Coworkies at Coworking Spain Conference 2018
Key takeaways from our talk at Impact Hub Madrid.
Last week, we had the pleasure to attend the 7th edition of the Coworking Spain Conference in Madrid. Manuel from Coworking Spain, Marc from Utopic_Us, and Laura from CREC BCN invited us to speak about a topic we really enjoy: the future of coworking.
Instead of sharing our photo-only slides slides that won’t mean much to anyone, we decided to do a quick recap of the presentation with key- takeaways!
Let’s do this!
THE FUTURE OF (CO)WORKING
As the topics of future of work and future of coworking are very broad, we used our experience of traveling across 287 spaces in 30 cities to craft an unique overview and share our insights of whats under the hood of the word coworking. We structured the presentation with the following point:
- How did the work we do changed over the course of the last decades?
- How did workspaces evolved?
- How does the future of work look like?
- What does it mean for coworking?
- How can coworking spaces get ready for the future?
THE EVOLUTION OF WORK
If you look at the types of work people used to do in the office, you will see a significant change over the last decades. From work done on paper, we have, over time, included more and more technology that has redefined the type of work we do in an office as well as how we go about doing it.
THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE WORKSPACE
The evolution of office work has also redefined the workspaces we go to. The interesting thing is that as in fashion, the workspace went through a cycles. In the early 1900, the office looked more like libraries, very open, having everyone working out of the same room.
Around 1960, the cubicle has surfaced, giving people a bit more privacy. Fast forwarding to the 1980s / 1990s, many people were given their own private offices or were sharing one with 2 to 3 people, giving them very little access to what was going on around them.
Looking at the 2000s and with the prominent presence of technology at work, the walls have fallen down to give place to more open workspaces, provoking, in 2005, the emergence of coworking in San Francisco.
If you are interested to read more about how it started, check out the interview we did of Tara Hunt, one of the very first woman co-starting and co-owming a coworking space in San Francisco.
THE FUTURE AT WORK
One of our favorite quote related to the future of work is from Naomi Tosic, Co-Founder of The Office Space in Sydney:
As you can read, there is a huge emphasis on the word “co” as in collective, collaboration and community that is already present in coworking and that will become more and more important as teams are shrinking and more and more people are starting to freelance and do remote work.
Looking at the different generation at work today, companies find themselves managing four generations from Silents, Baby Boomers, Generation X and Millennials.
The way each of those generations view work is also very different. If we take the example of Boomers, they have always prioritized work over their personal life, being also very loyal to their company.
On the other side of the spectrum, the Millenials have entered the work market with a radically different approach. By being born with technology, they have developed a new set of values that are more self-centered, collecting experiences over a salary and prioritizing good work/life balance over long careers.
WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN FOR COWORKING
The fact that so many different generations are starting to use coworking spaces means that the type of professionals in coworking spaces are quite diverse and so are their needs.
From freelancers and creatives, coworking has seen more and more startups, SME’s and corporates enter those new work environments, which also means new business opportunities for coworking spaces.
Many new revenue streams can be developed, more adapted / targeted to each of those professionals, one of them being for instance to develop the concept of “workspace as a service” where space owners can adjust the type of service offered depending on their size, budget and community needs.
WHERE IS COWORKING HEADING AT?
More curated work environments — Whether finding communities that are all about blockchain, elderly people, startups or parents, coworking will adapt to their needs and develop more and more their spaces around them.
More technology at work — How will virtual reality and augmented reality impact the workplace but also, how coworking spaces as a physical place can become “smarter” work environment by measuring how the community uses the spaces to adapt in real-time to every use case. What if in the future, the office was embedded under our skin?
(Yes it DOES exist, read more about where it is and what they do exactly on our blog right here)
Healthier workspaces — More than just a place to do work, coworking spaces are developing healthier workspace where your body and mind are well taken care of. From good food to better chairs and desks to meditation rooms, the workspace is transforming into a human-centric environment, where members well-being is placed on top of the list.
Corporate coworking — Many Corporate companies start to realise the benefits of coworking and want to experience it. How will that impact existing communities and how will they join workspaces where they share and collaborate with others are interesting challenges of the future.
Beyond coworking, coliving — Following the rise of coworking, coliving spaces are developing as the natural extension of a more collaborative workspace. Based on flexible living solutions with a strong emphasis on collecting experiences rather than things, coliving is flourishing in cities such as New York, Hong Kong or London, where real-estate is really expensive, and let’s admit it barely affordable.
If you are interested in the concept of coliving, check out the few articles we wrote about coliving in Copenhagen right here.
Or more recently, read our interview with Emmanuel, founder of outsite.co, where we talked about their soon to open space in Lisbon (you can even win a free month of coliving, don’t wait and click)
Coworking anywhere — Coworking is not a space, it’s an activity that can happen anywhere! It is now developing in places with a different primary purposes such as restaurants, gyms or even airports. Can those places build just the real estate side of things without focusing on community or this would be the new work communities of the future?
HOW CAN COWORKING SPACES PREPARE THEMSELVES?
Remember, it’s all about PEOPLE and not the size of your space! By developing a deeper understanding of the challenges your community is facing and by making them yours, you will be able to develop a stronger community that will support your space and make it their own.
Make your community’s challenges your own!
Adapt your workspace by developing more flexible and connected solutions for the community. What does flexibility means in that case? Flexible hours, furniture, offers that allows your members to be more connected to the world and to their inner-self. Build a spaces that amplifies your coworkies work and serves them as a marketing tool that benefits them beyond the desk and the chair.
And remember:
Only when a coworking space looks at itself through the eyes of its coworkers it can build a strong community in a sustainable way.
If you are interested to read a full recap of day one of the conference, check it out here:
