a guide and facilitator for creating
sustainable co-working communities today
I’m going to explain what it takes to
create one of these communities why it
pertains to all of us here today and how
to do it through a system that I’ve
created called flexible sustainability
let me start with a story about human
evolution the goal of early human beings
was quite simple stay alive
however our brains began to produce
feel-good chemicals every time we
collaborated incentive to continue
working together basically our brains
are hard-wired to be a community so fast
forward a few years to today and we have
this collaborative model called
co-working well what is co-working first
I’m gonna start with what co-working is
not co-working is not a coop coop is a
model where all of the participants own
an organization and establish a
predetermined outcome co-working is not
an incubator in an incubator a governing
body provides a system that a member is
required to follow in its most basic
form co-working is a group of individual
business owners sharing amenities like
Wi-Fi 24/7 access kitchen facilities
desk space etc this concept works really
well in revitalized vacant spaces and in
the words of a property manager that I
have collaborated with brings life back
to our buildings here’s the kicker
though even that is not truly what
co-working is co-working is ultimately
about a community these are people who
support and embrace one another and
collaborate in a very organic way so
what do I know right
well back in 2006 I created a branding
and design company and I knew really
quickly that I needed to get out of my
apartment and start to interact with
other like-minded people so I started to
explore
different environments and different
opportunities to share these experiences
and I spent time in an incubator shared
offices and even other co-working spaces
only to be disappointed that none of
them quite fulfilled exactly what I was
looking for then an opportunity arose
for me to work with an amazing
connection I don’t say we’re
collaborating with an amazing group of
people to create a true co-working space
from scratch I was able to use my
experiences and some of the the travels
that I’ve done to start to realize that
there’s actually two different kinds of
co-working one is a real estate model
based on space the other is a people
model based on community we start with a
example of how the space model works
basically what happens is you get a big
an empty building you remodel it you put
members in there so if you have a
hundred seats you sell 300 memberships
and like a gym hope that everyone
doesn’t show up at the same time the
community version is based on people
first and the space ultimately becomes a
facilitator for the growth of those
individuals this is what a true
co-working community is all about so
what does this have to do with you and
why should you care about it well
according to a study by Intuit 40% of
the u.s. population will be contract
workers by the year 2020 that’s 60
million of us and it’s a really big
number of those 60 million people the
majority of them will be considered
entrepreneurs work from home
professionals and digital nomads and
these are people that we consider the
future of work now these are all people
that work remotely typically and so how
will they interact with other
like-minded individuals without having a
typical office environment the answer is
they will Co work here’s another big
number
from 2012 to 2017 the number of
co-working spaces worldwide will have
grown 900 percent that’s pretty
astounding co-working is also a viable
business opportunity the majority of
co-workers work remotely and they work
from
home so they can live pretty much
anywhere and connect with a global a
global economy they bring the dollars in
and spend them in their local economy
and thus stimulating that pretty neat so
how does all of this work and how do you
create one of these communities cohort a
sustainable co-working community or even
a community in general well I’ve created
us a five step system pretty easy to
follow and I’m gonna walk you through
that step one is to assess the landscape
it’s really important to stop take a
deep breath and be excited about
something but also understand if it’s
actually going to be possible and that
people will accept it in the in the
greater community that you’re going to
create it in ask people find out are
they ready for this step two is to
instill a culture gathering a group of
unselfish individuals will be really
important as you begin to walk through
the next few steps here and also help
having them understand and stand behind
the concept is is important as well step
three is about creating a positive
presence you can think of this as
branding and marketing and making sure
that what you’re presenting as outreach
is communicating a very clear and
consistent message step four is the most
critical step it’s about empowering
members of your community so your role
is going to be to make introductions so
that people start to build relationships
the bonds that they form are going to
also form a layer of safety and that
will allow your members to share more
openly with one another
remember it’s the most important step
five is to facilitate growth so
generating opportunities for these
individuals to interact with one another
having events and encouraging them to
participate is this step 5
the outcome of all this is a term that
I’ve coined called flexible
sustainability you can think of flexible
sustainability like a bulb clay you’ve
given your members
a the parameters and the materials to go
out and start to shape the community in
any way they need it retains its
structure but it’s it’s available to
them so in conclusion I would ask that
all of us remember that we are
hard-wired to be collaborative also
embrace the future of work because the
chances are you will be part of it very
soon if you aren’t already and use the
model of flexible sustainability to go
out and create your great community
thank you so much for listening [Applause]
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