Good Coffee is Good, Good Technology is Better: A GCUC ‘14 Workshop

Coffee and Wifi. When people talk about what they need/want/expect from coworking the two things that come up first are coffee and Wifi. While both are awesome, one is more critical to the success of a space (no, we don’t mean coffee).

And we’re not just talking good internet. Coworking spaces need to offer seamless, easy, consistent technology for their members and managers. It’s about a technology infrastructure that is flexible, smart and sustainable. Easy, right?

“Technology makes it possible for people to gain control over everything, except over technology” – John Tudor

Maximizing the positive impacts, and addressing potential hiccups, of technology are at the core of good business for coworking spaces.

Every member will have overlapping and unique needs, which can change by the hour, by the makeup of people working on a given day, to the types of projects they’re working on. And, with technology evolving fast, what spaces have today may not be the right setup in just a few years, so building an infrastructure that supports needs now and makes adaptation and change easier is critical. For a coworking space the sum of all those parts must equal, consistently, nothing but awesome.

At GCUC this year, Sam Rosen, co-founder of Desktime and The Coop (now NextSpace River North) will be exploring that tango between Technology + Coworking.

In this workshop, we’re inviting all interested attendees and especially welcome anyone interested in opening spaces….or those with battle scars and success stories to share.

A roundtable representing spaces with excellent, tested technology setups will talk tough decisions, growing pains, smart solutions, and hopefully some funny stories will give participants a better understanding of some of the best tech options for coworking.

We’ll walk through some successful equipment and setup recommendations for space’s internet connection, wireless network, security system, payment processing coworking management software and more.

Hear directly from other space owners who speak the truth. Plus, we’re inviting a collection of representatives from popular hardware and software companies ready to demo their equipment, answer questions.

Bring questions. We’ll have answers.

And in the lead up to GCUC, we’d love to hear from you. Have stories to tell? Lessons you’ve learned? Questions you can’t wait to ask? Tweet them to @desktimeapp or email [email protected].