Coworking is the Biggest Opportunity of Our Lifetime

If you aren’t on the coworking train, you better hop on. Coworking and the shared workspace industry are changing the way people work- for the better.What people once thought of as a “trend” has now proven that it is here to stay. Take a look at what Allwork had to say after GCUC this year.

GCUC 2017 HIGHLIGHTS: “COWORKING IS THE BIGGEST OPPORTUNITY OF OUR LIFETIME”

This past weekend, May 5th – 7th, the Global Coworking Unconference Conference took place in none other than NYC.

Like Cat Johnson recently said in her article, there was something different about GCUC this year. But in a great way. “While last year’s GCUC USA event felt like a head-on collision between coworking and commercial real estate development–the latter getting the better end of the bargain–this year’s event felt like the industry has taken a collective step forward.”

The flexible workspace industry has grown and evolved, and we are all–vendors, business center operators, virtual office brokers, coworking operators, real estate developers, tech companies, transportation providers, incubators, accelerators–finally embracing the fact that we are all part of the same industry, and we are actively finding new ways to work together and add value to one another.

PEOPLE. PLACE. TECHNOLOGY.

People

For years now, some have been saying that the flexible workspace industry is a combination of people, place, and technology. The way each operator focuses on these three aspects is what determines what kind of workspace they operate: coworking, virtual office, business center, incubator, or accelerator.

Since its early beginning, coworking has greatly focused on the value proposition of community, realizing that this was what most modern workers were in need of. They were right. At GCUC this year, Casper ter Kuile and Angie Thurston from Harvard Divinity School explained that individuals, particularly millennials, are searching for organizations or places that can provide them with a sense of belonging and community, the way religion has provided this for previous generations.

“The way in which people are engaging with institutional life is changing rapidly. Religious traditions are no longer meeting the needs that people have. Isolation and loneliness among Americans is high; 1 in 4 say they have nobody to talk to.”

Here is where coworking (as well as Crossfit and SoulCycle and others of their sort) come in. “We think that this is the new fabric of American life. People want to have conversations in these spaces, where they feel part of the community. These are places where there is a sense of togetherness and of healing.”

While coworking operators knew this from the beginning, business center providers remained skeptical of the idea and concept. That is, up until now.

Today’s workforce is craving a sense of belonging, a culture that speaks to them, an authentic community that they can rely on. This is why flexible workspace models that actively work on their ‘people’ feature are the ones that are being the most successful. While those that continue to solely focus on the ‘business’ part of it, are facing difficulties.

To read the rest of the article and be in the know about the places, spaces and technology of this industry, click here!