The architecture firm is behind one the more unique coworking space networks in the United States, Arrowstreet, Brooklyn Boulders (BKB), has created a productive environment amongst the climbing walls. Utilizing reuse designs, like a converted warehouse in Sommerville, and expanding their industrial-inspired pallet, the most recent Long Island City location has made it’s home in a luxury residential building.

We spoke with Sean Selby, Principal Architect at Arrowstreet, and lead designer on the Brooklyn Boulders project, about the ways in which the “Active Collaborative Workspace” can make us more motivated, and of course, healthier.

Hi, Sean. Can you please tell us a bit about your introduction to coworking and the decision to create an “active collaborative workspace”?

As many people know, coworking spaces are part of a a phenomenon embraced by a new generation of workers. These are the same that uses city bikes and Uber to get around the city, and stays at an AirBnB when traveling. It’s part of the sharing economy but, more importantly, it’s built on making professional and social connections for new ideas and more productivity.

Typically, the physical layout of coworking space includes long tables and desks in an open area, plenty of common areas like kitchens and huddle rooms, and a small number of closed offices. The result is that attorneys, engineers, environmentalists, and even playwrights share the same room. While it might not work in a traditional closed office, it thrives in this environment. I’m interested in it because it creates new possibilities for how we live, work and play.

How does a coworking space that focuses on fitness differ from other more traditional spaces in your opinion?

While the typical coworking space looks different than traditional office space, it still has all of the components that an office needs: desk space, conference rooms, printing stations kitchens with coffee. The main distinction of a coworking space in a gym is that it’s less sedentary. Taking a break from building spreadsheets and composing meeting agendas in the gym means swinging kettle bells rather than eating cookies. Pull ups instead of more coffee. The core theme is that by exercising the body, the mind responds with more creativity and innovation.

What does a day in the life of a Brooklyn Boulders member look like?

I’ll give an example. I have a friend who is able to split his time living in two parts of the country. He is a designer, and wherever his laptop is, his “office” follows. While he doesn’t need a traditional office, he does need somewhere to work. In the six months of the year that he spends in the Boston area, he joins Brooklyn Boulders as a member and utilizes the Active Collaborative Workspace. My friend was first drawn to it because he is an avid climber, but the workspace function allows him to seamlessly mix his work, exercise and play times throughout his normal day.

Sean Selby

While other BKB patrons may not have as flexible a schedule, the availability of the option to work at the gym can only help to create other avenues for how people do their work and live their lives.

Would you say that more active workers are more focused and motivated?

There are numerous studies that demonstrate that cultivating a more balanced and physically fit body through exercise, meditation, and mindfulness leads to more creativity and productivity. The activities taking place in the gyms we’ve designed like rock-climbing, yoga, slackline exercises, and parkour place an emphasis on body control, strength, concentration and problem-solving. These physical activities, more than any other fitness routines, build and reinforce the mind synapses that result in healthier brain activity, better memory, and less stress.

You have designed various spaces, from personal housing, to shopping centers. What role does design play in creating workspace that is productive and open?

Design is absolutely critical to the success of productive workspace. By asking questions and challenging traditional configurations, design activates and exposes the possibilities inherent in the project location, occupant needs, budgets, and available local resources. Note, one-size-fits-all design is short-sighted and doesn’t last, while design thinking can capture the authenticity of a project, and create a special place that people want to come back to, again and again.

What are some of the most important things to consider when designing a contemporary workspace?

Understanding the context is key. While ideas of openness and collaboration may be important to unrelated workspaces in Phoenix and Minneapolis, users in each may inhabit them at varying levels of privacy and idea sharing. Similarly, a workspace with coworkers serving a single industry, like environmental law and activism for example, would have specific needs a more generalized coworking space could do without.

Brooklyn Boulders

In the example of the coworking space in Brooklyn Boulders, the ambiance of the gym includes a changing assortment of music genres blaring from the overhead speakers, chalk dust in the air, and a dress code that is more sweat suit than business suit. It’s not for everyone, but it certainly works very well for the coworkers who show up every day at the gym to work.

While other BKB patrons may not have as flexible a schedule, the availability of the option to work at the gym can only help to create other avenues for how people do their work and live their lives.

Earlier this year, the Harlem Garage, one of New York City’s vibrant coworking spaces sadly closed its doors. The Harlem Garage was seen as a beacon of creativity in the Harlem community has left an empty space in its wake, but also room for new opportunities.

Things could bounce back rapidly, though. Ike Echebiri, serial entrepreneur and founder of Startupmound, is planning to launch a 24hr coworking and event space in Harlem called The Base. Ike, who runs  a service that allows startups to pitch to investors though an iOS app and in-person events, used to host a monthly startup pitching event at the Harlem Garage. We spoke with him about utilizing coworking to bring benefits to communities, neighborhood and business.

Hi Ike. Your project entails utilizing coworking spaces in Harlem to revitalize neighborhoods. Can you please tell us a bit more about your plans?

Well, not only will the new space be used by local startups and small businesses, non profits and government agencies have also shown intent to utilize the new space, including the Network For Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) as well as divisions of the Manhattan Borough. Change is always an idea before it becomes action, and with companies like NFTE we’ll be helping to insert this idea of change into the minds of the neighborhood’s youth through mentoring sessions and guest speakers.

With the help of the Borough we’ll be able to host city events that’ll attract attention and raise interest in the area. We also aim to work with the local colleges and universities to ensure that their entrepreneurial talent will have options to remain in the area upon leaving.

In what ways do you see coworking as a solution/or tool that could breathe new life into overlooked neighborhoods?

Collaboration and association often leads to innovation, and the coworking environment is filled with both. The more innovation that comes from these overlooked neighborhoods the more businesses it will attract. Also as more and more businesses work from a space the more foot traffic the neighborhood receives raising incentives to keep that area clean and safe.

Do you have any experience first hand with seeing the positive affects that coworking can have on underprivileged areas?

I was fortunate enough to see the effects that The Harlem Garage had on Harlem before closing, which is why it is so important to keep coworking options here in this area. The positive attention Harlem Garage brought to the area attracted WeWork, who’ll soon be opening up a space in a different area of Harlem.

What projects in Harlem do you currently see as having potential to create real change? 

CoFound Harlem is no doubt making strides to create real change with their accelerator program.

There will absolutely be efforts to branch into new neighborhoods local, nationally and internationally. Our first test will be Harlem and based on it’s success we will research similar areas that stand to benefit in the same way. I believe the most important factor is timing, so that has to be right before we begin any new project.

The Harlem Garage collaborated with local schools and networking events. In what ways do you work together and what have been the results of these partnerships?

To be clear, I don’t work for Harlem Garage. Startupmound, my company, hosted one of the networking events that collaborated with them. As a result of my monthly pitching event, I was able to bring some of NYC’s top investors out to Harlem and showcase Harlem’s best and brightest startups.

Through the event we not only introduced startups to investors, but startups to the coworking environment, and investors to Harlem. While the Harlem Garage was operating we had the longest running startup networking event and will continue the tradition of the Startupmound Pitch Series at The Base.

What are some of the current challenges professionals face in Harlem? And, what solutions can coworking offer?

One of the major challenges professionals face in Harlem is fear of change and push back from the community. Harlem’s culture is so deeply rooted in art, fashion, food and music and I sometimes feel people think that embracing the tech space will diminish those cultural anchors. It’s quite the opposite, going back to what I said about collaboration and association leading to innovation, all of those categories art, fashion, food and music all evolve over time because of innovation. So by collaborating and hosting industry specific events I believe we will overcome this fear by creating a more inclusive Harlem.

Source:

Three years ago, Melissa Mesku had a nascent business and was working from home. Fascinated by the concept of coworking, after her experience living in shared housing cooperatives in the Bay Area, one of which she started herself, Melissa wondered if the alternative kind of ethos of cooperative living could be translated into New York City business sector. Tired of working from home and curious about coworking, Melissa set out to find a coopertive workspace that would suit her needs. Since then, she founded Newworker, once of the biggest coworking magazines following the movement.

We caught up with Melissa to talk about the importance of having a coworking media community, that will “meet the combined needs of the personal and the professional, in order to stay relevant”.

Hi, Melissa. What was your first experience with coworking in NYC?

I visited a couple spaces and they really didn’t appeal to me: Snazzy, expensive places where I never met anyone. Then I found the right spot, a clubhouse sort of place, and I was like, “Hell yeah, I’m home.” In working there I became friends with a lot of people, including Tony Bacigalupo who started the place. In knowing him I got to see what other coworking owners were trying to do and I wanted to help out. All I could really offer, just as a person who coworks, was my perspective as a member.

I didn’t realize how valuable that was, but then I realized there were tons of people like me who are all about coworking even though they don’t own a space, they just worked from one. I connected with some of them and the idea to bring us all together to create something just kind of grew from there. For me, I was slightly obsessed with the possibility that thousands of people who cowork could come together to do something big, like how Ashley Proctor and the Coworking Ontario folks started a healthcare plan for coworkers.

As an enthusiastic coworker you wanted to contribute to the movement you started Newworker. 

As I saw it, coming together is the first step, and that if people who coworked realized as I did that there are lots of us who have shared needs and goals, that that possibility might grow from there. A magazine was just one way of doing it; I used to be an editor and knew I could offer that, and honestly I wanted a reason to get back into it anyway. I held a video chat on Google Hangouts for people who wanted to take part. I wondered at a couple points whether it would be worth it – small magazines don’t make any money and they’re a lot of work. But all of a sudden I had submissions rolling in and I was like, well, I guess this is happening! That was three years ago.

What’s your experience now compared to when you started New Worker Magazine?

In the beginning there was just us and Deskmag. Early on, I got a call from a producer at CBS; he said he wanted to interview the head of the biggest coworking publication. I sent the guy to Carsten at Deskmag. Then the guy comes back to me and says, “But Deskmag is in Europe! I need the head of the biggest coworking publication in the United States!” I thought about it for a second and I laughed. “Shit, I guess you’re talking to her.” Now there are a whole bunch and it’s great. Last week I got an email from Ryan at Coworking Insights. He said he wanted to guest write “and of course be the best of friends.” I love it. This movement has come so far and there’s still plenty of room to grow. Bring it on.

What have you learned about the overall movement from the perspective of running New Worker?

That the topic of coworking is just a very small part of what’s interesting to people who cowork. It’s the nexus we’ve formed around, but it’s boring if that’s all we talk about. If coworking spaces arose to meet the combined needs of the personal and the professional, we’ve got to keep that breadth going if we are to stay relevant. Bringing coworking members together is great, but it’s got to be paired with real world value for them if they’re going to take part.

What are some of the major challenges coworking and coworkers face that you have learned about through interviews/stories?

I’ve never been a coworking operator so I’ll just speak to what it’s like for members, at least some of the hundreds I’ve come to know. The biggest challenge is getting their work situation to actually work. A sizable percentage of people who chose coworking work for themselves, and many are relatively new at it. Their challenges are any entrepreneur’s challenges, but they could be either ameliorated or exacerbated by coworking. The coworking gold standard is not just wifi and a desk but also events and community for entrepreneurs. The challenge is that on the one hand you’re totally pumped by your own entrepreneurial fervor and you hear it echoed by people around you, and it’s invigorating, motivating. And on the other hand you’re struggling to keep your head above water, you’re overworked, and even with what the coworking space and your network can provide, you don’t have enough resources to keep it going for long.

In general, it’s not easy. I see a lot of people stick it out for a long time while it’s not working. And then it works out. Or it doesn’t. You don’t know. Insofar as coworking keeps you going and you end up somewhere good, great. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I’ve seen some entrepreneurs slog away at it for too long, past the point that their businesses were no longer viable, but they didn’t want to give up on the dream.

The dream is reinforced in coworking spaces, and for those people, that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Of course, in the end you also come away with a network of people, too, and that alone makes it worth it. The issue is that while coworking spaces lose members to other spaces sometimes, often the reason people leave coworking entirely is that they went back to having a traditional job. It’s an issue, and I don’t know that much can be done about it. The economy will largely be what dictates that one.

On that same note, what can you say about the coworking scene in NYC?

Until a few years ago, NYC had more coworking spaces than anywhere else. A few years ago I naively set out to see them all, but there are so many that it became a Borgesian impossibility. We since launched an interactive map of every real coworking space in the greater NYC area – it’s the most comprehensive and up to date tool of its kind here, and it makes the sheer magnitude of coworking offerings only slightly less impossible to for locals to negotiate. The great thing about having all these spaces here is, from the standpoint of a potential member, I have lots of good choices. This place is sleek; that place has cool people; this place isn’t a place but a community that meets in different restaurants, etc. I’ve always said that if you have multiple spaces to choose from, to treat coworking like Tinder and try ’em all.

Over the years I’ve run into a number of the same people in different spaces here and there. I really got my start at New Work City, the first coworking space in New York. Years in, it turned out it was really true: that anyone who was anyone in the NY tech and startup scene had passed through New Work City’s doors at one time or another. Some of them even went on to run their own spaces. But as for a scene uniting these spaces? I can’t say that there is much of one, though many, many spaces definitely have their own social scene orbiting around them. There’s a lot of potential for these groups to come together, and sometimes they do, but it generally overlaps with or is simply absorbed by the wider tech scene of Silicon Alley.

How do you think that magazines/media can help to grow the movement productively?

Any movement needs a place for dialogue or there won’t be a movement at all. If we don’t continue share stories within our own groups, I guess we’d have to wait for outsiders to tell us what’s going on with us until we were no more. But when ideas are generated internally within a group, they spread easily and become part of who we are individually and collectively. This shared internal discourse authenticates ideas as they pop up, and we find ourselves acting upon them and refining them naturally. When we share what we know, we help each other without even realizing it.

What are some of the things the coworking movement needs to embrace in order to smoothly transition into the future of work?

Coworking started not too long ago and most practitioners have kept fairly close to its origins; most coworking spaces are small community-oriented institutions that are naturally focused on integrating the business and personal needs of their members. At the same time you could also say that coworking – as an industry – is now dominated by major players who have taken the original concept of coworking and turned it into a business above all else. I think it’s natural that those O.G.-style coworking space operators who have kept coworking true to its roots will feel a schism here. I think in time this will continue to grow until the two splinter off from each other, perhaps one carrying the word “coworking” with it and the other adopting another name and perhaps even a different model as things change.

No business model is sustainable anymore. Coworking emerged to meet a need, a need that has grown exponentially, and many have stepped in to bank off that. But the model will shift as people’s needs shift. It’s not that coworking as we know it will look so very different ten years from now – it’s that other institutions that are also experimenting with integrating people’s personal and professional needs will have come up with their own combinations that might end up looking very similar to this one. A childcare facility with space for parents to work next door is not so different from a coworking space with childcare, and we’ve seen such spaces start to bloom all over the world.

How coworking really broke the mold was in normalizing mix-and-match experimentation as a business model for the mobile millennial workforce. Anyone out there experimenting on the bleeding edge of providing people with innovative ways to live better will be following in coworking’s footsteps, and if it’s actual coworking spaces leading the pack, it won’t be the big guys. The big guys aren’t lean, they can’t pivot like small organizations can, and they aren’t in the business of solving a community’s unique needs. The leaders of coworking 1.0 have aced the essence of today’s entrepreneurialism in that they’ve started businesses intimately tied to a specific group of people who identify with them and trust them. Those who know this implicitly are the ones who will be met with success in the future.

Source:

Edspace was started by four co­founding directors, who all worked in education in some way, but felt that changes needed to be made. The Edspace Team were inspired by the coworking movement, realizing that that could not only benefit from working in a sector specific space, but that they could foster change via a shared workspace that focused on education and community.
We spoke with Laura and James from the Edspace team to learn more about the role that coworking can play in changing education for the better.

Hi, Edspace team. Can you please tell us a bit about how you started your space? 

(Laura)We started off  in a temporary space in Camden in London, that was around 4,000 square feet. Once we outgrew that, we had the opportunity to move to our official home, in partnership with the Hackney Community College. Today we have 11,000 square ft, with over 40 companies who are out members, while continuing to grow.

Since your space is focused on transforming education can you please tell us why you chose to create a niche space, rather than one that would be open to various startups and professions? 

(Laura)There’s a huge movement of coworking spaces of course, and many of them are open to anyone, but for us we saw a benefit to being sector-specific. One of the main benefits of narrowing our focus was to pinpoint the specific shared challenges by our community and therefore we make space for highly productive collaboration. We are all sharing a social mission in addition to a business one.

We get feedback from a lot of people who have found that they didn’t have much in common with other companies when they were a part of other more broad coworking spaces. As we are not just a space, but also an education institution, there is no better place to look at education in terms of the opportunities that the college gives , which includes access to students and teachers.

What were some of the challenges that you identified in the education system that you are now attempting to change/improve? ­

(Laura)The education system is still very traditional but, education is a huge ecosystem that involves not only institutions but also libraries, parents, grandparents, in addition to life long learning, career development, employment opportunities and various other specialties. In short, education is massive and there is innovation to be found in an amazing variety of ways and areas.

Edspace as a co­working space does not tackles a specific challenge, but moreover, supports members who are tackling specific challenges.

How does a coworking facilitate progress within education? Can you give us any examples of projects between co­workers that have led to changes? ­

(Laura)One of the things we offer is support to members, including connecting them to professionals experts from the college, as well as external experts for anything from public speaking, to investment, to making an effective pitch or even how to hone the skills that are need to build a successful education company.

Also, Emerge Education is our sister company and they are a three month accelerator program for edtech companies. Some examples of how things are currently moving forward would be a company called Empowering Futures, who is in touch with the Careers office at the college. We are also organizing events that link the companies that work here with school leaders in the local community. We are also organizing an event that links the companies that work here with school

(James) The idea behind this event is to showcase the most innovative companies and companies that we have at edspace with that hope that the schools wll use them and in turn imporve the quality of education. One of the biggest problems for schools is that they don’t know what some of these companies can offer because, there is a a gap between school leaders and edtech companies and we are trying to currently bridge that gap.

How can coworking spaces create room for collaboration with outside partners, and, does your community work with external communities?

(Laura) The classes we offer are put on by different experts, only some of which are members. We also have breakfasts that anyone can attend in which teachers from the college have joined , as well as people interested in becoming members. We support local businesses, including the store where we buy fruit for our members from Buzz Bar, a one stop media shop up the road with whom we partner and with and through we have various discounts.

In the future we could possibly utilize other aspects of out resource rich neighborhood, including the public library on site, the nursery and the primary school. The longer we are here the more relationships we build.

Do you believe that coworking spaces should be implemented in classrooms, or should students have access to a space? How do you imagine the role of coworking in education in the future?

(Laura)  More and more people are working in careers or roles that suit coworking spaces. Also , more traditional offices are trying to become more like coworking spaces, so there is a benefit for students to see the advantages of coworking spaces as that will be the direction of a lot of companies. There are some schools such as the Stockholm school without classrooms that is descrbed as a “meeting place with a positive and open atmosphere” that are also deisigned like a coworking space , so tht are schools experiementing with this type of dynamic and trying to translate the lessons of an effective coworking space into a school.

Also, how do you see technology changing the way we approach education? ­

(James) Firstly, education is going to move away from traditional ways of consuming knowledge so we’ll start moving away from textbooks and seeing different ways to learn. A good example is Now Press Play, an edtech startup who uses wireless technology to give children a unique learning experience. I also think technology has a big tole to play in helping teachers provide feedback and communication with students. Technology aims to make teachers’ lives easier so that they can focus more on teaching and less on administrative tasks.

What types of skills do the future generation of workers need to learn today to prepare them for professional success? ­

(James) Clearly there is a greater need in the UK for better IT and computing skills. That is something that is lacking. There needs to be more emphasis on character traits such as wit and determination that aren’t being measured presently.

Source:

In 2011, Julianne Becker answered an ad for a job at Deskwanted/Deskmag. The position was for someone to research, write articles, and manage social media, regarding all things coworking. This was Julianne’s first encounter with coworking, and she’s been involved ever since. Since then she assisted in the organization of the 2nd Coworking Europe conference in Berlin and is also the cofounder of Coconat, a workplace retreat just outside of Berlin.

Creating a a successful workplace retreat takes work. You not only need that idyllic location that will help your members reflect and relax, but you need to know your community. We spoke with Julianne about what it takes to build up a functional retreat for workers and how that reflects on the digital nomad community.

Hi, Julianne. Can you please tell us a bit about the concept behind Coconat?

The project is a combination of the community aspects of coworking with the tradition of artist and writing retreats that most of us are familiar with, some call it a ‘coworking hotel’, we say workation and co-living. This combination was first to satisfy the urban need for escape, to rethink the priorities of work with off-time. The project has grown to also encompass rural development and intracultural dialogue, between the city slickers and their country cousins.

Over the last several years the term “digital nomads” has made it’s way into the coworking scene. From your perspective, is this more of a trend or a growing movement?

I think the digital nomads are a kind of ‘tribe’ in what is becoming the ‘Location Independent Movement’. Those who identify themselves as digital nomads fit, from my experience, a pretty narrow demographic, and in general are pretty young. The location independent encompasses them, but also has room for those who may be more flexible in how and where they work, but who may also have some degree of in-flexibility, which can include family-life or a local business. I think that is where the real momentum lies, there is much more room to grow.

Coconat, and the growing number of places like it, are able to host people who may not be able to commit to a world-travel-all-the-time kind of life, to those who just want to break the cycle of normality. In our case, we are just a 1 hour train ride from Berlin to a completely different experience.

Are the majority of the coworkers who are utilizing Coconat coming from abroad or are they mostly from the area?

From our 2 test rounds we have a little data to give, though the real stuff will be from when we open in April. In the summer of 2015 we launched our summer of pioneers, and there we had a majority of Berlin based folks, with less than a handful that travelled to us, farthest flung from Switzerland. The following year, in May 2016, we marketed a bit more towards those who identified as digital nomads, and there we had only one German, and she travelled by car for 8 hours to participate in the week long workation event.

Both experiences were great! We get inquiries from US based people, and some permanent digital nomads who try to stay with the sun, and of course a lot of Berlin based people.

On the same note, from your experience with remote workers, are many of them looking for long term-travel or are they using retreat centers for short-term breaks/bursts of inspiration?

What is pretty amazing is that we really see a mix of both types of requests. We noticed the differing needs pretty early on and have already developed packages for many different situations. We have the ‘premium’, for lack of a better word, with really nice private rooms, everything included down to month-long workstays, where guests can chip in 10 hours a week to Coconat in exchange for a discounted rate.

Aside from the normal lingo used to describe digital nomads, such as “community” “relaxation” etc., what do you think workplace retreats can do for the overall future of work?

There are so many levels that we think about here, so I will list some of the central ones:

Community – Whether alone in a crowd or literally alone, if you don’t have people to share your ideas with, you will generally take more time to process thoughts, and in the end be less productive.

Digital nomads – On a retreat they will not only meet vacationers, but are usually tuned in to finding beautiful natural landscapes, so they will already have an appreciation for what is around.

Urban folks – For city dwellers, I can hope that a mindfulness of those moments when taking a walk in fresh air brings in some inspiration to their project that they just hadn’t thought of before. Nature and also rural spaces in general really creates a new atmosphere, where the environment is more plant based rather than cement.

The local community – They recognize the value of their community and environment with new vigor, as they start to see it through the experiences of others who visit. They will have a chance to explore interests with a larger circle of people, and possibly be introduced to topics and experts that they can really use in their daily lives

Concentrated work – Different work-styles and tasks require different kinds of workspace. This is where coworking really comes in to play for me. Quiet open floor plans, cozy café areas, private spaces outside with the trees, meeting rooms and spaces for the pow-wows. We take work seriously, so you don’t even have to think about it.

What I can imagine is that people can walk away with a mindfulness of what workspace works best for them. They can sit in a different space every hour, and feel where is right for them.

Do you think we should, or could, make it mandatory that employees take a certain part of the year to go away and work?

To be honest, that would be amazing. I think that it would really bring a lot of fresh ideas, perspectives, and in general more energy to the companies who did so. Of course they would have to keep in mind families and other external structures that may make these types of trips difficult, but in general I think that there can be solutions to these challenges.

Could this potentially blur the lines between vacation / work life?

No. This is definitely something that comes up a lot when I am introducing the idea of Coconat to people.
The time at Coconat should not be considered a vacation. It could be time when take time off from your ‘money-job’ to focus on your own passion project, and maybe a person uses their ‘vacation-time’ to do that, but that is it’s own situation. In general a person who comes to Coconat should be clocking their hours, taking their breaks, and getting some stuff done.

What are some of you current plans for the project?

We will be opening in April and hosting our stakeholder workshop in December, where we will start engaging the greater Coconat community to develop the project and the programming. We are also planning programmes for families, where the kids have activities and the parents can work.

Our community engagement strategy will also be implemented, which has already been significantly developed by a group of Master’s students from the Berlin School of Economics and Law.

Source:

Coworking Europe Conference 2016 took place in Brussels. Check out the storify:

SocialWorkplaces.com, organizer of the Coworking Europe Conference, is proud to be the supporting organization behind the Deskmag Global Coworking Survey, 2017.

ANNOUNCING THE 2017 GLOBAL COWORKING SURVEY

The Global Coworking Survey is back and ready for your input! Coworking space owners, operators as well as members of coworking spaces from around the world are encouraged to participate. Deskmag annually surveys the global coworking community by proposing new questions regarding the coworking movement. The survey covers topics like development, challenges, member satisfaction and more. The information provided by the community is then gathered and published into a comprehensive report, which provides detailed results about coworking and is free to the public. The survey is anonymous. 

The final results are subsequently shared online and at coworking events around the world. Making these results publicly available is an important service to the industry, and reflects the spirit of sharing and collaboration that is a fundamental part of the coworking movement.

TAKE THE SURVEY

The Deskmag Coworking Survey is a collective effort, and we need your help to spread the word! The more participants we have, the more information we get to better understand coworking today! The knowledge we gather ultimately helps the global coworking community better understand current trends, challenges and how their businesses compares to the industry today.

Interested in the results of the Global Coworking Survey? Complete the survey at www.coworkingsurvey.com and become an official supporter!

Thank you, your voice will be heard!

Source:

For the first time, the Coworking Europe conference organizes a double Awards contest open to the international Coworking community.

We created two categories which are representative of some the most important fields making coworking successful : Community Building and Workspace Design.

Rewards related to both Awards will be more than 3.000€ worth each. Check out the details below. 

1. Best Coworking Community Action Award

The Best Coworking Community Action Award will reward an original action taken by a coworking space which  helped to strenghten the space’s community, improved the common understanding and tights between members, helped to make personal connections more organic, brought added value to the members and more engagement with the outside ecosystem, or created a clearer identity and set of values with a measurable outcome.

2. Best Coworking Design Award

The Best Coworking Design Award will reward the most original space design, taking into account parameters such as the esthetic, the message behind the design, the overall coherence of the project with respect to the identity of the space and its positioning or an innovative layout concept which offers new perspectives and a smart way to distribute productive, chillout or collaboration zones.

You can apply to take part in the Award contest for one or both categories.

Application process

Who can apply ?

Coworking spaces from Europe, mainly, however applications from the rest of the world will be warmly welcomed too.
The Coworking Europe organisation team only keep the right to filter out application coming from player ways outside the broad understanding of what a coworking space is nowaday (no consistent sense of identity or community, for instance).

How to apply ?

The process is simple. In the form below, choose the category you aim to apply for. In 10 or 15 lines maximum, explain the action you have taken which was impactful in terms of community building, according to you or what is the philisophy and what makes the design of your space uniquely special.
On top of the short paragrapher, supply a weblink to a link where pictures either of the action or of the space design are to be seen (image gallery on a website, Picasa, Facebook Album, Pinterest, whatever). Ideally between 5 and 10 pictures.

Who will make the decision on the Award ?

The attendees of the Coworking Europe conference will compose the jury of the contest. All delegates will have access to the list of applications to each Award as well as to a voting system availble on the event App. The applications which gonna receive the highest number of votes will be granted the Award.

Where one can see the application ?

Once the deadline for application will be over, all the applications and all the spaces who will have submitted an application to the Award Contest will be displayed on the Coworking Europe website. The page of the Award application will be openly accessible for everyone online.

What is the deadline to apply ?

The last day to submit the application to the award will be November 25th.

Are there any rewards  ?

Rewards related to both Awards will be more than 3.000€ worth each and made out of : 6 months free usage of the ESSENSYS platform, 12 months free access of the KISI smartlocking system, 1 place at Coworkation Catalunya as well as two free entrances to Coworking Europe 2017.

The two laureates will be individually promoted on all our online channels. All applications will also be displayed and made visible with the name of each applying spaces on a same location on our online platform.

• Application Form to the Best Community Action Award 
• Application Form to the Best Coworking Design Award

With the support of :

The Best Coworking Community Action Award 2016 will be attributed on behalf of Coworking Europe/ SocialWorkplaces.com and of our Platinum sponsor Essensys.

Source:

Apply to the Coworking Europe 2016 Awards contest !

For the first time, the Coworking Europe conference organizes a double Awards contest open to the international Coworking community.

We created two categories which are representative of some the most important fields making coworking successful : Community Building and Workspace Design.

Rewards related to both Awards will be close to 3.000€ worth each. Check out the details below. 

1. Best Coworking Community Action Award

The Best Coworking Community Action Award will reward an original action taken by a coworking space which  helped to strenghten the space’s community, improved the common understanding and tights between members, helped to make personal connections more organic, brought added value to the members and more engagement with the outside ecosystem, or created a clearer identity and set of values with a measurable outcome.

2. Best Coworking Design Award

The Best Coworking Design Award will reward the most original space design, taking into account parameters such as the esthetic, the message behind the design, the overall coherence of the project with respect to the identity of the space and its positioning or an innovative layout concept which offers new perspectives and a smart way to distribute productive, chillout or collaboration zones.

You can apply to take part in the Award contest for one or both categories.

Application process

Who can apply ?

Coworking spaces from Europe, mainly, however applications from the rest of the world will be warmly welcomed too.
The Coworking Europe organisation team will only keep a right to filter out applications coming from players way outside the broad understanding of what a coworking space is nowaday (project without a consistent sense of identity or community, for instance).

How to apply ?

The process is simple : through the very short forms listed here below. Choose the category you aim to apply for and click on the corresponding application form.

In 5 to 25 lines maximum, based on the Award you are applying for, explain the action you have taken or what makes the design of your space uniquely special. In addition to this, you will be asked to supply a weblink related to a blogpost or an online location where pictures either of the action or of the space design are to be seen (image gallery on a website, Picasa, Facebook Album, Pinterest, whatever). Ideally between 5 and 10 pictures.

Who will make the decision on the Awards’ winners?

The attendees of the Coworking Europe conference will compose the jury of the contest. All delegates will have access to a voting system through the Coworking Europe the event App. In each category, the application which gonna receive the highest number of votes will be granted the Award.

Where one can see the application and is it open to people not attending Coworkign Europe 2016 ?

Absolutely. Once the deadline will be over, all the applications and all the spaces who will have submitted an application to the Coworking Europe Awards Contest will be listed and their application displayed on the Coworking Europe website (unless one applicant ask not to do display his application). The page of the Award application will be openly readable by everyone online.

What is the deadline to apply ?

The last day to submit the application to the award will be November 25th.

Are there any rewards  ?

Rewards related to both Awards will be more than 3.000€ worth each and made out of : 6 months free usage of the ESSENSYS platform, 12 months free usage of the KISI smart-locking system for your space, 1 place to a Coworkation trip in Barcelona as well as two free entrances to Coworking Europe 2017.

The two laureates will be individually promoted on all our online channels. All applications will also be displayed and made visible with the name of each applying spaces on a same location on our online platform.

Application Forms

• Application Form to the Best Community Action Award 
• Application Form to the Best Coworking Design Award

With the support of :

The Best Coworking Community Action Award 2016 will be attributed on behalf of Coworking Europe/ SocialWorkplaces.com and of our Platinum sponsor Essensys.

Source:

Essensys is a leader in building software for workspace operators throughout the world. The platform aims at powering every workspace operator’s business, allowing them to grow by automating processes from lead to cash and everything in between. The Essensys software also provides an active community interface that serves as a global networking and member directory, a social feed, and a communication tool for events, announcements, and operator-to-member and member-to-member messaging.

We interviewed Steve Eveleigh, CMO of Essensys, one of the main partners for this year’s Coworking Europe conference.

Hi, Steve. You provide a digital workplace management platform. How do you make sure that your tool remains as “human-centric” as possible?

There is a misconception that technology removes the human element.

In our ten years’ experience, we’ve seen operators hindered by the complexity of running their workspaces. Consumed by manual billing and invoicing, mundane administrative tasks and clunky IT management, operators spend little time in the workspace with their members. Our platform resolves the problem of inefficient processes and the need to juggle multiple vendors, contracts and systems in a way that gives operators more time to focus on their customer relationships and the member experience in their center.  

Our software not only makes managing the coworking space easier and more efficient so operators can spend more time with their members. It also provides a digital community platform for all. Members can take ownership and initiative in building the community that they want with the ability to connect and grow relationships within their workspace community platform.

Connecting, co-collaborating and building professional and social bonds is easier and more human-centric than ever.

What improvements has workplace tech made over the last years and what can still be worked on? 

As we said, Technology has saved operators time, money and resources giving them the chance to engage more with their customers.  Without a reliable IT infrastructure underpinning the operation, operators wouldn’t be able to support all of the applications and devices their members are using daily.
Comprehensive software and integrated systems are being leveraged to offer on-demand services to workspace members. Greater flexibility and 24/7 access to workspace services give members greater flexibility and access to services from anywhere at any time.

There is the belief that with the more technology that enters the workplace, the more we will value and improve human relations. Do you agree?

At Essensys, we have platforms that give workspace members the ability to see and connect with other professionals within their community, giving them new collaboration and business opportunities they wouldn’t have had in a traditional office or working from home.

We definitely believe that the social aspect of these connections in the workspace is what gives greater and improved value to human relations and interconnectivity and today’s workplace.

You serve both. What are some of the differences you see between coworking spaces and serviced offices based on their needs?

While Coworking and serviced/executive offices are essentially delivering the same sort of service – a physical place where people can work – they are intrinsically different in terms of how the services are delivered.

Coworking operators are much more focused on the individual members whereas serviced offices are working with multiple smaller groups of people, small to medium sized companies. The main variation in needs is that serviced offices are much more dependent upon complex infrastructure to support a larger space divided into smaller private offices, multiple conference rooms for groups to work together.

While coworking operators also require tools that simplify site management, they put more value on the tools that can help them manage their individual members and the community as a group, rather than multiple small groups, and then enable those people to work together.

The future of work is in progress. What would you say might be needed in the future from the perspective of software management tools? Is Essensys planning to add additional services?

The ability to connect shared workspaces across the globe and enable digital natives to work more flexibly from wherever and whenever they want is where the future of work is heading. Software management tools must define how to underpinning that network to support collaboration and a global community of workers.
Essensys has already begun laying the framework for this network and it won’t be long before our platform is powering the global shared workspace industry.

Source: