This week is sponsored by… the GWA Fall Conference – Flex Forward.
The Global Workspace Association is a big fan of this newsletter and the community it serves, and so would like to invite you (with an exclusive deal) to join us at the Flex Forward Conference in Frisco, Texas from Sept 21-23.
This Week In Coworking readers can use code TWIC100 to get $100 of all-access passes, and plus if you’re not a GWA member already, the discounted non-member pass gets you 1 free year of individual membership too!
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🎉 Coworking celebrations.
📖 Once upon a time… #
Marta Moksa shares a reminder that long before the pandemic, hybrid and the newfound understanding of remote work well.. working.. there was a group of people who started something new.
“Suddenly something new, strange and weird, became obvious, easy and helpful.” Yeap!
👉 Read this.
✊ Coworking impact.
🤩 A feed of how many coworking spaces celebrated ICD 2022 #
Over on the Syncaroo blog, you can see a feed of how brands, operating teams, members and supporting platforms celebrated International Coworking Day 2022.
We see posts celebrating community, posts sharing the benefits of coworking, posts educating follows about coworking, free passes, bring-a-friend-to-cowork campaigns, and well… a lot of love. So amazing to see the coworking movement go from strength to strength!
👉 Read this.
📜 A reminder that coworking has been around far longer than most think. #
Ashley Proctor shares that even after seeing all the the progress of the coworking movement over the last 19 years, there is still a lot of work to be done, and reminds us that folks have been coworking (albeit by other names) for a long long time now.
👉 Read this.
💡 August ’23 IDEA challenge: Disrupting domestic violence #
Bernie Mitchell shares this month’s IDEA Challenge, which is facilitated by Melody Gross. This month’s challenge (the 31st IDEA challenge btw) is asking you to disrupt domestic violence and make a difference to the voice you give it in your coworking space.
👉 Read this.
Coworking news & views.
🤦♂️ What was supposed to be this week’s intro paragraph #
For the introduction of this week’s email I dug into the buzz about WeWork, IWG and International Coworking Day and how they’re interconnected in an interesting way. The email got wayyy too long. So I turned it into a post and am sharing it here with you instead.
👉 Read this.
🎼 An ode to 6 years… and 6 lessons learned #
I looove reading people’s “coworking stories” (for the uninitiated, that’s how they landed up working in/at a coworking space), and Jessica Samson’s does not disappoint. From not knowing how to pronounce the space’s name, to 6 things learned and loved about coworking.
In summary they are: the power of collaboration, how community doesn’t just happen, making your net-work, the important basics, The Sims, and expanding impact beyond the 4 outer walls.
👉 Read this.
🚀 Thoughts on a competitor’s earnings and trends #
Jamie Hodari from Industrious shares some insights around WeWork‘s second-ever quarterly earnings and on how they correlate with observed industry-wide trends.
Focus and comparisons are made on growth, Europe and small business strength.
👉 Read this.
📝 Understanding leverage for flex workspaces #
The other day I was listening to a Founder’s Journal podcast episode on understanding leverage by Alex Lieberman.
In it he shares 5 types of leverage that are (as Naval Ravikant puts it) either permissioned or permissionless, with examples from his work. It made me think about flex spaces could also use this mental model to go about gaining these kinds of leverage for their businesses, and so I shared a few ideas on the topic over on my blog.
👉 Read this.
📸 What a great coworking day (or any day) collab idea #
Kelli Freshman shared how they’re taking “environmental headshots” (I had to look it up, they’re more relaxed, but still professional, headshots) for members for free as part of the The Shop Workspace’s celebrations for Coworking Day.
I absolutely love spaces partnering up with talented local creatives to provide value-adds that members can get excited about.
👉 Read this.
📨 Dear coworking newcomers… #
Cat Johnson penned (can we still say that these days?) an inspiring open letter to newcomers to the coworking industry. Whether you’re a landlord, investor, operator, manager, marketer, helper, or even member have a read.
“The most important point I want to make is that you’re part of something amazing. You’re part of something transformative. You’re part of something visionary and grounded; something deeply human and future-forward. All at the same time.” Hear hear.
👉 Read this.
🛍 Learning from retail’s 20+ years of implementing hybrid experiences. #
Daniel Wheble summarizes an article on what the workspace sector can learn from retails’ 20+ years of implementing hybrid experiences.
They note that digital and physical experiences should work together, places should be culturally relevant, stubbornness not being a virtue, and that people are most critical resource to any business.
👉 Read this.
💡 A reminder that not all web traffic is created equal #
Maxime Dupré shares how two different traffic bumps affected her conversions.
Whilst not a coworking-related product, it’s a great reminder that traffic, for traffic’s sake, doesn’t matter when smaller campaigns can convert at higher numbers.
👉 Read this.
🇦🇺 Provider’s annualized turnover 50% more than pre pandemic #
Tim Brown shares some insights into WOTSO‘s annual results.
Highlights include: NAV up 9%, WOTSO annualised turnover 50% higher than pre pandemic levels, WOTSO site profit contribution now AU$3.2m pa after rent, 5,000 WOTSO members and 3 asset acquisitions.
👉 Read this.
✅ A guide for starting a successful coworking space #
Helga Moreno shares another deep resource from andcards, this time focussing on how someone can go from an idea for a coworking space, through planning, partnerships, deal-making, funding, technology, ops, community building.. and more. It’s thorough!
👉 Read this.
😍 Opportunity as businesses decouple rent from revenue #
Dror Poleg shares an interesting note about how thanks to AI and remote work, how businesses run and where-from is undergoing a seismic shift. Traditional office rents are facing a reckoning thanks to people picking where to work, and AI-assistance allowing fewer employees to do more units of work.
To paraphrase, as businesses employ ‘fewer people per unit of revenue’, they’ll also be willing to spend more per employee. This is where an opportunity exists for operators who are already experimenting and perfecting other revenue opportunities from services, tools, tech and data.
👉 Read this.
🌱 Vertical farm salads that started in coworking hits store shelves #
I love seeing success stories from businesses that started in coworking spaces, especially when it’s from businesses outside the ‘normal’ startup niches.
In this post Tony Margiotta shares that GrowUp Farms salads are now stocked in Tesco (a popular UK retailer, and remembers them running a vertical farm in their space in Whitechapel.
👉 Read this.
🗽 Yahoo finance spends 7 mins digging into impact on NYC real estate market #
When looking at a potential WeWork collapse, Yahoo Finance looks at what impact this could have on NYC’s real estate market.
Interesting to hear from Lea Overby (Barclays Head of CMBS Research) that even though the coworking firm rents 6.8M sqft in Manhattan, which is roughly twice the size of the Empire State Building, it is still just a little bit over 1% of all “outstanding (office) exposure within Manhattan”.
👉 Read this.
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💻 Coworking technology.
🏨 Work and stay partnership announced. #
Deskpass and anyplace partnered up to make finding accommodation + workspace easier when working remotely.
👉 Read this.
⚠️ Business Profiles now considers duplicate photos & posts as spam #
Google has updated their content policy for Business Profiles and have started flagging and disallowing posts with duplicate photos, media and/or logos as spam, according to Search Engine Roundtable.
If your Maps strategy included reposting the same content to bump up in the results order, it’s time to change that up.
👉 Read this.
🦜 Platform merges flythroughs, virtual tours and 3D models #
Sam Stewart shares an exciting (well, if you’re a flex space tech geek like me) video demo from Inspace which helps CRE firms build interactive digital presentations.
By bringing together maps, models, virtual tours and flythroughs – prospective members (or investors) can get a fuller idea of where your building is, what it looks like, and more. I’m a huge fan of changing how people explore spaces before clicking ‘book’.
👉 Read this.
Coworking data.
📈 Remote work stats, and why they matter to coworking spaces #
Cat Johnson summarizes some interesting stats around remote work, and highlights the opportunities they present for coworking spaces everywhere.
👉 Read this.
🇬🇧 Some parts of London saw 36% increase in office prices #
Jules Robertson summarized the changes in desk rates between Q2 2023 and the quarter before.
Euston and Kings Cross (+36%), East London Prime (+32%), Midtown (+29%) and South West London (+25%) saw the biggest increases where North West London saw the biggest decrease of -37%. West London, West London Prime and East London saw 0% changes.
👉 Read this.
Coworking market moves.
🤑 IWG reports record H1 results #
IWG reported a 48% surge in half-year profits of £198M, a growth of 32% in Worka revenue to £153M along with £54M in debt reductions, and a 14% bump in org-wide revenue to £1.7B
👉 Read this.
🗽 East-coast coworking space expands Jersey City location #
Natasha Mohan shares that WorkSocial, a woman- and minority-owned coworking brand, is expanding their Jersey City location from 8.4k to 14k sqft.
👉 Read this.
🇩🇪 Mindspace opens their 11th location in Germany #
Ela Günes shares that Mindspace Münzstraße, the brand’s sixth space in Berlin and 11th in Germany, has now opened.
👉 Read this.
⛲️ Town center coworking network adds team memberships #
Gareth Jones shares that Cowork Local (a B Corp that operates a UK-wide network of spaces) now offer a Teams membership, after successful deployment in both Devon and Oxfordshire.
It’s interesting to see a gov-funded network that works in collaboration with the UK Government and local communities, follow the trend and opportunity in supporting teams via workspace passes.
👉 Read this.
3️⃣ 3 coworking locations change hands in Southern California #
Kiln have acquired BLOC, and will take over the operations of their three locations in Leucadia, Carlsbad Village and Solana Beach.
👉 Read this.
💰 Startup buys building at 50% discount #
The SF Standard reports on how StartupHQ acquired a building in San Francisco’s SoMa neighbourhood for $6M. What makes this a story is the previous owner paid double that.
What makes it coworking-related? Well the building’s been sitting empty since WeWork left it in the pandemic, and well because the building will once again become a shared workspace for early-stage businesses.
👉 Read this.
🆕 A new player has entered. Welcome IKEA! #
IKEA have shared that they have partnered with Industrious to build a new 46,470 sqft coworking space in San Francisco.
“Hej! Worksips” is a partnership between the two and Ingka Centers (formerly Ikea Centers) who owns and leases space to 381 IKEA stores. IKEA follows other retailers like Saks Fifth Avenue and SUCCESS in adding coworking spaces into their diversification strategies.
👉 Read this.
🔻 WeWork issues warning and starts 12 month timer #
During the firms company result’s leadership shared that its ability to stay in operation comes down to whether they can improve liquidity and profitability over the next 12 months.
‘WeWork is warning there’s “substantial doubt” about its ability to stay in business over the next year because of its financial losses and its need for cash, among other factors.’ Many have speculated that a possible route through bankruptcy may be on the cards.
👉 Read this.
🤫 Coworking hub switches to exclusive members club #
Liam Doe shares how (and why) Old Bond Store has shifted to only accept new members via invitation only. They diverted all marketing budget to reward members for introductions, and focussed on building a community existing members want to be a part of.
It’s an interesting shift as we’ve seen members clubs become coworking hubs, coworking spaces charge large fees to be more exclusive and now this. I do hope Liam continues to share learnings and how things go. I for one wonder if this will lead to a less diverse community due to the invitation-only approach.
👉 Read this.
🛫 Asia’s first pay-per-minute coworking center in an airport #
JustCo and Changi Airport Group have announced a partnership to launch an amenity-packed 24/7 coworking center in the airports’ Terminal 3. The space, estimated to open next quarter, will be closer to an airport lounge than a rentable booth, which we’ve seen great pilots of so far. Keep an eye on this trend of coworking in train stations and other travel hubs.
👉 Read this.
🇬🇧 New franchise space to open in Cambridge #
John Arenas shares that NewFlex are opening a new Serendipity Labs in Cambridge, UK.
👉 Read this.
🎙 Coworking conversations.
Liz Elam and Jason Anderson, President at CoWorks LLC and Chief Strategy Officer at UFG, chat about blending businesses, sitting at the head of a 20-year ecosystem table, and the organized chaos of having 135 open locations with different concepts, sizes, layouts, and amenities.
Jamie Russo digs into why newsletters should be part of your coworking marketing mix.
Kevin Whelan chats with Liz Elam all about uncovering and harnessing unique niches for explosive growth on the GCUC Coworking Podcast
Kate Dezarnaulds chats with Carrie Kwan and Lucy Kippist about discovering community and connection at the same time as building a successful coworking space on the Mumbition podcast.
Michael Everts and Jamie Russo discuss building a better coworking tech stack on the Flex Academy series by officernd and Everything Coworking.
Jamie Russo chats with Marina McCoy about managing Hula coworking where theres a four year waitlist for their private offices on the Everything Coworking podcast.
Tasha Hydar chats with Jamie and Gio about taking the stress out of managing a coworking space IT network on the Flex Uncensored podcast.
📆 Coworking events.
📬 Key elements to designing your VO offering #
Aug 23: Discover the essential components to craft a successful virtual office offering. Whether you’re a seasoned coworking space owner, community manager, mail operator, or someone just starting out in the industry, this interactive session will prepare you with the knowledge and strategies to design a thriving virtual mailbox service for your community.
👉 Read this.