By Sarah Snyder
Three weeks after the Global Coworking Unconference Conference (GCUC) has left Kansas City, I am reflecting on the superb experience we had and connections we made. Think Big Coworking and Think Big Partners could not be more excited with the decision GCUC made to come to Kansas City this year and we hope that our beloved city proved to be more than expected (which I think it did.) This being my third year attending, GCUC continues to get better each year. The Day 1 speakers and panels all had words of advice and inspiration that were interesting, valuable and relevant. The Day 2 unconference identified popular industry questions and trends for conversations that were interesting, valuable and relevant. The Day 3 workshops offered a variety of interesting, valuable and relevant content to help owners and operators run a coworking space. See a pattern? GCUC is uniquely successful in pulling together the right people to talk about the right coworking related topics.
That brings me to the best aspect of GCUC: the people. Much like coworking, the attendees (members) shape the quality of the conference (coworking space) โ and this is a high quality group. With a mix of coworking world veterans and rookies, small and big space owners, single and multiple location operators, from (literally) all over the world, the GCUC crowd has the power to not just identify but shape the future of work as we know it. The shared spaces we design are not just for collaboration and productivity but building communities. Do not underestimate that power of a Community Manager at a coworking space. We build communities of like-minded people. We make entrepreneurship less lonely. We are connectors. We help our members survive the ups and down of entrepreneurship and in some cases can be the difference between failure and success. Coworking truly changes lives.