Lenexa studio joins national coworking relief effort for Nepal

Despite the nearly 8,000 miles between them, a Kansas City-area coworking studio is helping with relief efforts in Nepal after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake destroyed hundreds of buildings and claimed thousands of lives.

Lenexa-based Plexpod has joined the international “Coworking for Nepal” movement that has attracted dozens of studios to encourage fundraising for Nepal relief efforts.

Studios from New York City to Paris have joined the one-day charity event — set for May 6 — that allows interested parties to work at coworking spaces for free with proof of a donation to Nepalese relief organizations. Coworking spaces offer tenants a variety of shared office services and a collaborative environment to work and intermingle with other like-minded businesspeople.

Plexpod owner Gerald Smith said he quickly signed up to help with the effort after exploring the Internet.

“I was poking around on the web, and there were these two interests of mine — the Nepal issue and coworking,” Smith said. “Within an hour I had a couple emails from several people saying ‘Hey, have you heard about this?’ So it was really easy for me to say that we ought to do this.”

Smith, whose coworking studio opened in early March, said tenants in his space offered an enthusiastic response to the event. The spirit of the movement — helpfulness and collaboration  — coincides what coworking spaces are all about, he added.

“The core of coworking is the community,” Smith said. “What we’re doing here is not about being in business, it’s about being around business. That’s the attitude of the people that are here — they welcome that type of involvement. It’s very natural for a collective or a collaborative environment. It was positively received.”

For more information on Coworking for Nepal, click here.