room is what we will use as a meeting room and the Large Room is where most of the desks will go.

The problem is that the Large Room doesn’t get any natural light unless the door to the Light Room is open, and even then it is not much. So we decided we wanted the partition wall between the Light Room and the Large Room taken down so that loads of natural light will also fill the Large Room.

So tomorrow we have Cornerstone Construction coming in to demolish the partition wall, plaster the wall and ceiling where it was and install a lock on the door to the space.

I’ll post pictures here after they’ve done the work!

At last! FlyThe.Coop has finally got a space for you to come and co-work and collaborate with others in Manchester!

It’s been over a year since Fly The Coop Limited was established as a Cooperative and it’s been difficult finding the right space. But now we have: 36-40 Edge Street in the Northern Quarter of Manchester’s City Centre!

The building has been taken by MadLab who are using the ground and top floor as a HackSpace and we are going to use the first floor to offer co-working space and desks to those who want to meet other exciting people, collaborate on existing or new ideas/projects and work with a variety of people with different skills / knowledge / tools / etc!

We are opening the doors on the 1st of January 2010 and have already got all permanent desks taken! Of course there will be a couple of hotdesks which you can hire on a day by day basis – watch this website for price details and get in contact with us if you want to go on the waiting list for a permanent desk (ben@flythe.coop).

In the next few weeks running up to Christmas we will be renovating the space so it’s a lovely environment to work in. If you want to help us, let us know (ben@flythe.coop) – the more the merrier (and quicker!)

Many, many thanks to MadLab for offering this space and being patient with us while we worked out our budgets and cash flows etc. Also many thanks to Andrew Threlfall, Ian Moss, Paul Robinson, Ben Gibbs and Kevin Rutherford for the time, effort and money they have put in to getting FlyThe.Coop up and running over the last year and to Guy Dickinson for helping with the startup costs.

We are looking at a space on Edge Street in Manchester’s Northern Quarter and need a couple more people to take a permanent desk.

We’re a non-profit co-op and therefore a community effort, and we don’t have streams of funding coming from pots of EU money or anything: we need to work together to make this happen.

If you’d like to have a permanent desk in the Northern Quarter with some lovely and interesting people, or are interested in hotdesking with us, here’s the details:

A permanent desk space will cost £200 per month if you’re a member of FlyThe.Coop (membership is £1 per year!) and £250 if you’re not a member.

We are also offering hotdesking at £17.50 per day for members, £20 per day for non-members.

If you’re interested or have any questions, please get in contact with Ben Gibbs, FlyThe.Coop’s secretary, by Monday 28th Sept on 07811197374.