Week 38, 2022

Anant Yardi, the programmer who founded and owns Yardi Systems, shared A LOT during his GWA keynote interview with Jamie Russo (Everything Coworking) and Laurent Dhollande (Pacific Workplaces). Waaay too much to fit into a single short summary here, so we luckily had Mike LaRosa at the conference to summarize the whole panel for us all.

Key things to look out for: what actually happened with the WeWork acquisition, a new model for that firm, empowering other operators, hinted at a partnership with Vast, a reassurance to integrity and security, and a vision of space anywhere – but flex everywhere.

Charlotte Kirby shares why The Village Hive Coworking think the future is so bright for coworking and how they are staying on top of the needs of this larger remote and hybrid workforce.

The always insightful Annie Draper shares how a future trend in CRE may be the incorporation of coworking-based elements (think community managers, amenities, programming, flexibility) into buildings in new and creative ways, creating new models and offerings.

Ben Nichols shares insights from Sweden going from no padel infrastructure to 4,000 courts (or 1 court for every 2,642 Swedes) to a burst bubble leading to closures, bankruptcies and a sporting crisis.

Why? Did people stop playing? No. "They focussed on filling courts, not building community. That’s what made it collapse" shares Daniel Asp. Are we taking notes?

(What is padel? It’s a sport similar but also very different from pickelball)

Florian Kappes shares an interesting post from German brand Satellite Office, who are selling apparel with their flex brand’s logo on it. We’ve seen many brands dive deep into offering branded merchandise to their members, mostly giving it away.

Are there coworking brands with strong enough communities they can sell hats, tees, hoodies and mugs with their logos on? Yes. Have they? Have you?

OfficeRnD shares a thorough guide covering everything you need to know about ViDA (VAT in the Digital Age) and e-invoicing and stay compliant.

With this now law, EU coworking spaces, or those doing business across European borders should take note.

When planning marketing activities and initiatives for your flexible workspace, incorporating influencer marketing might seem intimidating. Alliance Virtual Offices shared during our recent Hot Seats panel that they leverage influencer marketing campaigns to drive leads from new sources to their partners’ spaces.

In this video they share how by engaging influencers to promote their brand, Alliance drives revenue to operator partners without having them engage with influencers directly. I love seeing how demand-generating aggregators are exploring new and creative ways to reach new flex space customers.

It’s been over three years since the GSA first announced a contract vehicle – essentially green-lighting five vendors that are approved to bid on flexible workspace contracts for the GSA; and a full year since the US government opened their own network of six coworking spaces that any federal agency employee can access and there’s a lot of data to review.

The only problem? Trying to get those workers to actually check in so they can track how the spaces are being used. The General Accountability Office’s report states that “while the pilot thus far has focused on gathering input from coworking space users, GSA has not developed scalability criteria that would enable it to assess whether a coworking service would succeed in a broader, non-pilot setting.”

Andrea Pirrotti-Dranchak’s second article of her series on "the product-market fit crisis" explores some back-of-the-envelope math that highlights how of $2.5M in rent, $1M is wasted. A financial value that highlights what 40% utilization of a 50k sqft office costs.

Andrea digs into how for both landlords and tenants the true cost of office misfits is often bigger than initially thought.

Jamie Ellis shares how DeskLodge has been offering part-time or fractional offices for some time now, now hosting 25+ teams who share offices for just 1, 2 or 3 days a week.

Love seeing more examples and success stories of coworking spaces providing fractional offices.

There are so many different terms used to describe flexible workspace. There’s coworking, serviced offices, executive business centers, conference centers and more. And they all seem to be the "future of" the office. Workbox CEO John Wallace recently spoke with Commercial Property Executive on recent market moves, and his take is on the state of flexible workspace.

One highlight of this discussion is the focus on differentiation on the market. Much like hotels have luxury, business travel, long-term stay, all-inclusive and budget brands that focus on their target audiences, coworking and flex is starting to follow suit. Meaning, all office is becoming essentially flex by default, but what type of flex is dependant on who they serve. Enterprise-grade, events and meetings focused, small business focused, content production specific, or even warehousing for logistics and fulfilment.

Matt Going from Anytime Mailbox has announced Anytime Kiosk, which lets members and guests of flex spaces self-ship packages up to 33lbs (15kg).

The kiosks ran through pilots at IWG locations in the US and Singapore, can drive new revenue for space operators and can be positioned as an automated amenity for members who need to ship items out.

Leveraging Google Ads for a single-location coworking space is one thing, but doing it across multiple locations requires a different kind of approach. How do you go about allocating your available ad dollars? How do you measure success? And how do you prioritize one space over another? Check out these four considerations from Reuben Lau at Spacefully for how to optimize Google Ads for multi-location coworking spaces.

We all know that referrals are some of the best leads across the flex space industry. But if you’re struggling to increase your coworking space’s NPS score, you’re not alone. Asen Stoyanchev from OfficeRnD shares a useful guide covering 5 strategies (or business areas to look at) that can improve how likely your members are to recommend your business to others.

Tobi Skovron shares how CreativeCubes are now offering podcast editing and other services to both their members and non-members. The service is in partnership with a local video and audio editing firm, and leverages existing meeting rooms across the network.

With the growing popularity of podcasting, many spaces have invested into providing podcast studio or recording space, but few have really dug into offering services around that.

Michael Dubicki from Flex Engine shared why companies considering flex spaces should weigh out the pros and cons of chasing big discounts from flex space providers. In short: big discounts usually mean either moving every 12 months, or seeing a big increase as prices normalize to where the new target desk price is.

It’s an interesting look behind the curtain (especially highlighting how brokers are actually disincentivized from putting their clients in communities for terms longer than 12 months) and where some operators may be able to leverage lower discounts to build longer member relationships. At least that’s the angle I took from it.

Ever wondered why WeWork India succeeded where many of their international expansions did not? Jeremy Bamberg, shares some facts behind the JV’s success.

The crib notes: WeWork entered India in 2017 via a 50/50 JV with leading property developer Embassy Group. The firm appointed a local CEO Karan Virwani, who also happened to be the son of Embassy Group’s founder. Leaning on local contacts, insights and a sizeable ready-to-flex office portfolio, the brand grew rapidly servicing enterprise clients. They hit profitability and explored their own IPO, having remained out of the global firms IPO. During CH11 proceedings, WeWork sold it’s 50% stake in the JV to Embassy, retaining the regional rights to the brand. Rumours are they’re once again exploring an IPO of their own.

In 5 words: landlord partnership vs rent arbitrage.

Rosee from Cobot shares how independent coworking spaces can get press-ready breaking down what to include, why it matters, and how they make it easier for others to feature your space.

Pro-tip from TWIC: Share your coworking Brand Profile link when reaching out to the press. It already includes your logos, previous press coverage, and links/contact if you’ve got Patron Status.

Forbes Bulgaria shares an interesting Q&A with Tony Alexandrov about Work Better. The space went from a hole in the ground to a custom-built coworking building in 1.5 years, and has aspirations to become fully automated as soon as possible.

Interviewed at Forbes’ Future of Work summit, new WeWork CEO John Santora reinforced the company’s belief in the role flexible workspaces play in companies of all sizes. In addition to the role that flex spaces have, and continue to play, in the overall innovation of how workers access and use workspace.

Items of note from his appearance: He doesn’t care where the office is that you’re working out of, as long as it is an office; the majority of companies who are increasing workspace are choosing flex over traditional; and most importantly? WeWork is now debt free.

JLL Flex have announced that they’ve leased 15,407 sqft to build their own flex space from the ground up.

Ian Minor explores the notion that "Hotels should develop coworking brands because they get hospitality", and notes that there’s more it than that.

Ian shares 6 points that hotels should consider before contemplating launching their own coworking brand, and how it differs from ‘Lobby Culture’ that some hotels like The Hoxton and Ace Hotel had popularized.