Today’s newsletter is a big one for me. It’s the 100th summary I’ve published online.
The first web summary I published (originally over at included.co) was for week 29/2020. However, week 30/2020 was the first email version that I sent out, to a whopping 6 of you amazing flex workspace leaders. So two milestones in 1 go.
So if you’ll allow me, a massive THANK YOU for being a part of the ThisWeekInCoworking community.
Thanks for being a huge part of the 580+ decision-makers who read my summaries (almost) every week, for inviting your friends and frenemies to join in and subscribe, for sponsoring weeks when you can, and for submitting links/news/events and most importantly for all you do in helping shape the future of work.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
This week is sponsored by… Syncaroo.
Do you help flex space operators and landlords pick, setup or manage their technology? Or maybe you help with SEO, marketing or strategy? We want to meet you.
At Syncaroo we build reliable and secure data-syncing integrations. But when landlords and flex space operators ask for help with everything else, we want to know who to direct them to.
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🎉 Coworking celebrations.
🇦🇺 Local operator awarded $5.9 million grant #
Sandy Anghie shares that the Spacecubed team was awarded a Lotterywest grant of $5.9 million to expand their networking and collaboration activities, increase funding programs for startups and undertake detailed research on WA’s innovation sector.
✊ Coworking impact.
📜 Questionnaire digs into support for IT freelancers who cowork. #
The Ukrainian Coworking Association in partnership Kyiv IT Cluster and due to support of Cost Action CA18214 have launched the research on IT freelancers, who work all over Europe in different coworking spaces.
They’re looking for people to take a fairly long questionnaire to help the better understand how coworking spaces and managers are treating temporary displaced Ukrainians, whether they help to be better integrated into local society etc.
🇬🇧 What’s happening in London coworking, and how it impacts local creators. #
Over the last few years (decades) Bernie J Mitchell has become one of London’s most connected coworking people.
In this video, he shares a little bit of how he got started, how coworking spaces are bringing in creators and an event that digs into how coworking is helping regenerate communities and town centers.
🗣 With conference season firming up, who aren’t you hearing? #
Jerome Chang reminds us that with the conference line-ups firming up, are you seeing and hearing from diverse leaders & practitioners from across the coworking world?
If not, why not?
Coworking news & views.
📹 Fun (and clever) multi-channel coworking marketing campaign #
You may not know this about me, but my earliest work in tech was building the digital components used to enhance offline marketing campaigns. So, when I saw this this social-slash-IRL promotion campaign by Brain Embassy Antwerp it pressed all the right buttons for how to run a smart and highly engaging campaign.
Check out the video ft Rutger B, Amogh Mogre & Paulien Derden and let me know what you think.
🤖 AI (and automations) will take over repetitive tasks in the workplace #
Lee Daniels head of Workforce EMEA and Workforce UK, JLL shares a prediction that Ai and data-driven automations are coming into the workplace and that within 10 years he expects “it’ll be a foundational part of businesses and it’s fast on its way to becoming a resource that takes over data analysis and repetitive tasks, freeing people to create, research and identify new opportunities.”.
👚 What would Barbie’s dream office look like? #
So Barbie seems to be… well… everywhere. No seriously, the movie is causing such a commotion that following opening weekend some stores and counties actually ran out of pink paint. (Even Google goes pink when you search for Barbie). So when I saw this really-pink post by Laura Kozelouzek and the folks at Quest that showed off what they thought a perfect office for the fashion-doll could look like, I had to share.
It’s a great campaign and even if the office is a little ‘too pink’ for you, it shows off a few things: how quickly they move with an idea, the customizability of their units and that the team can have fun.
💯 Normalizing that there are MANY places for people to remote work from #
Rowena Hennigan shares a great post calling on folks to normalize that remote work does not equal working from home.
🛒 Putting startups and creatives into super prime store space #
Becky Jones shares that Someday Studios have been appointed by Westminster City Council to help shape the future of Oxford Street, one of the world’s most famous retail streets in the world. The 3 year project will have the firm place startups and creatives into ridiculously high-footfall premium locations, rent-free.
I love this, can’t wait to see who their first stores feature. I also think there’s a huge partnership opportunity here with coworking spaces and Someday.
🇨🇦 A quick update on childcare + coworking in BC #
BCBusiness highlights 3 coworking and childcare businesses operating in British Columbia. They compare the offerings from Nestworks, Produckidvity and OneSpace – and they’re each quite different.
I hope we see more spaces exploring how they can offer childcare solutions in a safe and sustainable way.
🇩🇪 State government starts pilot to leverage coworking space #
Stanley Fuls shares that the Brandenburg state government has started a pilot to place employees within local coworking spaces and that it could be extended so long as they can ensure data security.
The point is made that if banks (and fintechs, lawyers, accountants, federal agencies and others) can make the IT security work, then so can a state government.
📓 A guide to hiring your first coworking space manager #
Helga Moreno shares a deep look into how spaces should go about hiring & onboarding a coworking space manager.
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💻 Coworking technology.
🙈 Workspace operator shocked that large operator can’t ‘do’ on-demand. #
William Stokes, co-founder at Co-Space, shares his experience trying to pop into a WeWork location for less than 60 minutes before their next meeting.
In short: Will had to pick a day pass, or go to a coffee shop I guess. The post also thanks platforms like Flow, Upflex and Tally Market for making on-demand access doable for his own space.
🌎 Global remote-first co gives coworking access to 3k employees #
GitHub have picked Desana to give their distributed team of 3000 access to coworking and flexible workspaces to work individually or with colleagues.
🤖 Nexudus adds OpenAI to help desks #
Nexudus have announced that they’ve integrated OpenAI into their Help-desk system. This means that operators can opt-in to having a chatbot use their pre-existing data in Nexudus to answer support tickets like “my wifi doesn’t work” or other repetitive questions from members.
Interesting to see that compared to a human responding to 100 such queries, this integration is 80% faster to handle them and at a fraction of the cost (~$1).
Coworking data.
🚀 Coworking supply up 10% last quarter #
Researchers at CoworkingCafe break down coworking space stock availability in the 25 largest US markets, as well as their size and distribution.
(This is slightly longer than usual summaries, but some fascinating data in there to share)
Counts: 6,163 coworking locations in the US, up 10% this quarter from 5,612 in March. Manhattan surpassed the 300-space threshold, (total of 305 flex workspaces, up 5%). Los Angeles saw a growth of 2% (269 spaces) and Washington, D.C. registered a 7% growth (261 spaces). Chicago and Dallas-Fort Worth rounded out the top 5 markets, with 234 and 231 coworking spaces, respectively. Houston market logged an impressive 16% growth in Q2 in the number of coworking spaces, up to 208 from 180 in March.
Size: the total allocated square footage on a national level adds up to over 120 million, which accounts for 1.74% of the total square footage covered by office spaces nationwide. Manhattan once again leads in terms of allocated sqft. with 14.45 million, while Los Angeles logs 6.71 million sqft. Manhattan followed the national growth trend in terms of coworking square footage (6%), while Los Angeles registered a slight decrease of 1% in June, compared to March 2023.
Pricing: the national median rate for a virtual office was $143, while open workspaces went for $149 and dedicated desks for $329. All three of these rates went up in the second quarter of 2023, with the most pronounced increase seen in virtual offices – a 51% increase.
😲 42k locations by end of year, APAC the largest market with 11k. #
The team at andcards share an interesting list of statistics on the coworking sector.
Now I do have to preface this link with a note that this seems to be a guest post and there are no links to sources or hints as to where the numbers come from.
Having said that, they do note that by 2024 there may be 42k coworking spaces, APAC is the single largest market (approx 11k spaces), and that the three biggest coworking cities are London, New York and Hong Kong. They also highlight that the no. of spaces in the US is up 55% since 2017, and that New Delhi saw the same level of growth in a single year. Projections are that the average space has 190 members, around 41% of members are women, and that there will be over 5 million coworkers by end of the year.
🇬🇧London office prices up 3.4% QoQ #
Data released from Rubberdesk’s June 2022 London Flexible Office Market Report shows that increasing demand for serviced offices pushed prices up across the greater London region by 3.4% QoQ to £690 per month.
Central London is the most expensive and in-demand district to rent an office, seeing a 1.1% increase in the median price, and a 5.6% drop in vacant office space QoQ. Southwark represents the best value at £704 per desk while demand for space in Westminster has pushed rents up 7.9% to £830 per desk per month.
🌳 How office landlords are boosting energy efficiency #
A new study by infinitSpace and The Instant Group has identified which energy-saving measures are the most widely used by office landlords, and which will be prioritised in the years ahead as part of ambitions for a net-zero commercial real estate sector.
In short they results from the 250 commercial landlords were ‘setting waste management targets’ (31% already implementing), ‘flex space’ and ‘thermal efficiency measures’ (both 25%). 67% mentioned that they planned on implementing flex space in the future, bringing the total to 91% offering flex space in the near future.
🤓 5 trends driving workplace decisions across 9 countries #
Gensler share five workplace trends that are driving priorities for the new workplace.
In shore they are Mobility (workers expect autonomy and ability to work from anywhere), Choice (a workspace ecosystem – ie a variety of work settings to pick from), Privacy (maintaining the privacy they’ve gotten used to working remotely), Hybrid (or at least an improved hybrid office experience), and Health & Wellness (offices aren’t just for working).
🇬🇧 A glance at London’s flex market #
Michael Dubicki shares Flexioffices’ London State of the Market for Q2.
They saw an increase in both building listing growth and QoQ (quarter-on-quarter) desk rates – even with lead volumes seemingly down from Q1.
🇪🇸 Malaga becomes third hottest flex market in Spain #
Demand for coworking space in Malaga is growing rapidly, with a total occupancy of all flex desks sitting at 92%. This puts the city in third place re: flex demand, behind just Barcelona and Madrid. Worth noting that both CBRE and Savills have noted that expansion is limited by a shortage of suitable space to be converted into flex spaces.
Coworking market moves.
🛋 Global flex provider starts fitting out spaces with swappable reusable furniture #
Herman Knevel shares an announcement from IWG about a partnership with Nornorm to redesign its offices, starting with its high-end Signature brand and Spaces locations.
The latter designs workplace furniture and rents it on a subscription basis. Founded on the idea of maintaining, refurbishing and reusing furniture, the startup allows customers to change their fitouts or scale them up and down as needed.
🌱 New device uses 76x less water, 58x less carbon and replaces disposable cups. #
Douwe Driehuis shares that ISS Facility Services in the Netherlands are testing new devices from auum to help quickly clean reusable cups within offices. This testing comes ahead the paper cup ban coming to the country from 2024.
📞 Is there room for another phonebooth competitor? #
Noah Margo-Dermer from Branch announced their long-awaited phone booth collab with Pillar Booth. Starting at $6,395, with a 3-4 week turnaround and available in dark or light colorschemes, its a pretty addition to their existing line up, and a new option for spaces exploring ways to offer quiet call spaces.
🛍 More vacant retail spots converted into coworking space #
Matt Imbruglia shares news that they, Better Cowork LLC, are converting a 55k sqft former Boston Store Furniture Gallery into a coworking space. This will be their 3rd location, bringing their total number of workstations to 750 across 120k sqft in Waukesha Country. This other two locations are also conversions and slated to open in January and April.
Alex Simic, principal at Better Cowork who previously developed self-storage facilities shared why they’re focussed on creating more coworking spaces: “It’s the fastest growing real estate subsector in the country”. Hear! Hear!
🇬🇧 Huckletree launches 10th hub #
Gabriela Hersham announced Huckletree Kensignton will be opening in a few months time. This is the 10th Huckletree location.
🇬🇧 Commuter coworking co launches 3rd hub #
Freddie Fforde and the Patch team share that their third location, in Twickenham, is now open.
🎙 Coworking conversations.
Liz Elam and Zach Smith talks about creating immersive indoor nature experiences to boost productivity, lower stress, and improve acoustic performance
Jamie Russo chats with David Brown about why he oversold flex desks in his two London community coworking spaces.
Caleb Parker chats with Douwe Dirks from NORNORM about the circular ecosystem, furniture-as-a-service, and furniture’s role on the evolution of flex space business models on the WorkBold podcast.
Cat Johnson chats with Kate Schwarzler about the regional economic and social impact coworking can make through supporting entrepreneurs and small businesses on the Coworking Out Loud podcast
Cat Johnson join Gio and Jamie on the Flex Uncensored podcast to chat about her mission to make sure the community piece is intact and that we’re aligned with what coworking has always been and don’t drift too far into desk rental territory.
Matt Going chats with Jamie Russo about the changes and updates to CMRA requirements that spaces who over any mail services need to comply with on the Everything Coworking podcast.
📆 Coworking events.
🎯 Convo: Attract remote employees to your space #
29 July: We saw a rise in remote work due to the pandemic and it’s a trend that’s here to stay. But remote work doesn’t always mean work-from-home. How can you attract these workers to your space?
🚀 Drive ROI by Leveraging Outside Expertise #
10 August: The Global Workspace Associate will be covering case studies about how business owners in our industry get to the next level quicker by knowing when to use the right resources.
🇩🇪 GCF announces new coworking networking event dates #
20 September, 18 October, 15 November, 13 December: Johanna Voll shares that the German Coworking Federation have updated their local coworking networking event format, but also that they’ve announced the next 4 dates. If you’re operating in this region, block the dates and check the link for more info.