How the coworking movement is responding.
Dear reader.
I write this newsletter each week to share industry celebrations, trends and observations with hundreds of leaders like you, who go to work every day to make workplaces more healthy, hospitable, empowering and safe for millions of humans around the world.
And so, before we dive into this week’s links I’d like to address the war in Ukraine that’s destroying and disrupting millions of lives at this very moment.
I don’t bring this up today solely to call out the unnecessary, insurmountable and inexcusable losses and damage this war has brought with it, but also to share a few ways that the coworking community is taking action to support those directly affected.
Whilst I like many of you may be safely thousands of miles away from the conflict, gunshots and any immediate danger, a whole group of our global coworking community are not.
15 days ago, representatives of the Coworking Association Ukraine joined us at the Coworking Alliance Summit. We learned from them and were inspired as they planned ways to better support coworking communities and the surrounding neighborhoods, all across in their country.
And then everything changed. At the strike of a clock, planning for the future, empowerment and connectivity turned towards the urgent needs for building defenses and ensuring mortal safety.
Unsurprisingly, almost as quickly as the madness began, coworking leaders began looking for ways to help our colleagues, and their communities.
With so many campaigns, projects and support networks already being established and extended, here’s some that you may have missed:
- How to support Ukraine by Vika Zhurbas, from the Coworking Association Ukraine.
- Coworking for Ukraine launched by Christophe Fahle, One Coworking and partners to help refugees.
- WeHelpUkraine launched by Hugo de Sousa and a small team in Portugal to help refugees.
- Open doors and arms campaign in Netherlands, Slovenia and Poland by European Coworking Assembly.
- This boycott call & discussion by workspace tech co andcards on Facebook and LinkedIn.
- Countless trips, pickups, safe landings being coordinated for strangers and some of the tech teams behind some of your favorite coworking and workspace tech platforms.
- Alongside all the amazing work being done by these multinational and local NGOs.
Do check them out, see how you can support those who could use your help in any way.
And to our friends affected directly or indirectly, I truly wish for the rapid return to safety, stability and sanity for you and your loved ones.
Hector Kolonas
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🎉 Coworking celebrations.
📜 WorkSmart now a NYS Certified Women Owned Business
Congrats Christy Alexander, and thanks for all you do for your community!
👉 Read this.
Coworking news & views.
🇮🇪 Ireland’s National Hub network shared their first radio ad
Allan Mulrooney shares ConnectHub‘s first radio ad, promoting flexible workspace near peoples homes. We first introduced the Irish government’s plan to make remote working and flexible hubs more accessible back in week 1 of 2021.
👉 Read this.
📹 New video series to help brokers get up to speed on flex options
Jamie Russo (from Everything Coworking) and Kane Willmott (from iQ Office) are running a short video series to get commercial real estate brokers up to speed on today’s space-as-a-service options, benefits and monetization strategies.
👉 Read this.
🌊 3 far-reaching implications of the remote-work revolution.
Derek Thompson likens the long-term shift in office work to a cannonball dropped in a lake, whose ripples distort every corner of the labor market, even if a majority of Americans cannot and do not work remotely.
The 3 major implications touched on are that the five-day workweek is dying, hybrid work is going to be messy, and cities are freaking the fudge out.
👉 Read this.
👩⚕️ Coworking space partners up to put health & wellness first
Charlotte Kirby announced that The Village Hive Coworking has partnered with rxRecourse to provide wellness workshops to their member community and others. Through the partnership, the latter will deliver monthly virtual workshops on topics including Nutrition, Stress & Mindset, Habit Changes and more.
I expect to see a lot more partnerships and perks between coworking spaces and mental/physical health providers and professionals.
👉 Read this.
☕️ Another great example of café slash flex workspace from London
The team at Decent Packaging chatted with Georgie Randon, all about HomeWork who run coffee-shop-slash-workspaces in South West London on high streets in residential areas.
I’ve been a huge fan of drop-in flex workspaces that are designed to be ‘something else’ for a while. Especially when that something else is a café with great coffee and delicious food. With a lot of new focus from operators on food and beverage offerings, it’s refreshing hear from folks who went from F&B towards flex space.
👉 Read this.
🗣 Firm brings straightforward access to flexible therapy to the high street.
Harry Bliss shares news from Self Space (who provide ultra-accessible therapy & mental healthy support services to individuals and businesses) about a big move into high street locations.
Alongside recent news about partnerships between coworking and mental health practitioners, this gets me thinking that we could see ‘drop-in therapy’ spaces like these in or near more coworking spaces.
👉 Read this.
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💻 Coworking technology.
📲 Cloud-based access control co announces new integration.
Brivo announced an integration this week with Bisner‘s Workplace app. The announcement follows on the heels of their recent integration announcement with Proximity management system.
Integrations are going to be critical as more and more flex and traditional office operators want greater interconnectivity from each solution they implement across their operational stacks.
👉 Read this.
✅ Workspace platform brings feedback forms front-and-center.
Brendan O’Neil shares that Robin have added in feedback forms into their app, to get consistent employee or user feedback about the office experience – without needing them to go elsewhere or remember/create new credentials.
I expect to see more ways to gather feedback being brought into the tenant or member experience, and that data will drive rapid changes and competitiveness for those who know how, where and when to use it.
👉 Read this.
Coworking market moves.
🚀 Workbar adds new 22k sqft suburban location
The suburb-focused coworking space operator announced a new location, which will also feature the network’s first “telepresense room” which creatively uses smart TVs and specific seating so that virtual meeting attendees can be at eye-level to each other.
👉 Read this.
🎙 Coworking conversations.
Liz Elam and Shlomo Silber, from Bond Collective, chat about the growth of coworking, the priority of creating a health and wellness environment within your space to facilitate the work/life balance we all crave, and these exciting times giving us back the vibrancy of life.
Scott Morey and Jim Young discuss the state of flex & coworking, as well as the trends WeWork is seeing across the marketplace in the Realcomm Live podcast.
Jamie Russo hosts Kane Willmott from iQ Office, Nicole Vasquez from Deskpass, Laurent Dhollande from Pacific Workplaces & CloudVO, Kayley DiCicco from Expansive and myself from… well here.. and Syncaroo to share some of our perspectives on what 2022 could look like for the coworking and flex space industry on the Everything Coworking podcast.
Alex Ahom and Jose Antonio Morales (from Aurora Coworking Network in Slovenia) chat about the future of rural coworking on the Coworking Values podcast.