GCUC is coming to Berkeley!

That’s right folks! GCUC, short for Global Coworking Unconference Conference and pronounced “juicy”, is the biggest coworking event of the year and it’s coming to the place where coworking was born: the Bay Area. The event attracts coworkers from all over the planet to come together in one place for three full days of panel discussions, high-energy breakout sessions, high-fiving team building activities and hella shenanigans. As a result, attendees always leave with a whole slew of new concepts and strategies that they can bring back home to their local coworking communities.

NextSpace has been attending GCUC since it first launched in 2012. When our team was heading back to the airport after GCUC 2014 in Kansas City, we had the meat sweats (so much BBQ!!!), big brains full of new ideas, and an overall consensus that we are ready to bring GCUC to the Bay. As for our team, our members, and our Bay Area community of coworkers: we are all leaders at the epicenter of coworking, and we feel it’s definitely time to share the Bay Area’s powers of coworking with all the inspirational and amazing folks that are spreading this mission across the world…and what better place to do it than in Berkeley, California?

We know, we know, you’re probably saying, “Why not San Francisco?” Well yes, that crossed our minds too, especially since we have three spaces there, but Berkeley is more centralized for what GCUC has planned this year. We’re lining up 25 spaces for you all to tour. You want to go to San Francisco, the East or South Bay? Done and done. Berkeley is an easy public transportation ride to any of these areas and their local coworking spaces are ready to open their doors for you. Berkeley will also be easier on your wallet, and it is about 5 – 8 degrees warmer than San Francisco on any given day, so break out your flip flops and sun tan lotion, and get ready to take in the sunnier side of the Bay.

If you can care less about warm weather, how about this: Berkeley is the home of the #1 public university in the United States: University of California at Berkeley, aka CAL. CAL is the leading generator of so much of the talent that is responsible for all the startup/techy-tech success that is happening here right now, and their alumni are a huge majority of the coworking population across the Bay. Berkeley itself is an up and coming Bay Area Startup Cluster. Its awesomeness can sometimes be overshadowed by that big city 12 miles away, so it sometimes loses its talent to the tech pods in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, yet it remains a well balanced, thriving, and creatively inspiring community with a progressive spirit that outshines any other Bay Area city.  Sound like a familiar place to any of you?

GCUC in Berkeley is going to show you how coworking is happening everywhere and can start anywhere. You don’t have to open your space in a big metropolitan city; the ideologies behind coworking are driven by the future of work and that means anyone can cowork anywhere! Berkeley will demonstrate how a coworking space can open and thrive, even when it’s a short commute away from a major city with an overwhelming number of coworking spaces. Additionally, Berkeley will show you that with the right community and local support you’ll have coworkers knocking on your door just like we do here. And if that’s not enough, we’re going to throw in a whole bunch of neighboring Oakland spaces to illustrate how the East Bay as a collective is its own coworking beast. But hey, if you really want to hit up the other side of the Bay, we got you covered there too so don’t worry your pretty little heads!

So GCUC is coming to Berkeley! Get excited, because we’ve got so much planned for our fellow coworkers. You all have been major influencers and contributors in our world over the years, and we at NextSpace want to say “thank you” by helping to throw the biggest and most engaging GCUC thus far. More details to come as we and the GCUC team get to planning, so stay tuned! Follow NextSpace Berkeley on Facebook and Twitter for regular GCUC updates.