Last week, the Deskpass team attended, spoke and sponsored the Global Coworking Unconference Conference (GCUC) in New York City. Getting to interact with coworking space operators and industry experts in person was so impactful and refreshing after 18 months of virtual events.
For those of you that weren’t able to attend virtually or in person, we thought it would be helpful to share a short recap about our experience!
On the first day of the event, Fundamentals of Flex, Garrett Tichy of Hygge Coworking spoke about the importance of community, branding, and creating a seamless experience for your members. He emphasized the importance of personal relationships with members and creating a space where people want to be. He admitted that he has made many mistakes and is still learning ways to improve his business, grow, and elevate his brand.
One of his tips for getting exposure to your space is offering one year of free meeting rooms to non-profits. He found it to be super valuable because of the number of people in his community interacting with his space and brand.
On day two of the conference, Sam Rosen, Co-Founder of Deskpass, joined Traug Keller of WeWork and Kayley DiCicco of Expansive for a conversation about the GSA contract that was awarded to flex operators last month. Although there are still many unknowns about the contract and the needs of the government, Sam and Traug broke down the elements of the deal and let coworking spaces know what to expect in the coming years.
Insights included that it will be heavily based on pricing, they may have advanced technology requests, and they may be needing everything from drop-in coworking desks to 30 person offices.
Following Sam’s panel discussion, Madeline Hoag and Nicole Vasquez from Deskpass presented “What do Hybrids Team Actually Want.” They shared that Deskpass is seeing a major increase in demand for hourly meeting rooms and that teams are booking meeting rooms and offices interchangeably as many team clients just need a private space to come together and meet with their colleagues in person without the additional amenities like a TV or conference phone.
When it comes to amenities, team clients value access to private areas, phone booths, coffee, meeting room technology for a seamless virtual meeting experience, and printing. In a more open-ended question about factors for booking specific spaces, we heard location to their house, walkable options for lunch and happy hour, and a professional environment that enables productivity.
The presentation also featured information about booking averages for team clients booking meeting rooms.
If you are looking for ways to improve your private office listings on Deskpass, we recommend the following:
The second day of the conference concluded with a happy hour sponsored by Vari. On Wednesday morning, the conference had various options at coworking spaces around NYC. At Bond Collective, Liz Elam interviewed the author of The Cult of We, Maureen Farrell, who shared insights on the crazy rise, fall and slow rise again of WeWork.
Thanks again to the entire GCUC team, Liz Elam and Stormy McBride, the team at Convene, and all of the sponsors and speakers for making this such a memorable event. Although there is a major shift towards technology, the event would not have been the same without all of the people behind the technology. We can’t wait to see everyone again soon!
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