During Ignite Des Moines, Claire Celsi talked about the growing homeless population in Des Moines. To that end we are organizing a #dmtweetup that will band tweeps together to feed the homeless at a local shelter. This is a great idea and we thank Claire for bringing it to our attention. Feeding off Claire’s energy and passion, we wanted to find other ways to take the scale of Ignite Des Moines and use it to harness the power of our community for good deeds. Our founder, Daniel Shipton, had an idea come to mind that could help out other charities and causes: ActionCamp.
ActionCamp is about gathering really smart people with diverse backgrounds that want to make a difference in their local communities. We put these bright minds in the same room, provide information about the important local causes and charities, then let them brainstorm about how to make a difference. What can the power of people accomplish in 30 hours? We will find out!
Mark your calendars! ActionCamp Des Moines will take place on December 6th & 7th here at Impromptu Studio.
WOW! That is all we can say. It has been 4 days since Ignite Des Moines and we still can’t believe how great it went. The next day we figured it up and there were 80 people at Impromptu Studio that night. We had six entries to the egg catapult contest including a creative approach involving a contestant attempting to catch his egg before it splat against the wall.
Thank you to everyone who presented that night! All of the presentations are were inspiring, and everyone did a fantastic job with the 5 minutes time limit. The improv power points were extremely funny and sufficiently embarrassed our own Abbie Shipton.
All in all we had a wonderful time at the event and feel so blessed to have the support of our friends and the community. Thank you all for supporting us, we hope you had as much fun as we did.
Ignite Des Moines was a huge success and had an amazing turnout. Filling Impromptu Studio with talented energetic people is what we have always aimed for. We would like nothing more than to have you all there working with us everyday and seeing you all there gave us a great idea. We would like to extend an offer to Des Moines: come and cowork with us for the month of November for FREE.
Those who come and cowork will be taking advantage of our Lite Membership. If you sign up for a Full Membership during November you will get the first month at the Lite Membership ($175) price. Take a look at the plans for more details.
We are so excited to be welcoming the Big Dream Gathering to Impromptu Studio. The Big Dream Gathering is put on by Mitch Matthews and his wife Melissa and their team. They know how hard it is to make your dream come true when know one believes in you. That’s why they started the Big Dream Gathering in order to provide a safe and fun atmosphere for people to share their dreams and take that first step toward making them a reality. Here at Impromptu Studio we are providing that same type of atmosphere and community for these dreamers and entrepreneurs to continue to realize their dreams. We couldn’t imagine a better match and we want to thank one of our coworkers Chris Punke for introducing us.
The Big Dream Gathering will be at Impromptu Studio on November 5th and 12th from 6-8 pm both nights.
Last Friday Oct. 24th Abbie Shipton hosted a fun pumpkin carving party at Impromptu Studio. Everyone brought their own own pumpkin and carving utensil of choice.
Susanne (@garlicgirl) brought some fantastic halloween table cloths and napkins, and several people brought snacks to share. It was messy and stinky… someone inadvertantly had selected a rotten pumpkin but all in all a great time. Abbie Shipton put her carving skills to good use and carved the Impromptu logo into her pumpkin.
Impromptu Studio’s Founder, Daniel Shipton, is organizing Ignite Des Moines. Ignite Des Moines is built off a very simple premise: If you had five minutes to talk to the people of Des Moines what would you say? What if you only got 20 slides and they rotated automatically after 15 seconds?
Daniel’s presentation is entitled “Intrinsic Intangibles of Coworking and Open Source”. He will be discussing how his background in open source code developement has provided a foundation for the philosophies that Impromptu Studio is based in. He will highlight a few of the intangible benefits that go along with creating a coworking community and working on Open Source projects.
Fellow entrepreneur and co-creator of Silicon Prairie News, Jeff Slobotski, stopped in at Impromptu Studio in September. Jeff lives and works in Omaha, Nebraska and is an enthusiastic proponent for technology in the Midwest. He is also working on opening a coworking space in Omaha. His website Silicon Prairie News covers the new generation of up and comers in Omaha and the surrounding Midwest.
While Jeff was in town he was nice enough to stop by our new space to see what we have created. We gave Jeff the grand tour of Impromptu, talked about the upcoming event called Highlight Midwest and then talked about the challenges involved in openening a coworking space. At the end of his visit he did a short interview with Impromptu Studio’s founder, Daniel Shipton. Check the interview out below.
One of our residents, Chris Punke, wrote about his first month of coworking from Impromptu Studio. We have enjoyed having Chris around and we are glad that he has enjoyed his time here so far.
“After a year of relative isolation in an office suite, I have enjoyed having others around to talk to throughout the day, and am finding myself to be much more productive. (Apparently being holed-up by myself day after day was getting to me.)” - Chris Punke, FocalPoint Blog
Read more about his experience so far at his company blog.
Sarah Lacy and her husband stopped by as we were setting up Impromptu Studio. They interviewed us and helped us paint a bit. Below is the video she posted on her site.
Ignite Des Moines was a huge success and had an amazing turnout. Filling Impromptu Studio with talented energetic people is what we have always aimed for. We would like nothing more than to have you all there working with us everyday and seeing you all there gave us a great idea. We would like to extend an offer to Des Moines: 
