By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
The downtown Hays coworking space, BriefSpace, 219 W. 10th, was recently awarded grant funding that will be used to enhance the space for COVID-19 safety and create a better media experience for online facilitation.
"One of the challenges we have had in this pandemic is that, if you have been in BriefSpace you know that it is a very open area," said Doug Williams, Grow Hays executive director.
The open areas currently features tables pushed together and few opportunities to accomplish true social distancing.
"On the main floor where it is just wide open," Williams said. "This grant is going to allow us to put in some separation, some cubicles, and allow for some privacy and separation, for people to come in and work and not have to be right in front of each other, potentially spreading the disease."
The space generally features open architecture, but the inclusion of cubicles will offer patrons a more private space to work, but the common areas will remain offering the ability for patrons to mingle as well.
"I think it will offer the best of both worlds," Williams said. "There is still a lot of open space in there. There will be the capability to interact. We've still got our coffee bar, we've still got an area where we have our phone booths where people can go into if they want to make a private call, but I think it will still be open enough, but eliminate some of these hazardous situations and give a little bit greater level of privacy to some people that need a little bit more of that."
"We are excited about it, we think it is going to be a great addition to our space and a great addition to a facility that really is a community type facility," he said.
Audiovisual upgrades are also planned with the funds.
"And our meeting rooms, while they are large enough to social distance in, and we have good audiovisual accommodations for attending an in-person meeting, we really struggle with external meetings where someone is online," Williams said.
Interactions he said during virtual meetings taking place in the meeting rooms will be significantly upgraded.
"We were fortunate enough to get a grant, which is going to allow us to do a serious upgrade to our audiovisual capabilities in our meeting rooms and allow for remote meetings to be much better than they are now, where people can hear and interact much easier," Williams said.
While the grant will provide upgrades at the facility, it will also allow Brief Space to offer free membership, giving interested parties an opportunity to explore what BriefSpace offers.
"On top of all of that this grant is going to allow us from Sept. 1 to the end of the year to offer membership for free," Williams said. "So anybody that wants to become a member and utilize the space and not have to pay a dime."
Williams said all users, will need to sign up as a community member to take advantage of the free offer, and then details of services can be worked out after signing up.
To become a member of BriefSpace, visit https://briefspace.app.proximity.space/
"I really think it is going to give people a great opportunity to use the facility and understand what it really has to offer," Williams said. "Although we have had a ton of meetings and a ton of people through the place, I don't think people are totally familiar with what we have and what we offer. So this will be a great opportunity for people to get in there and actually experience it."