As Impact Hub demonstrates, building an international coworking brand is not reserved to highly-funded companies taking up hundreds of thousands of square meters in the world’s best city location. Impact Hub is the world’s largest independent coworking spaces network, all supporting the development of entrepreneurial communities looking for a “societal impact”. As of today, Impact Hub is an umbrella supervizing more than 100 locations spread over 50+ countries, hosting close to 16.000 members. Each hub offers support in fields such as entrepreneurship, idea incubation and business development on top of the coworking service.

We have interviewed Flora Rosenow, Global Brand & Communications Director at Impact Hub Network, to learn about the secrets of their success, the challenges they faced and the vision and mission all hubs have in common.

Hello. After more than a decade of operation and so many locations now opened on the planet, what are the ingredients of Impact Hub’s success?

Our Impact Hubs are always driven by a local founding team, who not just understands the local context but also deeply cares about it, as most Impact Hub founders come from the area where they want to open an Impact Hub. They found independent businesses that are united by our vision to create a more just and sustainable world in a global network structure.

You need a solid business model and culture, which needs to be rigid enough to unite everyone but flexible enough to be adapted to the respective local context. The market in Bamako, Mali looks really different to the one in Stockholm, Sweden, so you need to be able to cater for that and this is what our local founders ensure.

Our Impact Hubs are always driven by a local founding team, who not just understands the local context but also deeply cares about it.

Impact Hub is about societal impact. Why are coworking spaces the way to deliver or to help with achieving the mission?

We want to inspire, connect and enable people around the globe to create a more just and sustainable world. We believe that this can be achieved through the collective effort of many compassionate individuals and through working together. To facilitate this belief, we need to create places, where we can intentionally build this community.

Birmingham Impact Hub

So it’s about giving a home to the entrepreneurs who want to become part of a like-minded and intentional community. Solely having coworkers in a space won’t create societal impact – it’s about intentionally building this community, connecting people and engaging them. To drive systemic change, though, we need to include all parties around the table, that’s why we engage with our cities and governments and we also talk to the big organisations and support them in their goal to become more socially and environmentally conscious.

Solely having coworkers in a space won’t create societal impact – it’s about intentionally building this community, connecting people and engaging with them.

How does the franchise model work? 

Impact Hub Bamako

As a network, we are locally rooted, whilst globally connected in a democratic model. Every Impact Hub operates independently and then pays 2.5% of their revenues to the network association, which is collectively owned. This means that every Impact Hub has one representative who has one vote. They execute their voting right for every strategic decision that we as a network take. The Association is overseen by a Board that gets elected by majority voting as well. The 2.5% then pays a global team that executes the decisions on their behalf, provides strategy and cares for the network as a whole, as Impact Hub teams already have their hands full with their local operations.

Every Impact Hub operates independently and then pays 2.5% of their revenues to the network association, which is collectively owned.

What is the added value of operating under the name, Impact Hub, globally, for the spaces managers? 

Brand awareness and recognition is really important. Impact Hubs also do a lot of business together and knowledge exchange on key impact topics within the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is a big advantage as well. Moreover, our communities are virtually globally connected to facilitate that exchange. After all you can only drive systemic change and create impact at scale if you are doing so in an integrated manner.

Our communities are virtually globally connected to facilitate that exchange. After all you can only drive systemic change and create impact at scale if you are doing so in an integrated manner.

What are the main challenges regarding the global coordination? How do you make sure all locations are aligned with the way to operate and values? 

Madrid Impact Hub

Quality control and mission alignment, but over the years we have sophisticated our onboarding process to ensure this well. When a team wants to create an Impact Hub in their city, they come to us when they are at least three members in the team and together they then embark on an onboarding journey, which is a tailored process, that we update on a regular basis, based on our experiences. Every team gets paired with an onboarding coach and has a number of steps they need to do, which are natural in the founding process anyways, like creating a business plan and a financial model as well as developing an impact logic based on the global one that we co-created as a network. The beauty is that every onboarding coach has founded an Impact Hub themselves, so they know about the pain points as well as the key drivers of success. This supports the teams in the best way, whilst ensuring that new teams are mission-aligned and come with the right motivation.

Every onboarding coach has founded an Impact Hub themselves, so they know about the pain points as well as the key drivers of success.

Is there or what kind of support program/projects are you dispatching or providing through the network of Impact Hub spaces?

We run over 200 incubation and acceleration programs annually, many of them together with partners and always on impact-related topics in line with the SDGs. A good example of an accelerator program focused on the SDGs would be Accelerate 2030, with more than 15 Impact Hubs participating or our global partnership with the WWF, which has already led to a number of impact-driven programs with a focus on the environment, like the Plastic Free Ocean Accelerator of Impact Hub Amsterdam and WWF. On a day-to-day basis, we e.g. have a partnership with the Boston Consulting Group who provide our startups with free business clinics. Furthermore, our startups get a lot of exposure through the 11,000+ events that are annually happening in our spaces, where they can participate, pitch, or get connected.

How impactful are Impact Hub locations for the respective ecosystem they operate within and in which fields, would you say?

Impact Hubs are supporting the development of their local ecosystems. Depending on the socio-economic context they are in, this means more educational work to show an alternative to the existing economic system by promoting entrepreneurship, social business models, and the importance of intentional communities with purpose. In more advanced ecosystems, we become players that focus on promoting intentional community building and collaboration – all with a focus on the SDGs. In each ecosystem, we work a lot with different partners, from private to public sector and academia, because you can only really achieve progress towards the SDGs and drive positive change if you work together with all sectors and also involve those unlikely allies that might generally not sit around the same table. Facilitating and driving this exchange and joint initiatives is key to us as well as supporting our entrepreneurs on their journey from idea to scale. You can find a lot of examples of stories in our Impact Report and our latest impact figures in our Community Impact Report. For instance, our Swiss Impact Hubs have teamed up with the MAVA Foundation and are jointly working on the Circular Economy Transition of Switzerland.

Circular Economy Transition, in close collaboration with Impact Hub Switzerland, sanu durabilitas and with the support of the MAVA foundation, contributes to drive the new paradigm for the future of business, policy making and society through this 4 main pillars.

In general, we work a lot with different partners, from private to public sector and academia, because you can only really achieve progress towards the SDGs and drive positive change if you work together with all sectors and also involve those unlikely allies that might generally not sit around the same table.

In the beginning of Impact Hub, coworking was still a marginal activity. Today, coworking is becoming a true industry. How does Impact Hub finds it place?

It is true, back in 2005 when the first Impact Hub opened, coworking was still a very unknown concept that was very innovative and we were one of the early players in the field. These days, coworking is a big industry and we continue to offer coworking services, but with a focus on intentional community building. We build communities for impact at scale, using the SDGs as a lens through which we view the impact we create in the world. For that, we have surveyed our community and their impact as well as the entrepreneurial needs for a long time and have learned that there are certain key success factors that make entrepreneurs thrive. Embedding these key factors and principles into our approach ensures that the Impact Hub experience is valuable, meaningful, as well as impactful. We believe that entrepreneurial networks of communities can be a strong driver for positive change and that is what we want to continue to drive in this world.

Copernico is one of the biggest coworking players in Italy. We have interviewed Luca Pasqualotto, Vice-President and Development & Asset Management of Copernico, to find out more about the italian coworking market and Copernico’s mission, vision and future plans.

Hi Luca. What can you tell us about Copernico story and positioning?

Luca Pasqualotto

Copernico was incorporated in 2016 as the spin-off of the flexible-offices activities previously managed by Halldis, one of the main service apartments operators in Europe. Copernico is currently the main coworking and flexible office operator in Italy, managing 13 buildings, about 72,000 square meters, 8,000 members and growing with new openings in 2019 and 2020 in many Italian cities. It’s positioned as a platform that helps SMEs, large corporations and freelances to work, meet and boost their activity in a physical and social environment appositely designed and managed for their needs.

You once said: “It’s  important to build up a strong footprint in your home country before moving abroad”. Why? 

We believe that links with the local ecosystem are key to really get in touch with companies and people, then scaling to different cultural, social and business environments. Our goal is to become the point of reference for companies and professionals in Italy first and expand to other countries after that. We believe that links with the local ecosystem are key to really get in touch with companies and people, then scaling to different cultural, social and business environments.

Are there any elements in your offering that makes it specifically «Italian»?

Copernico Centrale, Milan

Most of our suppliers (furniture, food & beverage), for instance, are Italian, as well as our employees, but what makes us more effective in the local (currently Italian market) is our custom approach to the needs of our customers in order to understand their needs and create tailor solutions that make them feel at home. Doing so, we are capable to attract and retain our customers for long-term stays that can even be considered often partnerships.

Most of our suppliers (furniture, food & beverage), for instance, are Italian.

 

What drives the demand for coworking in Italy, nowadays, would you say?

Coworking and flexible offices solutions are more and more asked from all companies and professionals, since they need all-inclusive workspace solutions that help them to focus on their own core business, be flexible, know exactly how much they spend, and benefit from unique business and social networking and boosting opportunities, that are not possible in traditional offices.

Looking from abroad, Italy seems to have been a bit shier than other European countries in terms of coworking penetration. Is it a wrong impression? 

Event at Copernico

In Italy there are currently only 2 players that are as relevant as Copernico, with a 3rd one soon opening, while all the others are very small, local and independent operators with few resources and ambitions. In my opinion that is mainly due to a lower degree of maturity of the Italian real estate industry in comparison with other markets in Europe. Also, the Italian real estate market is very fragmented both in geography and in value terms, with many 2nd tier cities (only Milan and Rome are relevant from an international perspective) and many independent landlords.

The Italian real estate market is very fragmented both in geography and in value terms, with many 2nd tier cities (only Milan and Rome are relevant from an international perspective) and many independent landlords.

What are Copernico’s plans and ambition for the coming 3-4 years?

As said, we are consolidating our presence and strength in Italy, then we want to expand to other European countries.

Stéphane Bensimon, CEO of Wojo

In 2019 Nextdoor became Wojo, accelerating its development and creating the ambition to become the leading European coworking network. Two years before, Accor Group, one of the biggest international hotel companies on the planet (operating brands such as Ibis, Mercure, Sofitel, etc.) had taken a 50% share in Nextdoor, by then 100% owned by the real estate company Bouygues Immobilier. We have interviewed Stéphane Bensimon, CEO of Wojo, in order to find out more about the project Wojo and its present and future plans in Europe. Wojo’s CEO will be a speaker at the upcoming Coworking Europe conference taking take place in Warsaw on November 13-15, 2019.

Hello Yoann. A few years ago Accor Group joined Bouygues in the Nextdoor network to develop coworking offerings. Why was this move needed for both players at the time?

A 50/50 joint venture was signed in July 2017. Insofar as Accor hotels were already endowed with shared spaces conducive to meetings and interaction, the idea of offering a place to work (as well as to network) dedicated to clients and local entrepreneurs came to mind naturally. Bouygues Immobilier aims at offering its clients an opportunity to plan shared workspaces (bars, coworking spaces, lounge areas, meeting rooms, carparks) from its design stage and hence help them optimize their business costs. So the fit between both companies was clear.

Nextdoor has become Wojo. Why was a change of brand needed? Is Accor more in the driving seat now?

Accor Group meeting

Nextdoor became Wojo to help its international roll out. Wojo is a spirit – the combination of Work and Mojo. Once Accor took shares in the company’s capital we truly worked hand in hand with Accor’s Innovation Lab’ to define together the future of coworking; true teamwork followed. When the idea of a typology of spaces (“Spots” and “Corners” linked to Nextdoor sites) came about, it seemed clear that we had to reinvent ourselves in order to fulfill  peoples new ambition of working internationally, of working at most ten minutes from where one is living, etc. And no, Accor is not specifically the one in charge. We designed Wojo together and since then we have been standing on our own two feet with its support.

You want to become one of the biggest coworking providers in Europe by 2022. Why are hotel professionals well positioned to serve the flexible workplace industry would you say?

This is because the Accor staff is unrivalled in terms of reception and hospitality and we feel those to be key elements. A friendly dimension is at the core of Wojo’s offering. We welcome our new members through a shared moment, making sure that their days go by perfectly well. Accor has already got hotels ready to welcome clients all over Europe. This makes things easier for us in terms of networking. In the long run, we would like everyone to find a place to work less than 10 minutes from where he/she is located (whether a nomad or sedentary worker).

Wojo space

Workers are forever expecting more services (catering, fitness rooms, concierge services) at their workplace with which hotels are already endowed. According to an Inkidata study conducted in February 2019 for Wojo (results of the study, in french), 48% of French workers would like to benefit from spaces linked to sport or relaxation at the workplace. This is because it is the best way to offer business travellers an opportunity to make up a local network by offering a service that facilitates networking.

48% of French workers would like to benefit from spaces linked to sport or relaxation at the workplace.

Will Wojo’s expansion occur only through the Accor Group properties and hotels network or could we see Wojo spaces in third-party buildings?

By the year 2022 we expect to open 1.200 locations all over France and Europe within Accor hotels. Yet, Wojo Spots and Wojo Corners have been designed to be set up in any third-party location so long as it fulfils a certain number of requirements (high-quality and safe Wi-Fi, furniture quality, acoustics, good working conditions, etc.). In the long run they will be made available in train stations, airports, shopping centres, cafés, etc.

La Salle De Sport

Today, for example, there is a Wojo Spot in LA.SALLE.DE.SPORT with a Reebok concept store and a social club in the very heart of Paris. Not to miss out on anything, the locations that are already open can be viewed on our web app.

Nowadays hotel chains are entering the coworking field in bigger numbers. What does it tell us about the changes in the hotel business on the one hand and the evolving coworking market on the other hand?

Demand, which is directly linked to the revolution coming about in working conditions, is huge and the offerings are equally so. However, quantity does not rhyme with quality. It may appear to be easy to open up a coworking space. Yet in reality one must be in a position to offer a true experience including reception, a secure wi-fi connection, a quiet location, networking possibilities, the right atmosphere, services, etc. Small things (in reality not that small) make the difference. As for hotels: they have been disrupted by Airbnb. They are now in search of something new. By definition, a hotel is equipped as a minimum with a lobby, breakfast room, etc. in which it is tempting to improvise a coworking experience. In the long run we can imagine a client choosing a hotel no longer by pictures of the room or by how clean the spa is, but by the quality of its coworking facility.

As for hotels, they have been disrupted by Airbnb. They are now in search of something new. By definition, a hotel is equipped with a lobby, breakfast room, etc. in which it is tempting to improvise a coworking experience.

Seen from the outside, Nextdoor has positioned itself more in the corporate segment of demand for coworking with spaces located in higher-end business districts. Will Wojo keep positioning itself in that slice of the market?

We understand your interpretation, as Wojos origin comes from an intrapreneurial project on the part of Bouygues Immobilier. The first buildings meeting the conditions for such projects were naturally found in Greater Paris. Yet, from the outset, Nextdoor has had a true willingness to bring together companies of different sizes at one location to encourage open innovation. As a result of its positioning and more concretely speaking its price policy, its community has always been comprised of a host of different profiles. Wojo follows along these lines with its Wojo Spot offer of 9,90 Euros per month with no commitment. We are open to students as well as key accounts. Remote work now concerns all of us and we have at heart to see different sectors of activity, ages, trades come together, truly valuable.

Wojo Paris

Remote work now concerns all of us, and we have at heart to see different sectors of activity, ages, trades come together, truly valuable.

Wojo Spots, Wojo Corners… Is the Wojo offering targeting only nomad workers or longer-term resident workers? How different will Wojos be in Ibis or Mercure from Wojos in Sofitel for instance? What is your approach to segmentation?

There must be no ambiguousness here. Wojos are open to all those who wish to work. It is neither a service reserved for hotel clients nor a service delivered exceptionally to nomad workers. Our aim is to enable travellers and/or nomad workers to meet “locals” and be given an opportunity to network. We are therefore addressing the district’s inhabitants or professionals who are invited to come there to work, near to where they are situated! Nearly all brands are eligible, except for ultra-economical ranges such as Ibis Budget or Hotel F1 or ultra-luxurious ones (such as Orient Express Raffles). The criteria imposed, such as a secure wi-fi connection, reception, reduction on beverages and snacks… are the same for everyone. At this stage we have begun to roll out Spots in France in an economy/mid-range: Ibis Styles, Ibis, Mercure, Novotel, etc. and some are about to open in the high-end/luxury range within Pullman, MGallery and Sofitel. As for Corners, this concerns the same range of brands as Spots.

Hospitality is the number one value proposition offered by hotels. How comfortable are you with the notion of community  as an important factor in the coworking experience?

As mentioned above, one of our strengths lies in the conviviality and good atmosphere that reigns in all Wojos. Furthermore, Wojo does not exist without its community! In addition to shared office spaces Wojo stands on a team of passionate people.

Wojo at Issy-Les-Moulineaux

We thus offer a wide range of business and festive activities in each space throughout the month so as to enable each person to meet others, exchange and learn as well as relax. Community Days for example are held every week in a different space. They enable members to pitch their propositions,  propose a workshop, meet our partners invited for the occasion, invite their clients, attend a conference, etc. Our community also interacts on our digital platform. Discussion and support groups are set up where a program of physical activities is available.

Some experts predict that coworking will represent 20 to 30% of the whole office market by the end of the coming decade. Would you agree with that prediction?

Yes, I believe that is correct. It is more than just a trend. It answers to a need on the part of employees and companies alike, even if for different reasons. Of course we would like to keep up the pace. We plan to open 50 Wojo buildings, 100 Corners and 1 000+ Spots in France and Europe so that members never have to worry about where to set up to work again, hence giving them a guarantee to stay forever connected with their community via our digital platform.

What are Europe’s specific challenges in the field of workplace expectations as opposed to other parts of the world?

There is no specific challenge in Europe compared to other continents. New ways of working are growing everywhere. For example, we see the same trend in Asia with coworking representing more than 3% of office stock in Hong Kong or Singapore. I’m personally convinced that Africa could be a strong coworking market in the coming years. We decided to start Wojo within Europe because of our field knowledge and needs expressed by our current members.

Josh Fine is the COO of Focus Property Group, a real estate operator that not only builds and owns their buildings but operate the businesses that are contained within the building as well, including coworking. We have interviewed Josh Fine to learn more about his experience and knowledge on real estate and his way to understand the coworking and hospitality sector. An interview full of insights and vision on #futureofwork! Josh will also be a speaker at Coworking Europe 2019 this fall.

Hi Josh. Can you introduce the Focus Property Group?

Josh Fine

Focus Property Group has been investing in commercial real estate, primarily in downtown Denver, Colorado (USA), for the past three decades. We acquire, assemble and entitle development parcels, and we develop a wide variety of commercial real estate asset types, including office and coworking, retail centers, hotels, senior housing communities, industrial buildings, and self-storage facilities.

We are long term holders of real estate, meaning that once we develop and lease out our real estate, we continue to manage and own the assets. One unique aspect of our business model is our willingness to create, own and manage operating businesses within our real estate.

In other words, most real estate companies will build and own the buildings but not operate the businesses that are contained within the building. However, we enjoy the entrepreneurial aspect of operating companies. Therefore, rather than build, for example, a self storage facility and then hire a self storage management company to run the business, we created our own self storage brand, hire our own employees and run that business ourselves. It is the same with coworking. We created the Enterprise Coworking brand and all of the Enterprise Coworking employees are on our payroll.

You have been involved pretty early in the coworking wave while investing in hotel industry as well. To what extend are the lines between those “hospitality” driven activities blurring?

Enterprise Coworking, Denver

I am constantly telling our coworking staff that we are in the hospitality business. It has become a mantra of our company. Office space is not new. The innovation of coworking is that it introduces a hospitality or guest services aspect to office space. Our members don’t just want a convenient space to work. They want experiences that will enrich their lives and careers. They want concierge services to help them with all of the challenges that arise during the day so they can focus on what it is they came into the office to do. When a member approaches one of our community managers with an issue, I tell our team to imagine you are at the front desk of the Four Seasons Hotel. Hotel guests are often in disorienting, foreign environments and the hotels that truly shine are the ones where the team makes the guests feel welcome, at ease, and excited to dive in to all of the great things that brought the guest to that city in the first place. It is the same with coworking.

The hotels that truly shine are the ones where the team makes the guests feel welcome, at ease, and excited to dive in to all of the great things that brought the guest to that city in the first place. It is the same with coworking

The spaces that will separate themselves from the competition will have a guest services oriented staff that makes members feel welcome, well cared for, and excited to dive into the projects that brought them into their workspace. Because the service offering is so similar, it is true that lines are blurring between hospitality and coworking. For one, the skill sets overlap so much that many of our best hires come from hospitality. And you see hotels are increasingly getting into the coworking space. Pioneering hotels like the Ace Hotel in New York City, the Hotel Eaton in Washington DC, the Zoku Hotel in Amsterdam, and many others have full fledged coworking spaces and welcome the coworking public to consider the hotel as their living room or office, with free wifi, free-flowing (if not free) coffee and beer and other coworking-like amenities. Business is becoming increasingly nomadic and I predict that we will see more and more joint hotels & coworking spaces that co-locate, share amenities and staff, and synergistically energize each other’s vibes.

The spaces that will separate themselves from the competition will have a guest services oriented staff that makes members feel welcome, well cared for, and excited to dive into the projects that brought them into their workspace

Why does it make sense for a buildings owner company to operate coworking space itself ? Why not partner up with third parties operators?

It certainly doesn’t make sense for every building owner. Coworking is a complex operating business and many landlords simply don’t have the bandwidth or aptitude to run such an intensive operating business. However, the explosive growth of coworking has resulted in a spillover effect where traditional office tenants have come to expect more coworking-like amenities in their office buildings, and office building owners will need to more and more inch toward the type of offering that users can find in coworking spaces. Since office building owners will need to increase service offerings anyway to stay competitive, those who can figure out how to jump into the coworking business will be at an advantage and will also be able to benefit from two profit centers: the rent that the coworking operator pays to the landlord and the operating profit that the coworking operator earns from the members.

Those who can figure out how to jump into the coworking business will be at an advantage and will also be able to benefit from two profit centers: the rent that the coworking operator pays to the landlord and the operating profit that the coworking operator earns from the members.

Enterprise Coworking, Denver

A building owner who reserves part of their building for coworking will likely also benefit from higher overall occupancy. Companies in the building who “graduate” from coworking and want their own space may be able to rent another office space in the same building. And when tenants leave the building, the landlord always has the possibility of expanding the coworking space into the former tenant’s space and thereby gobble up any vacancy immediately. Once a landlord has a successful track record as a coworking operator, it makes it easier for a landlord to acquire or develop additional buildings, because the landlord will have a tenant in their “back pocket” (the coworking space) that can immediately occupy part of a new building.

From the operator’s side, the reason to own rather then rent space is very compelling. In traditional office leasing, there is generally an equilibrium of power between landlord and tenant. Office leases tend to be for shorter periods than retail leases. When it comes time for renewal, the landlord will need to be reasonable and will have to closely reflect market conditions because the tenant can move to a new office building if the landlord tries to increase rent too dramatically. It is certainly a hassle for a company to move, but a CEO can decide to do it and all of the employees will have to follow suit.

But coworking spaces are more like retail users – they are much more tied to their buildings. Just as it is difficult and much more risky for a retailer to move (because there is no guarantee that its customers will all move with it to the new location) so too it is extremely risky for a coworking space to move. The coworking operator can sign a new lease in a new building, but there is no guarantee that the members will follow suit. If the members do not follow, the operator will be starting to build the business all over again. Therefore while building ownership certainly comes with significant risks of its own, it mitigates a major risk of the coworking model.

Coworking spaces are more like retail users – they are much more tied to their buildings. Just as it is difficult and much more risky for a retailer to move, so too it is extremely risky for a coworking space to move.

Do you see a difference in the way coworking spaces are operated between the stand-alone supported-by-a-property-owner-company and franchised/brand coworking spaces? 

We compete head-on with franchised coworking spaces and large brands and I do not believe that members in our space are looking for anything dramatically different. Most members are looking for a vibe that meshes well with their personality and work style, for a convenient location, for robust amenities and for a welcoming and engaging community. One difference I have noticed is that when you own your building there is no passing the buck. Any issue with the building becomes your issue. You cannot blame the building management, for example, if the temperature is too cold or if an elevator is out-of-service.

However, an advantage we have is that when you own the building, anything is possible in terms of dealing with a member issue. Sometimes a member complains about something that the coworking operator cannot control because it is the purview of the building owner and manager. For example, many office buildings have communal restrooms that are maintained by the building management. They may have a snack bar or coffee shop in the lobby. They may have a parking facility used by the tenants. If a member has an issue with any of these things, all the coworking operator can do is complain to their landlord to fix the problem. When you own the building, the buck stops with you. This is both a blessing and a curse. We have the power to fix any problem and can control more completely how our members experience our space. On the other hand, when there is a difficult issue we cannot look to others to address it.

If a member has an issue with any of these things, all the coworking operator can do is complain to their landlord to fix the problem. When you own the building, the buck stops with you. This is both a blessing and a curse.

In the short future, coworking growth is expected to be fueled by Small and Medium size businesses, not only by freelancers and startups. Do you see this evolution coming in Denver? 

Absolutely. The bulk of our membership is small companies with teams of 4-12 people. Freelancers are increasingly becoming a smaller and smaller minority of our membership base. There has been talk for the last several years of enterprise-level companies (with much larger teams of 50+ people) abandoning traditional office leases and moving into coworking. I don’t think we are there quite yet, although there have been some notable examples of large companies moving into coworking spaces in Denver. At our space, we do have some large companies, with our largest company topping out at about 80 employees. However, we have also seen companies move out of our space when they get to 20 or 25 people.

The bulk of our membership is small companies with teams of 4-12 people.

I think it very much depends on the personality of the company. Some companies will always want their own space and will move out of coworking once they reach a certain size. So I think there will always be a market for traditional office space and the obituaries of traditional office space are a bit premature. However, a few companies have grown to love coworking and will stay in a coworking space for as long as they can be accommodated. Spaces like ours that can accommodate large teams will be able to find companies that want to move in. Nonetheless, I think the bulk of the demand comes from small companies, and we are building out new spaces with a heavy emphasis on private suites for teams of 4-12 people.

Companies have grown to love coworking and will stay in a coworking space for as long as they can be accommodated.

In-house Gym, cafés,… We see a race to provide the most exciting, robust and unique amenities in order to distinguish from the competition. How far will it go?

Our flagship location in the RiNo neighborhood of Denver has both an in-house café and espresso bar as well as a fitness center. The types of amenities you need can depend largely on your location. If you have a trendy espresso bar next door, you may not need to offer one in your coworking space. I think the best way to choose which amenities to offer is to make sure there is a diversity of “types” of spaces.

There should be a quiet space for heads-down work where you won’t be disturbed. There should be a buzzing, social space. There should be a networking space that is conducive to impromptu meetings and making connections. In our flagship space, these needs are filled, respectively, by our library, our pub and game room (that we call the “rathskeller”), and our espresso shop. However, other coworking spaces can fulfill these needs with amenities that may be less space- and operationally-intensive.

Shall all those amenities be provided by the same operators? 

I mentioned earlier how coworking spaces and hotels are beginning to “blur” their boundaries and I think that coworking operators to remain competitive will need to learn to operate the same type of amenities as hotels. Just as a hotel doesn’t just need to know how to rent out hotel rooms, but also how to operate a restaurant, coffee shop, gym, pool, event space or conference center, so too will coworking operators needs to establish these competencies. I think that co-locating – especially hotels and coworking – could be a great solution to this operational challenge.

There is a huge overlap between the type of amenities that hotel guests and coworking members want. Shrewd coworking operators will partner with hotels – or join forces and completely merge their businesses – and thus have the scale to offer more robust amenities than either could on their own. Regarding the price, I think a hotel analogy is apt here as well. There is a huge diversity in hotels. You can stay at a one- or two-star motel that gives you very little other than a place to sleep, or a five-star resort that provides a slew of services, like multiple dining venues and bars, a spa and pool, and dramatic public spaces. Of course a guest will expect to pay a lot more for the latter. There will need to be similar differentiation in coworking spaces. However, an operator who wants to charge top-of-the-market pricing will need to offer five-star amenities to retain members.

Just as a hotel doesn’t just need to know how to rent out hotel rooms, but also how to operate a restaurant, coffee shop, gym, pool, event space or conference center, so too will coworking operators needs to establish these competencies.

Would you say it is US specific or are those trends reaching all continents from what you see?

We live in a global village and I am not even sure the trends I described originated in the United States. I just stayed at a hotel in Herzliya, Israel, which was connected to a vibrant coworking space. In the basement was a huge fitness center (much bigger and more elaborate than you would typically find in a small hotel) complete with a dry sauna and steam room. I went down to the fitness center in the morning and it was packed in equal parts by hotel guests and coworking members (as well as people in the community who simply bought a gym membership). This is the type of co-locating and amenity sharing concept that I think will become more commonplace as all of these businesses try to supersize their amenities in an increasingly competitive market.

The Social Workplace to become the next mainstream office environment

DTZ UK, via the Financial Times, recently disclosed a survey which stated that 816 coworking spaces are active in the city of London today. If the definition of coworking withheld by the real estate consulting firm in fact did embrace the wide scope of flexible workspaces (including business centers) the figure then confirms that traditional offices and businesses are now leaning heavily towards innovative and social work environments.

Spacious, New York

The trend is gaining traction in a growing number of cities. According to the CoStar’s ranking, in the 1st half of 2015, coworking champion, WeWork, was the number 1 deal taker in the New York City’s real estate market.

In the Big Apple alone, WeWork now operates more than 549.000 square feet (51.000 m2) of space, spread across 15 locations, which is part of a network of 49 spaces.

But the story is not only about WeWork.

In the last 12 months, the coworking scene, on the whole, raised close to 1 billion US$.

A brand new, growing industry

Today the story that is being written is focused on a new and growing industry, which is beginning to shake up the traditional office market. Today’s businesses are reimagining the role, function, and spirit of the 21st-century workplace.

The culture of work is changing and so is the physical workplace, as it is preparing to embrace a future that will be social, open, comprised of peer to peer networks, as well as convenient and human driven.

This current shift implies a new understanding of workplace tenants’ untold expectations. Today, there are more than 6.000 coworking spaces operating around the world. These spaces range from big to small, financially self-supported incubators, business centers, and even universities. It has become common knowledge that by identifying a position and nurturing a community, these spaces will manage to sustain a successful platform for future workers.

The Social Workplace, whether it is comprised of hot-desking, open spaces, lounges or private offices, is thought to better enable human interactions and a sense of belonging.

Inspiring design and facilitation 

It comes as no surprise that after one decade of coworking, social connections, open access, sense of belonging and like-mindedness, do indeed matter. Because of this understanding, these practices can be implemented on a bigger scale, either by newcomers or by existing coworking space operators who have managed to grow over the years.

Important players within the movement are now entering the era of the Social Workplace, where the whole facility and workspace environment, whether it is made out of open space hot-desking, fixed desk renting, lounges or private offices, is thought to better enable social interactions and on-demand services.

As a result, physical spaces that are home to these communities have become micro-ecosystems, based on the tenants’ personal values and modern work styles. This value proposition adds to the direct economic advantages of operating activities from a shared workspace, namely flexibility and lower costs, allowed by the mutualization of some facilities. Successful social workplaces speak as much to the users’ heart and emotions as they do to their brain and wallet.

Successful social workplaces speak as much to the users’ heart and emotions as they do to their brain and wallet. 

Spaces.

An opportunity generator for independent workers and businesses

As the workforce becomes more independent and digitally distributed, new needs emerge, which have created the ability to multiply business opportunities. This new style of work breaks isolation and supports a dynamic and positive community of peers that can team up rapidly for short-term projects while also giving them the chance to discover complementary skills. It is important to remember that modern workers want to move away from a purely functional work environment.

The shift we are currently witnessing is all about a new work style and values. A greater openness for social interactions also means more informality and innovative ways to approach social engagement, as we often see online.

This alchemy within the Social Workplace can occur through the concourse of two main ingredients:

• A well thought out space design and layout, which is reflective of the contemporary values of the tenant community. This space plays an important role in fostering informality, engineered in such a way that it can offer a balance between quiet productive areas, private, meeting and social/convivial zones, which can ensure socializing and fluid space. Some social workplaces aim to look like a personal living space. Others stress the sleek and cool aesthetic focused on technology while some prioritize creativity. It is vital that the look and feel of the workspace will be inspiring and that the layout is efficient and based on “social ambition”.
• Personal facilitation and hospitality. The added value of flexible space owners isn’t just about the provision of functional services to tenants. Today, many spaces can be operated from an individual laptop, but added value must also be focused on care and intention, community building, networking and content through the regular hosting of events.

It goes without saying that undertaking such new endeavors requires the social workplace owner to embrace new skill sets as well as the appropriate culture that goes with it.

Pure player coworking spaces have been putting these principles in place since the beginning

Social workplaces operate on a bigger scale, and often in much larger spaces. They tend to mix coworking and private offices, as well as meeting and event rooms. There is often a coffee shop, sometimes a restaurant (offering catering services) plus additional programs (training, coaching, business acceleration, for instance). And, of course, community facilitation.

Various international players have also successfully implemented this model. Let’s mention The Office Group (UK), Spaces (The Netherlands) or, again, WeWork (US) to name a few. The coworking pioneer Betahaus is also an inspiration to the growing community of Social Workplaces. Betahaus Berlin HQ now occupies an entire building from which they initially started as a small to mid-sized coworking space. It has a fully equipped cafe on the ground floor, coworking and dedicated desks, in additional to a Maker Lab, training course, and in-house startup support.

The Office Group

WeWork

Betahaus

The road towards work villages?

If these social principles can take over a whole building, the next step might be to outline a whole neighborhood according to the same value system.

This is the philosophy behind the Urban Escape project in Stockholm. In this case, the Social Workplace isn’t just a building but a whole city block. Coworking, network and event offerings are at the core of this project, just as it is within a growing number of urban development projects around the world.

Woodstock Exchange, Cape Town (South Africa)

Bespoke, San Francisco

Another prime example of this model is the Woodstock Exchange, based in Cape Town (South Africa). The real estate development platform has integrated restaurants, coffee shops and craft stores into the mix. The rest of the compound hosts flexible offices and coworking spaces for freelancers, startups, and agencies from the creative and digital industries.

These Social Workplaces are also moving into our daily lives. Bespoke, based in San Francisco (US), is set up in the center of a shopping mall, blurring more and more the boundaries between work and our private lives.

The lines become even more blurred as coworking is now offering more diverse services, such as sports centers and accommodation. Spacious project in New York City (see picture upside) is an aggregation of a hotel and open coworking space. Before, there were other innovative platforms that were established within the collaborative economy (co-living, shared cars, on-demand services, etc.) that are now becoming a part of these developing social workplaces.

Jean-Yves Huwart
Social Workplace Conference

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The Social Workplace Conference (London, October 16th 2015) is a unique opportunity to understand the innovation taking place within flexible workspaces that are rapidly transforming the real estate landscape. The conference explores various work landscapes and their relationship with coworking for the 1st time ever. The event will be discussion based, aimed at promoting the coworking movement’s success at integrating the human experience within the modern workplace.

Since 2008, Blankspaces has been cultivating the shared workspace scene in Los Angeles. The brand has several locations, with two in L.A and one in Santa Monica, each offering freelancers and entrepreneurs shared office space, which can be rented out long-term or on a flexible basis. We spoke with Blankspace’s founder, Jerome Chang, about the development of the social workplace and how today’s office is encouraging frequent employee interactions.

Hi Jerome. How would you define the social workplace today? And how is it representative of the new model of work? 

The current open office environment includes workspaces without full-height walls, rather than offices with cubicles, which are more traditional, albeit often poor, examples. The social workplace is designed to encourage frequent interactions. Hotel lobbies with work-like areas are good examples of this.

Please describe the design of Blankspaces, and tell us a bit about why the look and feel of a workspace is so important.

At Blankspaces, I include a variety of workspaces, from small intimate areas, to large open areas, and everything in between. This helps develop physical spatial relationships that shape cultural interactions. For coworking, it’s also important to remember that our physical space is what generates revenue, so efficiency is vital.

Blankspaces, Santa Monica

 How did you realize what type of space design nurtured productivity?

All types of spaces can nurture productivity. Once you use all of your design tools, including details like the way someone sits, away or toward others, you can make any space productive.

What kinds of members usually join Blankspaces (more freelance or corporate) and what services do you offer them?

Any and all. We tend to attract and retain members who value a “real office” and one that has a productive vibe. This does not necessarily mean it’s quiet, or noisy.

In your opinion, how has the development of these open spaces influenced the culture of work?

Privacy can be segmented into many levels and perceived differently by everyone. Questioning how much privacy someone needs to work productively, is critical.

What does a social work environment offer that a traditional one does not?

A social workplace develops and expands the definition of work, including networking.

Blankspace’s founder, Jerome Chang

It seems that many larger companies/corporations are steadily gravitating towards social workplaces, why do you think that is?

They are starting to see that interactions amongst others have been undervalued in the past.

How are the expectations of the modern workforce different from previous models?

Technology can finally untether workers allowing them to be productive anywhere, so they now work all the time. Oops.

What has changed in the last 5 years? What are the current expectations? How do you address these modern needs?

A workspace doesn’t necessarily need to provide space for a keyboard, a CPU, or even file storage. So workspaces can be much smaller. Dedicated workspaces may not even be required because people change workspaces throughout the day. Therefore, workspaces have to be designed with a variety of areas in mind.