Liz Elam is the wizard behind the magic of GCUC. Having entered the world of coworking in 2010 after founding Link Coworking in Austin, she has served as a fearless, quirky, open-hearted leader of the movement ever since. We chatted about what keeps her motivated after five years in coworking, what advice she’d give herself of 10 years ago, and what new things we can expect at GCUC 2015. Amy: You’ve been in coworking for a long time now, Liz.… Read More »
May 4-9. We’re headed to California. We’re doing GCUC USA. We’re playing a trampoline dodgeball tournament. We’re going whitewater rafting. Are you with us? After years of making friends and connecting to communities in France, Spain, Germany, Portugal, Italy, and further afield – we’re finally making it out there (and we mean far out, man): the Wild, Wild West. Well, maybe not the Wild West of those old western movies (in fact, for the landscape we’d bet that our Fuerteventura Adventure… Read More »
10. The Unconference allows anyone to be a speaker! What does that mean exactly? Well...exactly what it says. The coolest part of an unconference is the ability for every attendee to fully participate in engaging conversations with each other, rather than sitting in an auditorium being talked to for hours on end. No matter whether this is your first time coming to GCUC or you have been every year, the opportunity to engage and connect with your coworking peers is… Read More »
GCUC 2015 is only a few weeks away. If it’s still snowing where you live (Chicago), it’s time to poke around your closet and find some short sleeves because it’s sun’s out, guns out in Berkeley! So pat yourself on the back for getting a tax-write off on a trip to nice weather and then put your sunscreen down and get serious about what you’re going to get out of this Unconference. Day 1: If you’ve been to GCUC before and… Read More »
One of the things I love most about being a part of the larger coworking community is the spirit of sharing between people who are still trying to figure it all out. The first year — or three — can be a rollercoaster of victories and defeats, but there are literally hundreds of people out there more than willing to share the things they have found to work for them. During the first year of building our community I was… Read More »
Today on WorkDesign.com Liz Elam discuses coworking's secret sauce. Highlights are below, you can read the whole article here. Here are four ways coworking can help, whether a corporation is looking to make coworking an option to their employees, or to integrate some of coworking’s secret sauce into their own workplace: Proximity - When you work in isolation at home or in a coffee shop, you don’t interact with others around you. In coworking spaces you work around other people who… Read More »
Posted on March 17, 2015 by Liz Elam in Uncategorized
Over on the New Worker Magazine, Melissa Mesku has a great profile on history and culture of GCUC. The entirety of it is reproduced below. If you haven't seen the New Worker, ch-ch-check it out! In most industries, the annual conference might warrant a raised eyebrow at best. But in the case of GCUC, the industry is coworking, and that makes all the difference. The quirky name, Global Coworking Unconference Conference, is in homage to a Stephen Colbert skit, and its acronym,… Read More »
For both veterans and newbies, space managers and members—here are 10 coworking resources, facts and tips you should definitely know about. The Coworking Visa lets members of one space work at others for free. If you are a member of a coworking space anywhere in the world, be sure to ask if that space is a part of the Coworking Visa program. Created to help us do our work on the road, the Visa allows active members of a space… Read More »
Emergent Research and the Global Coworking Conference Unconference are partnering on a survey looking at how people work in coworking spaces and what roles networks and networking play in the coworking experience. We need your help to make this survey a success. The coworking industry has long stressed the value that comes with belonging to a coworking community. Often described as “accelerated serendipity”, the coworking industry asserts that members accrue substantial benefits from meeting, mixing with and collaborating with other… Read More »
Headlines about the Mayor of Toronto tend to receive a lot of attention. For the last few years Toronto city politics have been focused on an endless stream of incriminating videos and incredible antics at Toronto City Hall. Luckily for us Torontonians, that changed with the municipal election last fall. This headline is exciting for another reason entirely - there is a new Mayor in town, and the focus seems to be back on our incredible community. Small Businesses are… Read More »
