🎉 Coworking celebrations.
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Coworking news & views.
📅 Unpacking the critical steps when opening a new coworking hub #
Opening a coworking space can be both an exciting and daunting prospect there is so much to think about and even more to be done. The Melting Pot put together a free guide on what you need to consider.
The guide was built at the European Coworking Conference at the end of 2022, where we facilitated a workshop with Happy Working Lab to explore the critical steps you need to consider when opening a coworking hub.
👉 Read this.
🧐 The growth of “combo-coworking” #
Steve King shares an article from The Information which highlights some examples of “combo coworking” – which focus more on being social spaces, and less on being a workplace.
Note: I don’t usually share email-gated or paywalled content, but large publications highlighting the rise of third places (or as they put it “not-home not-office”), is worth noting just for the growing trend.
👉 Read this.
📝 New paper defines 5 kinds of digital nomads #
Dave Cook who I believe is doing a PhD in Anthropology at University College London, has had a paper published on the definition and taxonomies of digital nomads.
The paper updates the definition of digital nomadism and provides a new taxonomy which subdivides the digital nomad model into five distinct types: freelance digital nomads; digital nomad business owners; salaried digital nomads; experimental digital nomads and armchair digital nomads. Useful terminology for operators serving this industry.
👉 Read this.
🇺🇸 A juicy short summary of GCUC North America #
Saw a lot of raving reviews (and FOMO-inducing photos) from GCUC in Chicago last week, but in this post Michael Abrams shared 5 of his quick takeaways from the conference.
I also liked Charlotte Kirby’s GCUC summary here, so adding that in here too.
👉 Read this.
🤔 Is coworking the answer to what should be done with ground floor space? #
Cal Lee shares his thoughts on how flex space can be used to not only improve the tenant experience of a building, but can also be the answer to the long-asked question from landlords around what to do with the ground floors of office buildings.
👉 Read this.
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💻 Coworking technology.
⏩ New tool speeds up flex space tasks #
Robert Kropp officially announced Syncaroo Assistant to help workspace operators get more tasks done across (almost) every platform, app and other tools.
I’m really excited to see the creative ways Assistant is used to speed up tasks, having already heard of time-saving examples on tasks in Canva, emails, social media, Craigslist, phone calls, at front-desks and within spreadsheets.
Full Disclosure: I’m a cofounder at Syncaroo, but I can confidently say that I’d have shared this in the newsletter even if I wasn’t.
👉 Read this.
🕣 Booking platform adds part-time office offering #
Tushar Agarwal shares that Hubble are adding a new product called “Part-Time Offices” which lets businesses rent an office for just 2 or 3 days a week. Although this pilot is limited to 100 businesses, they do have plans to roll it out wider soon.
Trend note: As Justin mentions here, there is a growing trend of “fractional offices” bubbling up as we’re also seeing similar plays from platforms like Flexday in Canada, and Codi in the US.
I’m curious if these are shared between businesses, or still powered by the many flex providers who work with the platform. I’ll keep an eye on this for you.
👉 Read this.
🔗 Booking platform nabs great .com domain #
As the booking platform market matures, being able to continually drive supply (people who want flex space) towards demand (people who offer it) is going to become increasingly competitive. So Dubai-based Hotdesk grabbing the .com for the term could be an interesting move.
Although search volume for the term spiked in April 2004 and 2005 (according to Google Trends) there’s def an upward momentum over the last few years. Presents an opportunity to “brand” the word for the platform, but also for operators to increase SEO-focussed posts at the same time.
👉 Read this.
Coworking data.
🔟 One of the 10 shifts transforming orgs is how and where people work #
McKinsey have released a special report called “The State of Organizations 2023” which highlights 10 shifts transforming organizations. The second shift includes balancing in-person and remote work where over 4 out of 5 employees who have worked in hybrid models over the last 2 years want to retain them.
👉 Read this.
Coworking market moves.
☀️ Brighton gets a new coworking hub #
Runway East share that they’re opening a new location just 4 minutes from the central station with prices starting at £370(+vat) per person.
👉 Read this.
🏘️ Basildon borough council put out workspace operator tender #
Jim Sims shared a (now closed) opportunity from the Basildon Borough Council for a creative workspace operator to collaborate on running over 15k sqft of affordable and flex space.
According to the contracts finder listing, the contract value is £400k and has now closed, so I’m curious if it’ll land up being awarded to any of the names we know already, or someone new.
👉 Read this.
🇬🇧 UK brand completes 7th local location and eyes international expansion #
Marc Brough shared that Cubo Work had recently completed their 7th location and their second in April. He also hinted that the next location would be outside of England.
👉 Read this.
🇨🇦 IWG eyes more growth in Ontario, Canada #
Wayne Berger shared that a new partnership will bring IWG’s first HQ branded flex space to London, ON. A hint is also made that there are plans to add more network locations in the region.
👉 Read this.
🇺🇸 US network adds new location in Cumming, GA #
Natalie Salvador shares that THRIVE | Coworking are launching a new location in the town of Cumming in Georgia.
I believe this brings their (publicly announced) number of active or coming-soon locations to 18 across Alabama, Georgia, Montana, North Carolina, Ohio and South Carolina.
👉 Read this.
🎙 Coworking conversations.
DeShawn Brown and Cat Johnson talk about being a product of coworking, the intersection of community and tech, and how coworking space operators have a ridiculously challenging job that involves high emotional work and being able to task switch constantly on the Coworking Out Loud podcast.
Lindsay Hedenskog chats with Jose Antonio Morales about building a movement, and a space that encompasses everything a human needs to work at LAMB in Stockholm on the Visionaries podcast series.
Tim Slaughter shares the Caddo story with Jamie and Giovanni on the Flex Uncensored podcast and how they grew to building 35k of neighborhood office space in 2023, and only offer 3 membership options.
📆 Coworking events.
🦾 Convo: Using AI to Support Your Coworking Brand #
April 28: With the influx of oh-so-many AI tools to help with content creation, it can seem daunting (and even a little silly) to use AI instead of creating content yourself. While AI can’t replace a human touch, it can work to simplify your workload. Let’s chat about it.
👉 Read this.