Aussie Guide to Collaborative Consumption

Editor's Notes

1. Tonight I would like to introduce the Cooper family - Bill, Ruth and little Amy.\nThe Coopers have just relocated to Sydney. \n
2. The Coopers needed to find a place to stay for 2 weeks until there new apartment is ready. They wanted to start living as locals, so looked to airbnb rather than a hotel. They found a perfect 2 bedroom apartment very close to where they will be eventually living.\n
3. The owners of the apartment are off on a two week holiday. By renting out their place while they are away they have found they can afford more holidays.\n\nThe owners meet the Coopers before they leave on their trip. They give them a tour, introduce them to the neighbours and tell them where to local coffee spot is.\n\nImage: http://www.flickr.com/photos/matt_hintsa/2355216100/sizes/o/in/photostream/\n
4. The Coopers own a car, but have been questioning how much they spend on it versus how much they actually use it.They have decided to experiment with not having a car for three months and just use a local GoGet car when necessary. \n
5. But they haven’t gotten rid of their car just yet - just in case. They listed in on DriveMyCar Rentals and someone in their old town has rented in for the three months.\n
6. The Coopers hated packing up their old place - they just had so much stuff! They were astounded to see how much they had accumulated since they last moved. Bill and Ruth have vowed to be more mindful about their buying and to look for ways to make better use of the stuff they already own.\n\n\nPhoto: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jentastic/2139519976/sizes/z/in/photostream/\n
7. Little Amy has just turned 2 and has graduated to her first big bed.But Ruth doesn’t want to sell Amy’s cot because they plan to have more children. But of course until then the cot will be just lying idle taking up space. \n
8. So Ruth has rented the cot to a soon to be mum for 12 months via Open shed. The first time mum thought it made sense to rent rather than buy. So now Ruth doesn’t have to worry about storing the cot and she looks on track to recoup what she paid for it!\n
9. But where is ALL the Coopers stuff while they are Airbnb'ing? Rather than spending big bucks on putting their stuff in a storage space for such a short period of time.  Bill jumped on a site called Space Out and found a farmer just out of Sydney that had listed one of his sheds for short term storage rental.\n\nPhoto: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27518426@N03/3498911690/sizes/z/in/photostream/\n
10. Ruth loves buying clothes for little Amy but Amy is growing so fast she sometimes only gets one or two wears out of an outfit. Ruth just can’t justify this “wear to cost” ratio and has started swapping some of Amy’s clothes that are now too small for her on SwapItBaby. \n
11. Its great because it isn’t a direct swap, so she doesn’t need to find someone that has something that she wants and want something that she has. Rather Ruth lists little Amy’s outfits and with the points she earns from “selling” those, she can use to “purchase” anything else on the site. \n
12. Ruth has also embraced clothes swapping for herself, but likes doing it offline at swap nights, like the ones ran by The Clothing Exchange.Ruth has a pile of clothes that she knows that she will never wear again and when she hears there is a swap night on she takes 6 pieces down, collects her 6 buttons and goes shopping!\n
13. Ruth also recently rented a dress via DressedUp for a fancy ball that Bill and her went to before they moved. Ruth wanted something new and gorgeous, but just couldn’t justify the price tags of all the designer gowns she kept on being attracted to. Who knew when she would ever get to wear it again!\n
14. Once they are settled in Sydney Ruth will return to freelance writing. In her old town she just used to work from home, but if she is honest with herself she doesn’t really like working from home, also she is conscious that she doesn’t know many people in Sydney. So she thinks she will look at some co-working spaces. She has heard they can be good places to meet new people and network.\n
15. Ruth also plans to check out a group called MammaBake its a group, big batch cookery where local Mums get together once a week and cook one big batch recipe. Brilliant! She hates cooking every night and it sounds like another great way to meet people in Sydney. \n
16. Bill and Ruth are feeling very proud of themselves.\n-They are feeling more empowered as consumers \nResourceful\n- Environmentally conscious\n- they are meeting new people\n- making new contacts. \n- they have saved money and even made a little money. \n- they are feeling proud that they are moving away from being hyper consumers to mindful consumers. \n
17. text follows on from 16. \n
18. Really all the Coopers are doing is engaging in age old behaviours of sharing, swapping, renting but technology is now enabling it in other ways and this is what we call collaborative consumption.\n
19. Time Magazine recently called collaborative consumption one of the 10 trends that will change the world.I believe this is true because anything that can help you feel / experience all this - truly is disruptive!\n
20. Bill and Ruth have jumped head first into the Australian collaborative consumption movement and you can join them too. All the sites and services I have mentioned tonight are available in Sydney now. \n\nAnd given this month is buy nothing new month – why don’t you give it a go this month!\n