Bernie J Mitchell shared notes from the gathering of members of the European Coworking Assembly in Portugal. They discussed what actually makes coworking spaces work.

Key takeaways: your email list beats social media for building real community, and coworking alone rarely covers the bills so most operators run a second business to stay afloat.

While business rates were the biggest pain to UK operators in the room, the workshops provided food for thought. Jane Robathan from Nexudus attended her first Unreasonable Connection and thanks by Bernie Mitchell for bringing impactful routes to the good kinds of growth.

Most conversations about AI in coworking are either evangelical or dismissive, but Carlos Almansa Ballesteros, co-founder of Nexudus and author of the Coworkings AI newsletter, tells Bernie Mitchell why he isn’t interested in either.

Koder tells Bernie Mitchell about bringing music to the neighborhood, running Undeniable Studios, a music production conglomerate built from youth clubs, pirate radio, and 10,000 hours of free studio time in Brockley.