This week is sponsored by… The Summit!
The Coworking Alliance Summit returns on 15th February 2023.
Save this date. You’ll want to take part if you are collaborating with other operators, or are planning or exploring ways to do so.
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✊ Coworking impact.
🎁 Instead of giving customer gifts… #
Zoe Ellis-Moore shares that instead of the usual tradition of sending customers gifts this year, her company Spaces to Places instead made a contribution to coworking spaces supporting their communities through the war in Ukraine via the Ukrainian Coworking Association.
Coworking news & views.
✍️ 8 end-of-year content ideas for coworking blogs #
Cat Johnson shared a great list of end-of-year content ideas for coworking spaces. From reviewing your year, to celebrating your members, and building lists/resources for the coming year, this post has some great and easily-actionable ideas.
🤫 5 pro-tips for improving your space when it’s quieter than normal #
I shared 5 ways you can improve your coworking space when it’s less busier than normal, whether that’s now over the holidays or over the summer when everyone seems to be travelling.
😲 “Hybrid working will never catch on” #
Davd O’Coimin from Nook shares a photo of a salon that’s apparently offering flex workspace access too. For people that can work from anywhere, what else can become a drop-in workspace? Reply with wrong answers only.
🤖 What AI ‘thinks’ the advantages of flex space are. #
Jorge Zanoletty Pérez from WeWork asked ChatGPT (the new chat AI tool everyone seems to be playing with these days) the question "What are the advantages of a flex office spaces versus a traditional office", to which it returned a 6-item list including cost savings, flexibility, location, amenities, networking opps, and a professional look.
💸 4 reasons why coworking isn’t a waste of money #
Nienke Nina Keizer (a remote work advocate) shares 4 reasons why coworking space access is a great investment. They mention opportunities, productivity boosts, community and reliable wifi. Are you asking (and promoting) why members love working from your space?
🔟 10 coworking space trends for 2023 #
Helga Moreno shares some predictions from industry experts, touching on hotel-style brands, salary-packaged access, tech-driven spaces, continued corporate growth, ripples from energy and Ukraine crises, sustainability, work-near-home, growth via booking platforms and more.
🇬🇧 6 predictions for coworking in 2023 out of the UK #
Douglas Green from g8 shares that "flex is the fastest-growing sector in real estate" and his 6 predictions for next year. It’s a good list covering things like energy costs, brands, consolidation, changing priorities, and once-again, landlords.
🍽 “Never eat at your desk” #
Rob Kumer shares a tip his CEO told him in 2004 to "never eat at your desk, go buy someone lunch" and how it helped him with networking, idea generation, and building relationships. Having been a member of coworking spaces around the world, one of my favorite things to do is break bread with other members. I’d look for ways to make ‘eating together’ part of your programming and community building plans?
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💻 Coworking technology.
✅ State of Sync: 9.3x bump in inter-platform syncing activity #
At Syncaroo we shared our Q4/2022 stakeholder memo, lovingly nicknamed the ‘State of Sync’, digging into updates from the quarter and how integrations fared compared to 2021.
Not only was there a 9.3x year-on-year growth in the number of events synced between platforms, but there was also a 2.5x bump when comparing this quarter to Q4 last year and a 250% increase in new locations syncing data as the platform shifted out of private beta.
Coworking data.
🇬🇧 CBRE shares Flex office market update report #
Holly Bailey shares CBRE’s Flexible Office Solutions Market Update Review, in which they report some key statistics around the fact their 328,164 sqft flex take-up total in the UK.
Some takeaways I noted is that they predict that 20% of the London market to be flex by 2028, a 50% bump in flex transactions vs last year, and that they predict significant operator growth in 2023. Interestingly the avg contract length for their flex contracts in London was 13 months, up 2 months from 2019s numbers.
🚀 3/4 of flex operators exploring expansion #
John Williams shares that both operators and landlords are looking to expand into flexible workspace over the coming 12 months.
Coworking market moves.
🇧🇬 Operator signs ‘largest serviced office deal’ in Sofia #
MyFlex share that they’ve signed a 3k sqm contract with Megapark Business Centers as part of a deal to delivery and manage temporary space for ‘one of the leading banking institutions’ in the country, whilst their HQ undergoes renovation.
Flex operators managing spin-up space for corporates is something I’m seeing more and more of, so expect more of these kinds of deals as brokerages bring in experienced operators to support them.
🌽 A rural coworking alliance in Wolfenbüttel? #
DSTATION KreativCampus shares that a meeting recently took place in their space with other operators to share knowledge, explore a ‘satellite ring’ of spaces, and look at how to better support their local communities.
➕ Another location in Boston suburbs #
Sarah Travers shares the Workbar are executing on another location before closing out this year. This 20,000 sqft location within an iconic building is in Framingham, which has a history of homegrown companies becoming dominant in global markets.
