Great brands keep asking to collaborate with TWIC.
As exciting as that is, I always wanted to make sure that whatever we do together creates immense value for you, the always-busy and overly sold-to leaders of coworking communities.
Here’s what I landed on.
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Coworking news & views.
👚 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.
👉 Read this.
🛒 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.
👉 Read this.
🇨🇦 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.
👉 Read this.
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💻 Coworking technology.
🤖 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).
👉 Read this.
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.
👉 Read this.
🌳 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.
👉 Read this.
🤓 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).
👉 Read this.
🇬🇧 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.
👉 Read this.
🇪🇸 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.
👉 Read this.
Coworking market moves.
📞 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.
👉 Read this.
🛍 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!
👉 Read this.
🎙 Coworking conversations.
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.