Workbar announced that their annual Small Business Grant contest is now live. Originally launched in 2021, the grand prize this year is a $5k grant, a full year of free coworking, and a featured episode on their podcast Setting the Bar.

Sarah Travers from Workbar shares why she finds working from a coworking space with "neighborhoods" more productive, and private, than working from a space filled with "fishbowls" of private offices.

The term neighborhoods is one that’s been used a few times over the years, to classify how a space is split up by purpose vs membership or customers. In her example "Switchboard" neighborhood is open plan and people are welcome to make video calls when they need – flanked by a nearby bank of soundproof phone booths for added privacy when necessary; another is called the "Commons" where teams can meet and collaborate.

We’re curious, do you offer purpose-focussed areas in your space that members (or your team) can move fluidly between? If so, what are they?

Workbar‘s CEO Sarah Travers shared a post about a popular belief that she’s happy to prove false. For all those who believe that there’s no money in open-plan coworking, she shares how their open spaces generate 2x the revenue of their private offices – while also costing less to build out.

Huge congrats to the Workbar team for winning GOLD in the 2024 dotCOMM Awards for this video!

Watch the video, it superbly positions work-near-home spaces between WFH and commuting into ‘the office’. Reminds me a bit of the recent Switchyards video I shared in week 24. I’d love it if the big brands kept competing on better and better ways to tell people how great coworking fits into their lives.

OfficeRnD share a recap, and the main insights, from their recent webinar on coworking scaling success stories. The webinar featured Chris Smith, CRO at Thrive Coworking and Sarah Travers, CEO at Workbar who dug into the value of defining brand identity, effectively using tech, leadership development, streamlining ops, AI, and empowering community teams.