🗞 The Video Summary
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🎉 Coworking celebrations.
🇬🇧 Org secures £1M to help people set up coworking spaces. #
Gareth Jones shares that CoworkLocal have secured £1m from the Community Renewal Fund to help people set up coworking spaces in their communities.
They note that the majority of that cash is going direct to locally-owned venues like sports clubs, community centres, pubs and empty shops.
👉 Read this.
✊ Coworking impact.
🌍 Global coworking platforms cooperate to support communities within Ukraine #
Since day 1 of the war in Ukraine, local coworking spaces have mobilized to support and protect their communities and those fleeing bloodshed in other regions.
The #withinUkraine campaign brings together coworking booking platforms from around the world to raise contributions and funds directly for those operating teams and their communities.
This expands on the list of direct-purchase links used to support these spaces I shared last week, by making it super-easy for more people to contribute via Upflex, PopDesk, an NFT from Flow and hopefully more platforms soon.
👉 Read this.
😶 There are 5 other major conflicts happening right now #
Agnes Coutou reminds us that there are 5 other conflicts and humanitarian crises happening across the globe right now.
From Ethiopia to Afghanistan, from Yemen to the DRC, and in Somalia, I hope we’ll see coworking communities in and around these regions mobilizing to support those in need.
👉 Read this.
📯 European Coworking Day registration is now open #
The ECD website is now open for registrations of coworking spaces who like to participate, as well as for alliances and individuals who want to take a role as ambassadors. This year European Coworking Day will be on May 10th, 2023.
👉 Read this.
Coworking news & views.
👩💻 Coworking could rewrite the future for women forced out of the workforce. #
Alanna Imbach from Vibe Coworks shares that systemic inequity has forced women out of the workforce in droves, but that coworking can help bring them back.
The piece starts by asking what can be done about the fact that women in our communities are beyond the breaking point. They then start that the answer may lie, in part, in the key role that coworking spaces play in bringing together a critical density of minds, talent, resources, flexibility, and peer support needed to sustain all of us in daring to do differently.
👉 Read this.
🧐 How NFTs could benefit coworking businesses. #
There’s been almost $25 billion in NFT sales in 2021 alone. This post dives into 5 ways coworking spaces could leverage NFTs to their advantage.
Ideas explored are membership tokens, loyalty rewards, raising funding and new marketing strategies, and a (different kind of) hybrid business model.
(Pssst, Flow just released 10000 NFTs to raise $1M for coworking spaces in Ukraine, learn more under this week’s Impact category.)
👉 Read this.
📦 A look into a rapidly growing co-warehousing brand #
Maxwell Bonnie shares how Atlanta-based Saltbox is growing to help e-commerce businesses get more flexibility through a national logistics network, affordable office space, on-demand loading/shipping labor, and other amenities and support.
ICYMI: Saltbox announced that they’d raised a further $128M on March 8th.
👉 Read this.
📨 How a Portuguese operator got 600 virtual office customers #
In the first of a 2-part series, Marc Navarro shares notes from a conversation with Carlos Gonçalves from Avila Spaces about how they stated, what they learned, and how they landed up acquiring approx. 600 virtual office clients.
Spoiler: it was combining service, great addresses, being based in office buildings and offering a great app experience.
👉 Read this.
🤑 Making the financial case for landlords to bring in coworking operators #
Wil Irons shares a hot take on how office landlords can shift from spending $5-$20+ million on amenities, and how that can result on more profitable returns for their buildings.
One of the tips dropped is to bring in experience flex space operators, and although another is to turn unused space into spec suites, it’s a pretty interesting look at how the owner-side thinks and talks about amenities and Operating Expenses.
👉 Read this.
❤️ Founder shares that business was born within a coworking space #
Brooke Markevicius shares how long before there was Allobee (which was recently acquired by The Riveter) there was The Pod Works and how the company was “born in those four walls”.
I love that the post also notes that folks should support their local independent coworking spaces.
👉 Read this.
💡 A tip for new ‘flexperts’ #
Cat Johnson shares a short, but important, tip for emerging flex space consultants or experts: join a space, and go every day.
As someone who worked from many coworking communities, launched my own, helped others launch theirs, and then worked alongside the teams running over 1000 other spaces, I completely agree. Nicely said Cat!
👉 Read this.
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💻 Coworking technology.
🆕 New booking platform for employees launches with $15M #
anywell have come out of stealth with $15M in funding and bookable spaces in New York and Isreal. The platform helps employers let their teams find and work from inspiring spaces in their local communities.
Their CEO, Gadi Royz shared that “after two years of working from home, employees want the freedom to work from anywhere”. Alongside having employers pick up the bill, the platform also guarantees on-site business amenities (think printers, tech kits, meal plans).
The funding is spread across two rounds ($5M and then $10M) and will be used to expand to major cities worldwide. In case you were wondering how the 200 or so cafes and coworking operators already working with them get paid, ‘hosts’ are paid by the hour.
👉 Read this.
🧐 Think there’s too many booking platforms? This is why. #
In a recent tweet, Haley Bohon asked “When do we get an Airbnb for office space?”.
In short, and as I mentioned in a recent podcast on this topic, the majority of next 5 million people who are looking to find & book flexible workspace (often for the first time ever) have never ever ever heard of any of the booking platforms you or I may know of.
👉 Read this.
🗺️ Collab helps folks find meeting places between locations #
Roman Schurter shares “meetween” a platform to help find places to meet in coworking spaces that are equidistant between two or more locations. The platform is powered by flesk for coworking spaces and Viadi for transit options.
👉 Read this.
📱 Flex operator introduces new mobile app #
Industrious have just introduced their own member mobile app on iOS and Android. With it, members can reserve desks and meeting rooms and engage with upcoming events.
I do wonder a few things, a) did they not have a mobile/member app till now and b) was any of the tech they acquired used in this release?
👉 Read this.
Coworking data.
🧐 The average day of 1000 Americans (in 2015) #
As a data geek, this simulated view of the average day in the life of Americans blew my frigging mind. In it, you can watch what the percentage of the 1000 people tracked are sleeping, working, traveling, doing household care, and other activities at each time of the day.
Now the data is from 2015, but it makes me wonder how much this has changed so far, and what it may look like in 2025.
👉 Read this.
🚀 The rise of the 3rd place #
Steve King summarizes an academic study on the future of work. It includes a graph that highlights that in November 2021, 11.8% of reported worked hours were from a third-place as compared to 31.2% WFH and 57% from the office.
👉 Read this.
🤔 Is 2023 the year of working from third spaces? #
Adi Gaskel wrote a piece in Forbes noting that recent research shows that 2023 will be year in which working from third spaces becomes the norm. Using data from OpenTable (interestingly) they note the growing trend among Gen Z of whom 10% note third spaces as their preferred location to work from.
The research also notes that “that cafes are the preferred third place work venues, but participants also use libraries, pubs, parks, and coworking spaces. On average, people working in third places do so 2-3 times per week, staying 15 minutes to 4 hours, and spending $4-$30 per visit.”
👉 Read this.
💥 Could new accounting rules implode banks’ loan underwritings? #
Jerome Chang shares a theory that the new-ish account rules (about reporting rent as a liability instead of an operating expense) could cause a lot of headaches and possible fall out for banks who hold a lot of commercial loans.
We discussed this briefly in our last This Week in Coworking recap discussion on LinkedIn Audio, so I’m glad to see Jerome sharing deeper information and links to the Lease Liabilities Index Report.
👉 Read this.
Coworking market moves.
🇬🇧 DeskLodge announces new Bristol location #
Tom Ball shares that DeskLodge have leased the whole base of the Beacon Tower in the heart of Bristol.
The 18,000 sqft space will include seven work zones, social space and a 5,000 sqft roof garden.
👉 Read this.
🇪🇸 New location in Barcelona 90% full, 2+ months before opening. #
Ben Nachoom shares that OneCoWork are opening a new location on Portal Del Ángel in central Barcelona.
The post is a bit light on details, but does share that the location is already 90% filled with 2.5 months till opening. This could highlight the demand for flex in Barcelona.
👉 Read this.
🇭🇰 New partnership brings 17k sqft space to Hong Kong #
Kingsley Yu shares that real estate firm Chinachem Group and coworking space operator the Hive Hong Kong have launched a new 17,000sqft space through a partnership.
Some interesting insights from the story are that the group is funding the entire project investment, renovation work, as well as operating expenses of the space, and the operator (who run 21 locations across 7 countries in the Asia Pacific) will manage the day-to-day operations of the business and provide members with access to their other locations.
👉 Read this.
🇵🇹 A big merger in Portugal #
IDEA Spaces have acquired No Office Work (NOW) creating a network of 5 spaces over 16,500sqm across Lisbon (with a new one launching soon).
👉 Read this.
⛲️ London operator expands into Covent Garden #
James Keisner shares that scope.space are expanding into Covent Garden, offering private offices for between 8 to 40 desks from May this year.
👉 Read this.
💸 More news on WeWork’s debt restructuring and new funding #
Reuters reports that WeWork have announced a deal to cut their debt by $1.5B and extend some of their maturity dates.
In short this means that $1B in debt from SoftBank would be converted to equity, bumping the firms already 46% stake. A further $1.9B in debt would now have a maturity date in 2027, bringing the firms net debt to $2.0B.
👉 Read this.
🆕 A whole new coworking consulting firm launches #
David Walker shares that after 15 years in coworking, and a decade in consulting (which included co-founding OpenWork Agency), it’s time for their next chapter.
Aptly called CoworkingConsulting, the firm will be “doubling down with a community consulting model”.
👉 Read this.
🇬🇧 Commuter coworking co gets funding and launches 2 new hubs. #
Freddie Fforde shares that Patch have not only secured £3M in funding, but they’re already preparing the launch of two new spaces in commuter hubs of Twickenham and High Wycombe. As part of their announcement, they’re also inviting the public to submit requests for where they should launch more work-near-home spaces.
👉 Read this.
🎙 Coworking conversations.
Liz Elam and Patrice Cameau from CAMPspace talk about the importance of business vertical integration, finding the blessings in everything, and taking a moment to pull yourself out of the weeds.
Jamie Russo chats with Brian Watson, ex-Proximity and now at Alt Space, about his thesis on how to make small-town coworking work by using automation to build the first sustainable rural coworking brand.
Bernie Mitchell and Kate Usher chat about how menopause has been the butt of jokes for so long with little understanding of what menopause is, and how this stereotype is hurting the opportunities women all over the world.
Jamie Russo digs into what you can do if you’re selling a coworking product that people aren’t searching for on the Everything Coworking podcast.
Stasha Anderson chats with Jamie and Giovanni on the Flex Uncensored podcast about helping investors integrate flex offices into their portfolios.
📆 Coworking events.
✅ Convo: Nailing your coworking tours #
Mar 25: How can you absolutely nail your tours and get visitors to convert to paying clients? Let’s chat about it.
👉 Read this.
🫧 Bursting The B Corp Bubble #
March 30: The London Coworking Assembly invites you to have a different and better conversation about running a profitable, sustainable business centred on your values.
👉 Read this.
👀 IDEA Handbook Launch Watch Party with Parisa Urquhart #
April 5: The European Coworking Assembly is holding a fundraising event to launch the IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility) Handbook.
Parisa Urquhart is a BAFTA winning Scottish/Iranian director and producer based in Scotland, and is known for her work Scotland, Slavery and Statues (2020), Long Live Livi (2020) Sexual Harassment in Co-working Spaces (2019), Glasgow Acknowledging Slavery Glasgow City Council (2017). She is currently raising funds for a documentary on the womens’ uprising in Iran.
👉 Read this.