Dash Offices at SkySong

[Ryan Taylor]

As of today, we have a lease agreement in hand and @fernando was able to review and sign-off on it. Next step is we need an in-person signature from Evan on behalf of the Dash Foundation (which is actually the entity entering into the agreement). That should be completed this week.

@Harold Boo, the treasurer over at the Dash Foundation, has been working hard to open the Dash Foundation's first fiat bank account to facilitate ACH transfers to pay rent, which has been a challenge. In addition, he's worked out the most efficient means to convert Dash to fiat in the bank account each month. We will incur some trading fees converting the funds each month, so we may start including those fees in the budget request, but the costs are relatively minor. Unfortunately, it is necessary to pay ASU through traditional means because SkySong uses the university's accounting system. It will be nice to one day see Dash integrated, but with a system the size and complexity of ASU's this is unlikely to happen soon. Kudos to Harold for the very fast turnaround on getting the bank account set up. It involved collecting and submitting an incredible number of documents to the bank.

Our move in date is set for the 1st of February, though the first few days will likely involve setting up furniture, phones, internet, and security cards.

I'll post additional updates as our move-in date approaches.

 

[Ryan Taylor]

Dash's orientation at ASU was this afternoon. We met with the head of the facility, the meetings and events team, the facilities coordinators, the IT staff, the billing department, and the community liaison that helps foster connections with the university and other companies at the innovation center.

We also learned more details about the process to expand our occupancy, reserve conference space, set up the copiers and printers, WiFi, security badges, office keys, and all the other standard (and rather mundane) aspects of getting set up in our new digs. Phones have been ordered, but are installed by CenturyLink... the local phone monopoly that they warned would take at least another week to complete the installation. WiFi and Ethernet are already connected, though.

Here is our mailing address (always include the Dash as "suite 200" is the entire 2nd and 3rd floor of SkySong 1):
Dash
1475 N. Scottsdale Rd, Suite 200
Scottsdale, AZ 85257-3538
USA

I snapped a few pictures of the space and some of the public areas to give you all a sense of the floor we're on and what it looks like. Despite what our mailing address implies, our office is actually located on the third floor. The reception desk and waiting area is on the 2nd floor.

We definitely need to get some art or Dash logo on the wall, and I need to bring in some personal stuff for the desk. There is also a huge whiteboard on the wall you can't see on the left that must be 8 feet long. Our name is not yet on the door or in the entryway, but I provided our logo so they can laser etch a plaque to add to the wall of tenants. I'll be sure to add a picture of that when it goes up.

This is the view out the window across the way from our office door. Huge sun shades cover the plaza below.

There are a ton of little nooks like this throughout the building for informal meetings, or just quiet space for reading or working on a laptop.

Each floor has a little kitchenette with four refrigerators. There is also a coffee nook with coffee / latte machines.

There are many common working areas like this one to help foster connections and cooperation between SkySong tenants.

This is one of the 20 conference spaces available to us for free during working hours. Each of the 20 spaces is configurable in different ways, such as small groups, classroom, stadium seating, boardroom, etc. This conference room was set up for a presentation style configuration. All of the rooms I've seen have multimedia equipment, and many had built-ins for hosting catering.

We already have meetings scheduled in the office for next week and the week after, and things are already moving with meetings with the university. I hope this gives you all an idea of the space and of course we look forward to welcoming our business partners and community members to come visit us. If you have questions, please post them in this thread https://www.dash.org/forum/threads/proposal-dash-offices-feb.12860/ and include @babygiraffe in your reply to ensure I see it. We want to keep this section clean to allow people to find the updates on various projects quickly.

 

[Ryan Taylor]

Dash was selected to present at the quarterly SkySong development update on February 28th. It is a ten minute presentation about the project, before the entire SkySong facility community, with a short Q&A afterward. This will be a great opportunity to get the other affiliates across SkySong more aware of the project and what we're doing. The presentation is obviously not open to the general public, but I will find out if a recording will be available.

 

[Ryan Taylor]

I wanted to share this picture for a while, but I keep forgetting...