Friday 11 December 2015

The Arcade Auckland - a shared space for indies and much, much more!

One of the objectives of the NZGDA this year has been to look for a shared work space where we indies can work together.  Shared work spaces have always been proven to be largely helpful for growth especially in smaller companies.

During our search, we happened to come across MOTAT (Museum of Transport and Technology) who were coincidentally setting up an innovation hub called the Idea Collective.

What amazed me, was that the area that they had planned went beyond a simple shared work space.  MOTAT intended to really reinvent themselves, and were pulling out all the stops to create an exciting new part of the museum.  As such, they were open to collaborating together to run events, have ongoing exhibitions, and much more.

I was there in the early days while they were refurbishing one of their warehouse areas, and even then the potential of the space absolutely blew my mind.



Over the next few weeks however, the place went through an astounding rate of change.

The next time I went in, they had already put together the shared work space, an exhibition area, presentation room and a geodesic dome for the Pop-Up Arcade.







One week later, they had an opening night and the placed had transformed again into something even more remarkable!


















The Pop Up Arcade was mostly done, and kids and adults were already loving it!


















The shared work space had been fleshed out a lot further too, with proper desks and other facilities:


We still have a few more formalities to sort out, but we are so close. MOTAT are so keen to have us there that they have also printed up that the NZGDA is in residence already on the outside of the work space!

We're super excited about the place. I personally think that this could be an amazing milestone for the indie movement in New Zealand. It has the potential to be an amazing focal point for all of our efforts and could indeed raise the bar collectively for the community.

Over and above a shared working area, the events and exhibition area is something beyond our wildest dreams, especially since we will be leveraging MOTAT's existing brand. It will be a shared benefit however, as we will help them to reinvent their image as a cutting edge and exciting museum!

I can't wait to get started - we're very close now!

Stay tuned - I'll be sharing more info as we progress, and if you're interested in participating in the shared space, let me know!











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