Do you feel like you’re not talking to the right people?

Presenting the first installation of the Ottawa House OUTLET series:

CREATIVE OUTLET.

June 10th from 6:30pm – 9:30pm the Ottawa House is hosting a networking night for anyone who is interested in the arts!

Complimentary coffee bar and finger foods with Fox on the Run! open for the evening.

We’re looking for:

students – musicians – photographers – actors – dancers – media – hairstylists – programmers – seamstresses – artists – craftspeople – developers – artists – art galleries – tattoo artists – cinematographers – writers – designers – you!

Come out, bring a business card, portfolio, or whatever you want to show off your talent. This is an opportunity for you to connect with other like-minded individuals in our community in order to build collaborative projects, find a mentor to learn a craft – or teach someone what you know, present yourself/your business, bring friends, meet new ones, start a band, and more!

We want to build our community, bounce ideas off one another and well, have a good time. It’s an open and free evening available to you to be creative with.

Please send this along to those you know who can benefit from a night like this, whether it’s a photographer friend who always wants someone to go on a photo journey with them to an artisan with an amazing gift but hasn’t quite got the word out there, this is a night for you. Thank you!

To check out who’s attending on facebook, click here.

What more could you ask for? (That’s not a rhetorical question, either – let us know!)

Capital of workspace

Ottawa House looks to foster sense of community among small businesses

by Kris Ketonen – Chronicle-Journal

When Thunder Bay videographer Ryan La Via began his company Pastime Productions, he was running it out of his basement. And it didn’t take long for him to realize that setup is fraught with pitfalls.

“It’s easy when there’s a TV right there, a bed right there, and a couch right there (to get distracted),” La Via said Thursday at the Ottawa House, a unique, new workspace in Thunder Bay’s north core where he’s rented an office for a little more than a year.

Ottawa House is looking to combat those homebased distractions by offering small businesses a flexible and affordable office solution.

For example, at Ottawa House, single desks are available for rent, whether they’re needed for an hour or a year or anything in-between. Boardrooms – complete with projectors, screens and catering from the on-site Fox on the Run – are there for group meetings or presentations, and are open to both Ottawa House clients and external businesses.

Wireless Internet is included with rentals, and other services like lockers, a fax machine, photocopier or a computer workstation are also available, if needed.

According to the website, prices start at $3 for an hour at one of the drop-in tables, while boardroom rentals can run up to $100 depending on how long it’s needed

“We take care of the overhead,” manager Logan O’Hearn said. “We’re affordable, we’re flexible, we cater to anything that people need. We’re here to help people make money, not tie them down to a lease.”

“We’re not asking someone to commit. If something happens business-wise or money-flow wise and you have to step away for a while, we’re not tying you down.”

In fact, some entrepreneurs, O’Hearn said, run the majority of their business out of their homes and use Ottawa House to meet clients, or make use of the virtual assistant service to answer their calls.

So far, owner Nadia La Russa said, it’s been going well. They’re at about 50 per cent long term capacity, and a lot of groups are making use of the boardrooms.

And Ottawa House is fostering that sense of community staff was hoping for. “We’re already seeing that networking,” La Russa said. “We’ve got a graphic designer, we’ve got a web developer, we’ve got a video producer. “When you come in here, you can already see the ideas flowing between them.

“Think about that as an alternative to working at home. You get put in an area where you still can run your business, you can be efficient, you can be effective. But you can be around people who are just like you.”

Added O’Hearn: “You have the best of both worlds. You can brainstorm and collaborate with someone, but then you can also have your private space where you’re working.”

La Via said shared workspace has been very helpful to Pastime Productions.

“I’ve already collaborated with a few of the businesses in here,” he said. “That has, in turn, given me more contacts, more business. That is what I hoped to achieve when I first got to the Ottawa House, and it has not disappointed.”

For more information visit worksmartworkhappy.com

Under the new ownership of Nadia LaRussa of Signature Financial, the Ottawa House has undergone some significant renovations and is ready for business.