Farset Labs has accomplished a lot in the past 5 years, stimulated by the goodwill of the STEAM community, and underpinned by the direct financial support of the membership.

However, like many others in the community and voluntary sector, we face continually rising overheads despite efficiently delivering our charitable aims. As such, we’re exploring a new revenue stream: in-space advertising.

Next month, we will be putting up four A3 poster panels in the co-working space and workshop on a three-month trial basis, available on rolling monthly hire by outside organisations and companies.

These poster locations will be allocated on a first-come-first-serve basis at the discretion of the Farset Labs management team, and posters must be provided by the advertiser.

These are currently priced as follows:

Community/charitable/non-profit groups advertising events, programmes & opportunities: £150pm

Direct advertisement of goods, services & jobs: £300pm

Indirect promotion of recruitment services & non-specific roles: £600pm

If you’d be interested in participating in this trial, contact us on info@farsetlabs.org.uk.

At the end of this three month period, the results and impact will be assessed openly in the community along with trial participants, and any modifications deemed necessary will be made before restarting the programme. Trial participants will have early-access into the continued programme.

This new revenue stream will give Farset Labs a more stable platform from which we can cover our increasing operational costs and focus on reinvesting in our services and facilities. We want to achieve this without having to put any more financial pressure on the members of our community who need access to these resources the most.

Farset Labs has been a fully membership-funded community space, delivering volunteer-driven outreach, education, and facilitation to the STEAM community; from programming & engineering courses at local primary and secondary schools, to taking part in national and global collaborative events such as Global Game Jam and BBC’s Make It Digital campaigns.

Beyond this, we have been a melting pot for meetups and user-groups, with our free use of our event space on Wednesday evenings for qualifying non-profit groups and individuals, where organisers can test the viability of their event ideas, developing communities that can (and usually do) rapidly grow to join the major meetup circuit beyond Farset Labs.

Given the nature of the community fostered under our roof, Farset Labs has also hosted and spun-through a number of successful member-run startups, giving entrepreneurs the freedom to explore, collaborate, and experiment without losing equity or requiring significant upfront costs (Desk rental starts at £100 per month, but hot desking is included at all membership levels).

All of this while operating on what can only be described as a “lean” budget. With no staff, no salaries, and no institutional funding, we have kept our significant outgoings limited to rent, power, heating (most of the time), cleaning and refuse collection, and insurance/accounting/legal fees.

If you, your company or your organisation wish to support the work of Farset Labs, or are interested in engaging with this unique community, get in touch via email to info@farsetlabs.org.uk, or tweet us at @FarsetLabs.