For over two decades, Angela Vithoulkas has run cafés, most notably the Vivo. She has run radio stations, too. Now she’s combining the two – launching what might be the first radio station inside a café.
Why, you might ask.
Vithoulkas, a councillor on the City of Sydney Council, ascribes her venture to the rise of the ‘coffice’ worker – business people and entrepreneurs who, increasingly, prefer to work out of a café, rather than a traditional office. She says a survey of nearly 1,000 small businesses across Australia found that 15% of the owners picked open cafes, or even hotel foyers, as workplaces. Besides, new research purportedly shows that working in cafés can actually boost your creativity.
Anything but the old, boring, office!
“There’s been a pronounced geographic shift in where corporate and entrepreneurial folk are choosing to do business,” says Vithoulkas, a former Telstra Businesswoman of the Year and an admired voice of small business in the Sydney area. “Bland and sterile workplaces are proving to be a turn-off for many workers and with research showing that ambient background noise can actually help people to concentrate better, it’s no surprise that the café is the new office.”
Vithoulkas’ Eagle Waves Radio already brings together what many business folks consider compelling: newsy stuff in a buzzy, creative environment.
Eagle Waves runs six weekly programs featuring experts and specialist hosts across fields ranging from accounting and finance to marketing and PR.
It’s a win-win thing
“Recognising this trend, it made absolute sense to me to launch Eagle Waves Radio at the hub of where my audience finds it most productive and creative to work – a busy café,” says Vithoulkas. “After all, how many times have we found it easier to finish a difficult task when we’ve had our favourite radio program playing in the background?”
Vithoulkas thinks the radio station in a café is a win-win situation: the radio allows business people and entrepreneurs get their ears to the ground as they sip their morning latte, while for café owners it’s simply more business!
