This week we explore if buildings can have souls, the office sector's cataclysmic change, if architects suck at designing coworking spaces, see WeWork + Yardi partner up, see US flex demand soar up by 58%, a strategic investment tying up SaksWorks + Convene, a $30M investment into coworking in Tier II cities in India, and a prop dev in London doubling down on flex. And more. 

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🎉 Coworking celebrations.

🎂 Xpace Cultural Centre turns 18! #

Congrats to the Ashley and the Xpace team who have continued to evolve to support and serve their community for 18 years so far.

👉 Read this.

✊ Coworking impact.

Ⓑ Workspace operator in Lisbon becomes B-Corp #

László Varga shared that Heden Coworking in Lisbon have also just become a certified B Corp.

This news follows other workspace operators also shifting to the sustainability-focussed model, including the UK brand I shared back in w10/22.

👉 Read this.

📰 Coworking news & views.

🤔 Can a building have a soul? #

Gareth Jones returns with another insightful newsletter, this time focussing on whether a building can have a soul, if that matters and if such a soul can be built.

I love this quote: "By giving people an experience, memories, a version of events, we can build soul. Every time they walk past a building that was otherwise unremarkable, or that they’d never even noticed before, they’re taken back to a moment. Those stories give a building a reason to be meaningful to people, to communities, to towns and cities. Bricks and mortar that means more. "

I also appreciate the nod to you, dear TWIC reader, for making his last article the 3rd most popular link in last week’s newsletter.

👉 Read this.

💥 The office sector is going through a cataclysmic change. #

An insightful article in Dallas Innovates shares some insights from Nick Clark from Common Desk.

_Really enjoyed reading the views around who some the office sector is now competing with (spoiler: its the home office, and not each other) and how offerings are changing as a result. _

👉 Read this.

🙈 Do (most) architects suck at designing coworking spaces? #

Craig Baute from DenSwap shares a tongue-in-cheek post, that highlights a pretty scary example of how getting a suburban coworking space saved hundreds of thousands of dollars (if not millions) by checking an architect’s designs before proceeding to building.

👉 Read this.

🇪🇸 A look into the Coworking Spain conference’s history, and future. #

Just before the next Coworking Spain conference (on April 26 btw) Helga Moreno and Marc Navarro chat about its history, the current event and its potential future.

The first conference was back in 2012 in Madrid, and has since moved to other cities like Barcelona, Valencia, Sevilla, and Alicante. In 2017 they also added coliving topics. The content for this year focuses on data, operations, brokers, sustainability, rural coworking.

👉 Read this.

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💻 Coworking technology.

😲 A mega JV to create ‘next gen’ workplace management software #

WeWork and Yardi are partnering up to build a merged offering to help "companies to offer their employees the ability to seamlessly book a desk, private office or conference room in any company-leased or owned office space, any WeWork location, or any affiliate of WeWork."

This is a very interesting move, following the news that the former had signed their first enterprise tech client in w4/22 and their recent deal with Upflex announced in w6/22.

👉 Read this.

📈 Coworking data.

📉 Hybrid strategy reduces quit-rates and sick leave, but shifts workload #

Peter du Toit shares that a NASDAQ-listed company that employs 35k people have just expanded their hybrid workspace strategy to all divisions.

This decision follows a 6-month experimental implementation with 1600 employees yielded very positive results. Apart from 35% reduction in departures and a 12% drop in sick leave, there was also no impact on performance or promotions.

_The shifting of work to evenings and weekends does make me wonder about the changes we’ll see in work/life balancing to accommodate this, and how demand to flex workspaces may shift across the week. _

👉 Read this.

🗓 75% of drop-in bookings made over 24hrs ahead. #

James Solomides shares some data from the NearU booking app around how far in advance do hybrid workers grab drop-in space.

Spoiler alert: 8% were made for the same day, 17% made 1 day in advance, 52% made 2-5 days ahead, and 23% were made 6+ days in advance

👉 Read this.

🇺🇸 Flex workspace demand is up 58% #

Joe Brady from The Instant Group shares that the firm’s latest US Flexible Workspace Report has been released (behind an email-gate unfortunately) but does highlight some takeaways.

_Miami bump in demand leads the rest at +143%, NYC and Chicago have yet to fully recover, new hubs like Tampa and Houston emerging and outpacing traditional hotspots. This shift is attributed to business migration, amplified by the pandemic. _

👉 Read this.

🤝 Coworking market moves.

💰 Strategic investment creates wider flex meeting, event & workplace offering #

HBC and Ares Management have made a strategic investment into Convene. Part of the deal will combine existing and future SaksWorks locations with Convene offerings.

"Convene will operate HBC’s existing portfolio of flexible work, event, restaurant and meeting spaces, which are expected to be rebranded as Convene and will remain branded as SaksWorks in the interim. HBC will be the majority owner of the combined entity, with 26 facilities under management and dozens more under development, which is expected to be the largest premium flex space operator across the US, Canada and Europe."

👉 Read this.

🇮🇳 Flex workspace provider raises $30M to expand into 15+ cities. #

IndiQube announced a large USD funding round to expand into tier II cities across India and to ramp up technology integration. Meghna Agarwal, a cofounder at the firm, accredited an acceleration in adoption to the pandemic.

They currently operate spaces in 60 properties in 8 cities.

👉 Read this.

🇨🇦 Local operator expands adding event and more workspace #

Mitch Reiss shares that the Eglinton location of The Village Hive is expanding to add 1500 sqft+ event space and doubling the size of their coworking space to include more coworking desks, renovated kitchen, meetings rooms, additional large private offices, a team suite and more.

👉 Read this.

💂‍♀️ FTSE 250 property co bumping London flex offerings to 600k sqft #

GPE, a FTSE 250 property investment and development company owning £2.5 billion of real estate in central London, has announced its ambition to increase its Flex portfolio to 600,000 sq ft across the capital. Currently the firm has flex offerings across 11 London locations, covering some 250,000 sq ft.

Simon Rowley, their director of office leasing & flex, mentioned that their ambitions are to double their existing Flex footprint, with the opportunity to grow further by buying buildings.

👉 Read this.

🎙 Coworking conversations.

Douglas Green discusses why flex will double in the next five years.

🎧 Listen to this.

Jamie Russo and Mike Kriel discuss what’s new in coworking management agreements.

🎧 Listen to this.

Bernie Mitchell and Alanna Imbach discuss systematic inequality, women and who coworking can help.

🎧 Listen to this.

In this Seedcamp Deep Dive, Carlos is joined by Dan Bladen, from Kadence, and Tushar Agarwal, from HubbleHQ to discuss the latest trends in hybrid workspaces and the commercial real estate market along with what it means to create employee-centered work environments.

🎧 Listen to this.

📆 Coworking events.

🐦 Live podcast recording on the state of coworking #

Apr 21: I’ll be joining Paul Armstrong for a live MOUTHWASH podcast session on Twitter Spaces. Season 4 is all about the real future of work, and we’ll be chatting about coworking and flex workspaces – unscripted, unedited and unrehearsed.

👉 Read this.

💛 Community Care – Trauma Support Session #

Apr 21: Trauma resources for Ukrainian and Russian refugees and the IDEA volunteers supporting them. Sponsored by the Coworking IDEA Project. Certified Trauma Therapist. Free. On zoom. In English. All are welcome. You don’t need to participate, you can join and simply listen.

👉 Read this.

🌱 April 2022 IDEA Conversation #

Apr 27: Join Amy King and Tracy Wilson to discuss this month’s Coworking IDEA challenge on establishing a Green Event Policy.

👉 Read this.

🏢 Flex & the future of office buildings #

Apr 28: JLL is hosting a live panel on how incorporating flex adds value for landlords and their tenants.

👉 Read this.

🌱 Convo: Eco-friendly coworking brands #

Apr 29: How can you build an eco-friendly coworking brand and promote a sustainable business?

👉 Read this.

🎉 Womxn Who Cowork Community Mixer #

May 13: Laura + Iris host monthly free Zoom mixers to facilitate connection among WWCO community members. They are for anyone who doesn’t want to feel alone whilst running a coworking space, is looking to have some fun, or is maybe even searching for an accountability partner and to meet other womxn and non-binary operators

👉 Read this.

About This.

ThisWeekInCoworking.com is a weekly newsletter summarizing the coworking celebrations, stories, market moves, tech updates, and discussions you may have missed.

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