Sooz Media

Cheri Ruane coworking at Design Annex

Todd Vanhoosear and I are hosting a mostly weekly coworking morning and lunch at Design Annex in Union Square Somerville. The inaugural session happened this past Friday. We’re moving it to Thursdays to coincide with Design Annex’s regularly scheduled third Thursday of the month brown bag lunch and afternoon coworking.

I’ve been working out of Design Annex since October 2009 — soon after they first opened their doors. If you need a place to escape beyond your home office or coffee shop and Union Square Somerville is a convenient location for you, this is the place to be. There’s also a great conference room you can book meetings in for up to eight people. The space has been a huge help as I work on my freelance web marketing and photography work plus my new endeavor Awesome Office Party. Union Square is also home to some seriously delicious restaurants including my favorite, Ronnarong. Their lunch specials are $7-$8. Everything is made fresh. It’s a crazy, tasty bargain. You can follow the restaurant on Twitter, too.

RSVP for Thursday Coworking at Design Annex

Let us know you’ll be at the next Thursday morning coworking by RSVPing on the Facebook event page. If you don’t use Facebook, send me an email to let me know you’d like to join us. If you’d like to attend the third Thursday brown bag lunch and afternoon coworking, RSVP on their EventBrite page.

Connect with Sooz Media on Facebook and follow on Twitter.

I’m organizing a new music series called Do It Solo. It’s a night for Boston rockers who usually play with a full band. At Do It Solo, they break out on their own. This is a music series for music appreciators who like to listen. Hint: solo performances mean it’s not going to be a loud rock show to talk your way through. Listening rocks!

The first Do It Solo show is coming up on Wednesday, February 24th at the Lizard Lounge in Cambridge at 1667 Mass Ave. The featured performers are Marc Pinansky (from Township), Ian Adams, and Nate Leavitt (The Blizzard of 78). Doors open at 8:30pm and the first performer goes on at 9pm. Discounted admission of $5 is available to everyone who is on The Sooz List and it’s $8 for everyone else.

Before the music starts, Sooz Media is hosting a tweetup (social mixer) upstairs at Cambridge Common from 7-8:30pm. The first 15 people who attend (and have RSVP’d in advance) will get a free beer.

RSVP for the Tweetup on the EventBrite page and say you’ll be at the concert on the Facebook page.

I’m hosting the 1st Annual Soozapalooza at Precinct in my neighborhood of Union Square, Somerville on Saturday, January 23rd. In a previous life, the building that Precinct is in was home to the Somerville police station.

Soozapalooza is a birthday party and a celebration of my favorite music. I’ve lined up some great bands to perform that night: Ryan Walsh (from Hallelujah The Hills), Good Night, States (in town from Pittsburgh), Houndstone and … the Soozapalooza Supergroup, featuring two dozen Boston musicians from Trucker Mouth, The Lights Out, Old Jack, Aloud, The Rationales, Three Day Threshold, The Liz Borden Band, Angeline and The Crushing Low. The night will end with late night karaoke 1-2am.

Festivities will also feature some of my creations: chocolate truffles and cocounut rum sorbet. If you’re a company with a cool product or service, make contact and inquire about contributing to the Soozapalooza prize vault. Giveaways include an 8GB iPod Nano compliments of Tech Superpowers. Sponsors will be noted before, during and after the event on the Soozapalooza website, Twitter, Facebook and the email list.

One of my event planning projects, Free Agent Jungle, hosts networking lunches for freelancers, free agents and consultants in the Boston area. The next event is coming up on Thursday, November 19th at Tavern In The Square in Porter Square, Cambridge. My favorite aspect of the lunch is the diverse group of participants from many different fields of work who attend: attorneys, writers, publicists, marketers, technologists, engineers, architects, graphic designers and more. It’s a great event if you want to get out of your home office for a couple hours or find a collaborator (or referral) for new work.

Learn more about the lunch on the Free Agent Jungle website.

I recently joined forces with Union Square Main Streets to work with Executive Director Mimi Graney on web projects including refreshing the Union Square Main Street’s website and social media projects. As part of the collaboration, I’m working out of their new Design Annex coworking space that Union Square Main Streets recently opened above Precinct. Established for designers and other creatives, the Design Annex offers desk space and other office perks for freelancers who typically work from home.

On Thursday, October 15th Design Annex is hosting an open house from 4-6pm. Anticipated guests include:

• Mayor Joseph Curtatone, City of Somerville
• Jason Schupbach, Creative Industry Director, MA Office of Economic Development
• Beate Becker, DIGMA (Design Industry Group of Massachusetts)
• Kathy McCabe, President, Mass Economic Development Council
• Meri Jenkins, Adams Arts Program, Mass Cultural Council

If you’re curious about Design Annex (especially if you are a designer/creative) — stop by on Thursday, October 15th 4-6pm to see the space. The address is 66-70 Union Square, Somerville.