In the gig economy in which many people now thrive, where we work from home and yet still need to meet with clients, have meetings, hold workshops or training, we oftentimes need a location for these meetings.
As a business consultant and workshop host among other things, this is me. And so the search began when I moved to a much smaller residence in Coronado. I had to find a place where I could have a semi-private to private space for business that wouldn’t cost me an arm and leg. My search was for entrepreneurs without big budgets or sometimes with no budget at all. I am hoping that my footwork and research is helpful. I also had a big eye opener as a resident.
In Coronado, we are lucky to have our amazing Coronado Public Library 
which offers three meeting rooms. The Ruby Room is available for events for kids, it is located in the children’s library. There is a conference room that can host a dozen people. Both of these rooms are available at no charge with a reservation made by calling the library reference desk. The third and much larger room, which has table seating or meeting chair set up, a projector and screen, and can host 115 people, is the Winn Room. There are restrictions for this room. You are not able to charge for the event nor are you able to sell any products from this room. This can pose a problem if you are hosting a free event to expose an audience to your business or book, or a paid workshop. And the event has to be open to the public wherein anyone on the street can walk in and join the event. If these guidelines work for you, this is a great free space to reserve. I hosted two talks for children and their parents, one in the Winn Room and one in the Ruby Room. I have also reserved and used the conference room. Each time the experience was outstanding.
The Coronado Historical Association has a room for rent; the cost is $75 per hour during business hours and $100 per hour after hours. If you are non-profit there is no charge during the day. The room has table seating for 15, lecture-type seating for 60 and standing room for 90 people.
The Community Center has several rooms available ranging in sizes to host small gatherings or meetings to weddings and receptions. This was where I thought I would host an upcoming workshop. The room I chose had a great view and the ambiance would enhance my participants’ experience. I was told to go online and fill out the application then bring it in. I followed instructions and a day or so later got a phone call asking how I would be using the room. I was prepared to pay the $25 per hour rental fee as was advertised on the website. Upon finding out I was a business owner and would be using it for a workshop, everything changed. The prices changed. The availability changed. Nothing matched what I had already been told. I attempted to reach out to a supervisor, leaving a message and sending an email and I got no response. This was disappointing as a resident to learn that in order to do business using a city facility we would have to pay more.
I next reached out to Blue Bridge Hospitality as they own numerous restaurants in town. Erin Rudolf, the Sales and Event Manager, asked me a few questions and then said Maretalia Ristorante (where I now will be holding an event) had semi-private space that would work. She also told me that Leroy’s has a small private room that is suitable for up to 8 people.
There may be other spaces available to the public for professional use to support the solopreneurs or small business owners of Coronado. I will keep looking. In the meantime, I am happy to have found the affordable hospitality of Blue Bridge and Maretalia.
