Week 28, 2025

James Panepinto from Clockwise Offices is playing fight music with a recent post that starts with "coworking still thinks desks are the product"…

Now while you (dear gentle readers) are no longer just pitching "fully furnished office and desks" – James does use the popularity of temporary experiential stays like the Barbie Dream House, The Mystery Machine and The Home Alone house (hopefully with all the home-made traps) – to remind us that we can still do more around popup coworking experiences.

The examples shared are inspired. If you’ve done, or will do, any of these – let us know. Let’s make it a thing!

We don’t usually cover management changes, but these move at the top of Clockwise are fairly noteworthy as Adam MacLeod, one of their original founders (and a Partner at their parent co. Castleforge) stepped into CEO role. In the same week, the firm set a goal of launching another 50 locations across Europe.

The team also welcome Greg Miley into the CCO role, following a flex career that feats well known brands like Desana, WeWork, The Instant Group and Kitt.

Beer and coworking isn’t new. Heck we even shared a discussion about the combo in a newsletter some 694 days or so ago.

But Industrious‘ partnership with female-owned TALEA Beer Co. to produce a limited edition beer called Out Of Office for outside their spaces is new. Adding a custom out-of-office message generator to every can? Also new. A free day pass in every can? Also, also new.

Cheers Jamie Hodari and team. Nicely done!

Gaia Almeida from Bottle Rocket Search looks at the differences between hiring a General manage and a Portfolio Director – and why hiring the wrong one can bring built up momentum to a screeching halt.

With so many brands now running multiple locations – this is a timely piece worth reading with your morning coffee. (We see you weekend TWIC-re-readers!)

There was quite a lot of buzz around the QSR piece exploring how Starbucks’ new Coffeehouse design is spearheading the once-synonymous-with-third-space coffee chains’ desire to reclaim that legacy.

But when Jake Dudley, head of field ops at Switchyards (click their profile, they’re on a tear), opined on the move – that’s the link that won out for inclusion on this topic – especially since the newcomer brand is quickly building a network of work clubs that often become the third places within the neighborhoods they enter.

Graham Clarke from Baseworx shares how an experience with an unexpected internet outage made him wonder if coworking could be more intentionally rolled into business continuity plans. Ie, many spaces have two+ providers of internet, allowing them to stay online if one of them goes down. This is a valuable solution for remote teams (or even traditional offices) who may only have access to one provider.

As for the ‘light standby-style’ memberships… between day passes, day offices, meeting rooms, on-demand e-commerce and booking platforms – the real piece missing is continuously positioning coworking as the first solution folks think about when their wifi goes wonky. Now you’ve got something else to share with your neighborhood businesses.

Spacebring share a long-form piece looking at different ways to add wellness elements into your flex space offerings from incorporating wellness programs, to offering healthy food options, to providing wellness zones (for eg fitness, quiet, breakout and green zones), to designing for more of the senses, providing ergonomic facilities and running an inclusive space.

Cat Johnson asks, "When AI does the writing for you, who are you connecting with? Who is the voice and presence behind the words?" Her answer is, no one.

Optix shares some interesting insights from KWENCH and Suite Genius about building a coworking community including the popularity of morning-based events (over happy hours), why curating your community intentionally matters, and how to build a digital community (while preventing digital exhaustion).

Cobot explores strategies to encourage organic sharing of your space and how to turn your members into brand ambassadors – with real examples from the spaces: werkhain, workish.berlin and Toolbox Turin.

Barbara Sprenger, founder of Deskworks & CEO of Satellite Workplaces since 2009, shares some notes on the consolidation we’re seeing on both the operator side and the vendor/tech side.

Barbara also reminds operators what they should keep in mind as the number of operators & vendors may shrink.