Bernie Mitchell chats with Gareth Jones from TownSq about the opportunity of building careers within the coworking industry. The discussion highlights how coworking spaces aren’t just flexible work environments but also platforms for professional development. Insights are shared on how various roles within coworking—from community managers to operations—offer unique career paths, emphasizing the industry’s potential for long-term growth and professional fulfillment.

This episode of the Taking Care of Business podcast is not only recorded live from TownSq‘s newest location, but Gareth Jones the founder of the coworking network joins hosts Ellie and Nigel to discuss the value of sharing business challenges and wins with like-minded professionals across different industries.

They come through coworking intros! Here’s how Chauntelle Lewis joined TownSq after a series of serendipitous coworking interactions with people like AJ Haast, Bernie J Mitchell, Tony Bacigalupo and Lucie Merkl.

(PS. Hiring? Patron Brands can share open roles with the 3000+ industry professionals who engage with This Week In Coworking newsletters each and every week. Just imagine who they could be introducing you to.)

Coworking and small business support company TownSq have entered an international partnership with a flex-space management software Baseworx. The deal brings the tech into TownSq’s Cowork Local offering, and makes it available to other UK workspaces.

Why am I sharing news about a space signing up with a management platform? It’s interesting that a network of town hubs has signed up to use the platform that powers the Irish government’s platform for local bookable spaces, ConnectedHubs.

Gareth Jones and the TownSq team have launched their latest What If whitepaper, focussing on an often under-appreciated group that play a massive role in the UK economy: freelancers and the self-employed.

Within the report they share some fascinating data, like how 1.86M freelancers in the UK, 15% of freelancers are working mums, the average age is 49 years, and collectively freelancers contribute approximately £140B to the UK economy EVERY YEAR.