We’re about half way through our conference advent calendar, in which we share the discussions Mike LaRosa and Olivia Lutz had with Peter Demidov, Tim Schabsky, Gabriela Hersham, Brad Krauskopf, Fofie Mimi-Saltiel, Yuta Aoki, Vanessa Sans, Izzy Ahrbeck, Pauline Roussel, Ashley Proctor, Wissal Chab, Sherri Tao, Fiona Ross and Jean-Yves Huwart.

Jean-Yves Huwart shares how Italian rail operator FS has earmarked €100 billion in its 2025–2029 Strategic Plan to revitalize infrastructure and urban hubs, including small-town stations, by introducing shared amenities like coworking spaces into historic sites.

Jean-Yves Huwart from Coworking Europe summarized Colliers‘ recent "Flexpansion" report, which noted that flex models are "increasingly driving structural changes in how office space is developed, operated, and occupied" across EMEA (Europe, Middle-East, Africa).

On the data side, between 2010 and 2014 the no. of flex spaces across the region tripled (up from 1,450 to 4,358) and the total surface area rose by 6.3M sqm (surpassing 8.3M sqm or 89.3M sqft). When it comes to the share of the total office market, flex has grown from 0.7% to 2.4%.

Interestingly, most of the 82 new operators who entered the market last year are local, bringing the total of active flex space providers in EMEA to 1,859. 72% of whom operator in just one single market. When it comes to landlord-flex, their data showed that since 2020, 311 landlord-run flex locations have opened, spanning over 600k sqm.

Jean-Yves Huwart joins Jamie and Gio on the Flex Uncensored podcast to discuss coworking trends and why the 2024 Europe Conference is headed to Sofia, Bulgaria.