Coworking Values Podcast

“Community is a really irritating word to me right now. We ask it to carry too much. Everything’s a community.”Rose RadtkeTired of running yourself into the ground?Then stop running alone.On February 24th, the London Coworking Assembly presents Unreasonable Connection Goes Live!—a one-day working session for the people running London’s most vital neighbourhood spaces and the public sector allies working to help them thrive. It’s a day to share the load, find real solutions, and build a new playbook, together.Rose Radtke is a brand strategist, writer, and community manager.She positions herself as a “smart connector”—someone who finds the links between brand, community, and marketing.Six years deep in community building, she’s watched the word “community” stretch thinner each year.Everything became a community. Discord servers. Email lists. Substack comments. The word stopped meaning anything specific.Rose makes a distinction that matters.Audience, community, and village are not the same thing.One lets you lurk. One expects participation. One demands mutual care.Bernie and Rose unpack the framework. They move from COVID’s online community boom to the messy reality of engineering community in coworking spaces.Rose is watching 2026’s trends closely.Coworking spaces struggling to meet rent.Pricing strategies getting flexible—day blocks, modular memberships.The lines between workspace and third space blurring.Pop-up markets in coworking spaces. Coworking desks in bookshops and gyms.And she’s asking a question that hospitality venues should be terrified of:Why don’t they have community managers?This episode is for operators tired of using “community” to mean everything and nothing.It’s for anyone trying to work out whether they’re building an audience, a community, or a village—and what the difference actually means for the people who show up.Timeline Highlights[01:51] Rose describes herself: “I’m actually a bit of an octopus. I am a brand strategist, I am a writer, and I’m a community manager.”[02:12] What she wants to be known for: “Being a real connector, being someone that’s really smart and that connects people up in interesting ways.”[03:04] The frustration: “We ask it to carry too much. Everything’s a community. We want everything to be a community, and it just carries an awful, awful lot.”[04:49] The distinction: “Participation is optional. You can either be a lurker... but then you can fluidly move into being a participant.”[06:46] Village versus community: “In a village, there’s an expectation of care. You extend to each other and everyone has their part to play.”[08:49] COVID’s turning point: “Communities were lifelines for people in COVID. Most of those communities were online.”[11:31] Engineering community: “Your branding and your marketing and your community have to work as one for it to work.”[13:34] Bernie on his favourite spaces: “Started by people who are scratching their own edge.”[16:25] Rose on 2026 struggles: “Coworking spaces seem to be struggling a bit more this year... a shift towards more flexible memberships.”[19:46] The blurred lines: “The lines becoming blurred between work space and third space in coworking spaces.”[21:27] Multi-use strategy: “I want to create reasons for people to stay beyond their work day... and ways to make additional revenue.”[22:53] Hospitality insight: “I’m really interested in whether or why hospitality venues don’t have community managers. I feel like that’s madness.”[24:19] Multi-use excitement: “Really make it multi-use. That’s a really interesting and exciting space at the moment.”[26:38] The future is now: “Lines are being blurred in lots of areas, and I think spatially, that’s the case as well.”The Three-Type FrameworkRose has been working in community for six years.She started through branding—branding communities, finding the work fascinating.Then the word stretched.“Over the last 6-8 years, we ask it to carry too much. Everything’s a community. We want everything to be a community, and it just carries an awful, awful lot.”She’s right.The word “community” used to mean something specific. Now it means anything a brand wants it to mean.Rose thinks we need to go back to basics.Stop calling everything a community. Work out what you’re actually running.An audience is passive.They consume what you produce. They might engage, but they don’t expect to be part of the thing.A community is fluid.Participation is optional. You can lurk. You can absorb what you’re reading, overhear conversations, eye things up.Then you can fluidly move into being a participant when you’re ready.No pressure. No expectation.A village is different.Everyone’s participation is needed. Everyone has a role. There’s an expectation of care.You extend care to each other.Even if your role is just taking your rubbish out on the right day, you have to participate.Rose thinks coworking sits somewhere between community and village, depending on how the space is designed.Some members want to get out of their house. Leave behind the mess and the half-eaten Rice Krispies. Work somewhere clean and tidy.Get their head down. Leave at the end of the day. Go home.That’s valid.Other people want to network. They want to go to a place where people know their name.They want to be part of the programme, learn stuff, be all in.That’s valid too.Both are community. But they’re not the same kind of community.Calling them both “community” without distinction makes the word useless.COVID Broke the WordCOVID was a huge turning point.Community went online. It had to.Online communities became lifelines for people. They were essential, not optional.“We piled a lot on the word community during COVID,” Rose says.“That is where it all became a bit stretched and misshapen.”She’s not wrong.The word community used to imply something physical, something local, something you could walk to.COVID made it mean “any group of people who talk to each other online.”Online communities are just as important and valid as in-person communities.But they’re very different.The expectations are different. The rhythms are different. The care structures are different.We’ve never quite come back from that.The word “community” now has to work for both. It has to mean your local pub and your Discord server. Your coworking space and your Substack comments section.No wonder it’s irritating.Engineering Community in CoworkingRose makes a distinction that matters.Some coworking spaces start because someone needed a place to work. They had extra space. They built something around what they were doing.The Skiff in Brighton. Coworking Lisboa in Lisbon. Indy Hall.Other spaces start as a brand first.Someone decides to start a coworking space. They build the brand, then they build the community.Both can work. But they’re different.When you start as a brand, you have to engineer the community.Your branding, your marketing, and your community have to work as one.Otherwise, your community just isn’t going to happen.Rose thinks that’s fine.“Things change, times change, people change. If we just accept that that is what community is now in coworking, cool, that’s fine.”I’m not sure I agree.I think my favourite coworking spaces have been started by people who were scratching their own edge.People who needed something, so they built it.The community formed around their intention.But Rose is right that engineering community can work.It just requires a different kind of discipline.You can’t fake it. You can’t market your way into authentic connection.You have to build the conditions for it.Your space has to attract the people you want.Your brand has to signal clearly who this is for.Your community manager (if you have one) has to facilitate without forcing.The 2026 Pricing PuzzleRose has noticed something.Coworking spaces seem to be struggling a bit more this year.There are indicators.More spaces offering flexibility. Lower hour memberships. Modular memberships.Day blocks instead of monthly commitments.Maybe it’s because people want more flexibility in their lives.They don’t want to be tied down.Or maybe spaces are struggling to make rent and they’re trying anything that might bring people through the door.Tom Ball at Desk Lodge has nailed the pricing.You can buy a block of days. If you go over those days, you can get a better deal on more days.It’s flexible, but it’s simple.Most spaces haven’t worked this out yet.They’ve got 57 different pricing options on their website.That exhausts the buyer. It exhausts the accounting system. It exhausts the space operator trying to manage it all.Rose thinks the trend is hybrid work meeting economic pressure.People work from home some days, coworking some days, client offices other days.Fixed monthly memberships don’t fit that pattern anymore.The spaces that survive will be the ones that make flexibility simple.The Blurred Lines Between Workspace and Third SpaceRose is watching a trend that excites her.The lines are blurring between workspace and third space in coworking spaces.Spaces are becoming multi-use.At the weekend, they become a pop-up market or a supper club. They have a café open to the public. They host community events that draw people who aren’t members.Kemp Town Bookshop in Brighton just added a coworking option.You can pay for a desk for the day. You’re sitting in the café, surrounded by books.People come to a vintage flea market on Saturday and discover that the space also offers coworking.Boom, new member.David Lloyd gyms have been doing this for years.You can go to the gym, pay for two hours of childcare in their crèche, do some work upstairs, then have lunch in the café.It’s all under one roof. It’s corporate, but it works.Rose thinks this is smart.“I want to create reasons for people to stay beyond their work day or if they’re not working, for them to come in anyway. And ways to make additional revenue.”It’s not just coworking spaces adding third space elements.It’s third spaces adding coworking. Cafés. Booksh

“What concerns me most is this idea that we’re returning to the norms from before... when we tore down the walls between home and work and childcare.”Georgia NortonTired of running yourself into the ground?Then stop running alone.On February 24th, the London Coworking Assembly presents Unreasonable Connection Goes Live!—a one-day working session for the people running London’s most vital neighbourhood spaces and the public sector allies working to help them thrive. It’s a day to share the load, find real solutions, and build a new playbook, together.Georgia Norton spent spring 2024 interviewing founders, childcare workers, and parents across co-located childcare and coworking spaces.What she documented wasn’t a pandemic oddity for affluent families.It was a structural shift in how people want to arrange work and care.The report, “The Case for Childcare plus coworking,” argues that these spaces should be treated as essential social infrastructure, not premium amenities.Georgia calls it social infrastructure because that’s what it functions as:* Places where work happens alongside childcare* Where childcare workers gain professional development opportunities shoulder to shoulder with laptop workers* Where bridges get built between people who’d never otherwise meetBut Georgia’s facing pushback from two contradictory directions.Front one: This is elitist. How could this ever be universal childcare?The spaces look too nice, too intentional about natural light and materials.Front two: Not everyone wants work and care integrated.Some people prefer separation, long commutes, and wrap-around daycare.Both critiques miss what Georgia is actually arguing.She’s not trying to universalise a single model.She’s pointing out that thousands of families restructured their lives during the pandemic and don’t want to return to the way things were.They’ve tasted something different—messy, overlapping, human—and the old binary (office or home, parent or professional, boss or employee) feels like a lie.The teens who kept wearing sliders and pyjama pants to school after lockdown?That’s the same cultural shift.We loosened our grip on “how things are supposed to be” and got more realistic about what actually matters.Georgia names fixable barriers:* Licensing rules that block grant access* Outdated funding structures* The assumption that childcare innovation requires private equity backingShe’s taking these findings to the House of Lords in June.She’s exploring intergenerational models that integrate eldercare alongside childcare.Her next horizon isn’t scaling Playhood into a chain—it’s asking smarter policy questions about how to fund site-specific, adaptive models that serve neighbourhoods.This episode is for:Space operators are wondering if childcare integration makes sense.Parents who’ve felt the guilt of separation and want to explore alternatives.Anyone asking whether coworking can do more than rent desks—whether it can actually function as civic infrastructure that builds bridges across differences.⏱ Timeline Highlights[02:07] What Georgia wants to be known for: “Making an impact... putting that report to work to help inspire entrepreneurs, to defend the childcare workforce.”[03:34] The provocative question that drove the report: “So many people wanted this... Why aren’t we funding models to pilot this?”[04:56] Why the report’s lens was American: “I’m sitting on more of a global picture.”[05:53] The tension Georgia feels most: “What concerns me most is this idea that we’re returning to the norms from before.”[09:10] On loosening standards: “We all loosened our standards... But I think we just got more realistic about, let’s not waste any time on that separation.”[10:20] The power of bridges: “We need bridges to other people... not binary employee versus boss, teacher versus parent.”[11:11] What the pandemic revealed: “The pandemic let us see childcare workers as key workers... We should hold on to models that integrate with families.”[14:03] The contradictory feedback: “Two key pieces of feedback contradict one another—how is this equitable? And also, this isn’t for everyone.”[15:21] On not dismissing the model: “If there’s a model here that could work in other neighbourhoods, we’ve got to look at smarter ways of funding.”[16:48] Georgia on fixable problems: “The barriers to making this more accessible—things like you can’t get grants without the licensing. Really old-fashioned things that get in the way. Fixable problems. I like those.”[17:42] Why childcare changes everything: “When you add or integrate with a childcare offering... there’s something next level going on.”[19:11] The workforce development story: “One of the strongest stories... is the workforce development that occurs here.”[24:09] On species needs: “Openness, open-heartedness and open-mindedness to being around other people is absolutely critical to our social cohesion right now.”[26:30] Small solutions matter: “Microschools, micro-nurseries with coworking show you don’t need the private equity-backed chain—there have to be entrepreneurs trying things out.”[27:56] What adaptive means: “We need to be site-specific and grow and adapt to meet each other’s needs... potentially even go into the House of Lords in June to share policy ideas.”The Two-Front FightGeorgia’s fighting two battles at once.And they contradict each other completely.Front one: This is elitist. How could this ever be universal childcare?The spaces she profiled look gorgeous. Full of plants, natural light, and intentional materials.People see that and assume expensive, inaccessible, designed for the 2.5% with disposable income.Georgia pushes back hard: “It’s really sad to me that people assume we can’t all have nice things.”Why should designing for human thriving automatically signal exclusivity?Front two: Not everyone wants this.Loads of parents are perfectly happy with the separation between work and care.They want to commute, drop off, access wrap-around daycare, and keep the worlds distinct.Georgia’s not arguing against that choice.She’s arguing against the assumption that integrated models shouldn’t exist because some people prefer separation.The contradiction exposes the real problem.We’ve built a system where innovation in childcare is assumed to be the preserve of premium membership models.And simultaneously, we’ve normalised the idea that “for everyone” means erasing specificity and choice.Georgia’s not trying to universalise one model.She’s documenting what happens when you give families actual options—and then asking why we’re not funding more experimentation.The answer involves fixable barriers like licensing and grant eligibility, not inherent inaccessibility.What the Pandemic Actually Taught UsSome people untethered completely after the pandemic.Sold everything, joined travelling villages with six other families, became world-schoolers.That’s the extreme version.But thousands more made smaller, lasting changes.They recalibrated. Decided work isn’t fixed to a location. Stopped pretending that being a parent and being a professional are separate identities you swap between.Georgia keeps coming back to this: “What concerns me most is this idea that we’re returning to the norms from before.”The norms are:* Work happens at the office* Childcare happens somewhere else* You commute between identitiesTeens in sliders and pyjama pants kept challenging that at school.Parents working from neighbourhood cafés with prams parked nearby kept challenging it.Coworking spaces with nurseries next door kept challenging it.The dominant culture for so long said there’s a way to show up to work. A way to be a boss. A way to be a parent.The pandemic tore those walls down.And lots of people haven’t rebuilt them.The settings Georgia profiled were founded by people who experienced that shift and decided to build something that reflects it.The question now: do we dismiss these as pandemic oddities, or do we get serious about funding models that serve the families who’ve moved on?Bridges Not BinariesThere’s a sociologist Georgia references (the name escapes her mid-conversation, but the framework sticks): bonds versus bridges.Bonds are the logical connections.Your next-door neighbour, your family member, and people you went to school with. You’re already in each other’s lives for clear reasons.Bridges are what coworking uniquely provides.You’re sitting with people who didn’t grow up like you, don’t do the work you do, and don’t share your background.But you’re in the same space.Empathy grows. You become reciprocal. You support one another.When you add childcare workers into that mix—working shoulder to shoulder with parents, freelancers, remote workers—something shifts.The binary breaks.It’s not employee versus boss anymore.Not teacher versus parent.Not “them” taking care of “my” child while “I” do “real” work.Co-location makes care visible as work.It puts the people doing that work in proximity to others doing different work.The threshold gets crossed.Childcare workers use the desk space on breaks, after shifts, weekends, to get qualifications, do training, look for new roles.Georgia found consistent stories of respectful working conditions and better remuneration in co-located settings.The childcare workforce is overwhelmingly female, often shockingly devalued with minimum wage or agency contracts.But when those workers are on-site, seen, and respected as colleagues in a shared space, things change.This is infrastructure work.Not programming events or mandatory icebreakers.Just conditions for bridges where walls used to be.The Workforce Development Story Nobody’s TellingGeorgia didn’t expect this finding when she started the research in March.It became one of the most compelling threads.The early years sector—preschoolers, nurseries—is struggling to recruit.Not enough people are entering degree programmes. Not enough people are getting qualifications.Recruitment across all care sectors is brutal right now.The w

“If freelancing is the future of work, then coworking is the future workplace.”Szilvia FilepTired of running yourself into the ground?Then stop running alone.On February 24th, the London Coworking Assembly presents Unreasonable Connection Goes Live!—a one-day working session for the people running London’s most vital neighbourhood spaces and the public sector allies working to help them thrive. It’s a day to share the load, find real solutions, and build a new playbook, together.Ten years ago, Szilvia Filep quit her multinational job in Budapest because they wouldn’t let her work remotely.Back in 2016, that decision meant becoming a freelancer when Hungarian society viewed freelancing as code for “can’t get a proper job.” It meant moving from the capital to Veszprém—a countryside city—with her husband and young daughter. It meant choosing time over salary, proximity over prestige, freedom over the illusion of security.Today, Szilvia runs the Hungarian Coworking Association, operates a coworking space in Veszprém, and serves as Communications Manager for Coworking Europe. Everything she needs—her kids’ school, her coworking space, the city centre, supermarket, her mother-in-law for childcare—sits within a 10-minute walk from her front door.She calls it her “10-minute city.” Where Paris has Professor Carlos Moreno’s ambitious 15-minute city vision, Szilvia built her own version through strategic decisions about where to live, what to prioritise, and how to structure work around life instead of life around work.The contrast with her previous existence is stark. One to one-and-a-half hours each way in Budapest traffic. Now? She chooses how to spend that reclaimed time. Not stuck in traffic jams. Not at the mercy of delayed trains. Freedom to prepare for her day on her own terms.But here’s what matters for you as a coworking operator: Szilvia’s journey from corporate employee to freelancer to association founder mirrors the transformation happening across Europe right now. What seemed risky in 2016—outcome-based work, autonomy, side projects, choosing flexibility—has become mainstream. In Hungary, the average person under 35 now spends just two years at one company. The future Szilvia bet on has arrived.And if freelancing truly is the future of work, then coworking genuinely is the future workplace. Not because of hot desks or good coffee. Because people working flexibly still need human contact. They need spaces designed around connection, not just productivity. They need to know they’re not alone “slogging it out” trying to make WordPress work or deciding whether to invoice before or after completing the work.Szilvia’s experience in smaller cities reveals something corporate chains can’t replicate: 60% of her coworking members joined when the space opened two-and-a-half years ago and are still there. That loyalty stems from limited options, yes—but more powerfully, from genuine belonging. In smaller towns, you run into each other outside the space. The connections run deeper. The community isn’t strategic; it’s real.This episode is for operators building local coworking spaces, running regional associations, or wondering whether European Coworking Day matters beyond marketing. Szilvia shows how grassroots movements gain credibility through continental connection whilst maintaining fierce local loyalty.You’ll leave understanding how to design a life that actually fits your values, why freelancing skills translate directly to coworking operations, and how European Coworking Day on 6th May gives your local work the visibility it deserves.Timeline Highlights[00:04] Bernie announces European Coworking Day is on the sixth of May[01:26] Szilvia introduces herself: founder of Coworking Hungary Association, runs a space in Veszprém, recently joined Coworking Europe conference team[02:07] Coworking Europe 2026 will be in Paris on sixth of November[02:39] “I’ve created my life, my basic needs in a way that everything is just 10 minutes walk from my home”[04:52] On reclaimed commute time: “It’s freedom”[08:34] The brave 2016 decision: “I had to quit. That was the time when I became a freelancer to be able to create the life I wanted to live”[11:49] Essential freelancing skills: “Creativity... you have to be quite brave... good in marketing and pretty much in sales... personal branding... Very, very thoughtful on financials”[13:54] Szilvia’s realisation: “It’s just the future of work”[16:38] On selling outcomes: “It’s not the time what you sell, but it’s the results what you sell”[17:57] Job tenure in Hungary: “The average time a younger person under 35 years spends at one company is two years”[21:03] The defining quote: “If freelancing is the future of work, then coworking is the future workplace”[22:38] Why European Coworking Day matters: “This gives an extra credibility and visibility to the things that we do here in Hungary”[25:21] On loyalty in smaller cities: “60% of the coworkers who are currently using the space, joined at the very beginning when we opened the space two and a half year ago”[29:59] Bernie’s reminder: “Collaboration over competition”The 10-Minute City You Can Build TodayYou don’t need municipal permission to create a 10-minute city.Szilvia designed hers through decisions: choosing Veszprém over Budapest, paying more for a flat near the city centre instead of cheaper suburbs, opening her coworking space within walking distance of her home.The trade-off was clear. Living centrally costs more. But the return—time, autonomy, presence with her children—proved worth every forint.Before moving, Szilvia and her husband sat down and asked: “How do we want to lead our family life together?” Both had spent their childhoods travelling to school in different cities. Both commuted 30-40 minutes one way to university in Budapest. Both wanted something different for their kids and themselves.What makes this relevant for coworking operators? Your members face the same calculation. They’re weighing commute time against flexibility, corporate salaries against autonomy, prestige against presence. The operators who understand this friction—who position their spaces as infrastructure for freedom, not just desks for rent—win the loyalty Szilvia describes.Sixty per cent retention over two-and-a-half years doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when your space solves a life design problem, not just a workspace problem.When “Freelancer” Meant “Unemployed”In 2016, telling people in Hungary you were a freelancer translated roughly to: “I can’t get a proper job.”Szilvia heard it constantly. “Poor freelancers, it’s how hard for them to get a job, how it’s just not stable, it’s just unpredictable. It’s unsafe financially.”She could count on her hands how many people she knew doing the same work. So she organised a freelance conference. She ran events for freelancers to meet and learn from each other. She told everyone she could about this emerging way of working.Ten years later, the world has caught up. Remote work. Outcome-based projects. Side gigs. Portfolio careers. These aren’t fringe anymore—they’re how most knowledge workers operate, whether officially freelance or not.But here’s the insight that matters: the skills Szilvia needed to succeed as a freelancer in 2016 are exactly the skills coworking operators need today. Creativity. Courage. Marketing yourself (or your space). Sales and personal branding. And critically—being “very, very thoughtful on financials.”If you can’t plan for income volatility, freelancing becomes genuinely precarious. If you can’t market your value, you struggle to fill your pipeline. If you’re not brave enough to make unconventional choices, you default to copying what others do.Szilvia’s freelance foundation prepared her perfectly for coworking operations. Both require building community from scratch, explaining a concept people don’t yet understand, and staying financially resilient through uncertainty.The Future of Work Has ArrivedSzilvia saw it coming in 2016.She researched freelancing, trying to understand where it fit on “the map of the world of work.” Her conclusion: “It’s nothing extraordinary. It’s just the future of work.”How people worked as freelancers in 2015 is how most people work in 2026. Remotely. With autonomy over their schedules. Selling results, not time. Managing multiple projects or clients. Doing side gigs alongside main employment.In Hungary, Bernie notes that COVID revealed how fragile employment security really is. The “job for life” their parents’ generation expected simply doesn’t exist. Under-35s switch companies every two years—essentially living project-based careers even within traditional employment.This transformation changes what coworking needs to provide.It’s not about replicating corporate offices. It’s not about professional addresses or meeting rooms. It’s about solving the core freelancing problem: isolation. As Szilvia puts it, home office “turned out it’s also not enough because you don’t have the interaction with people and that has a negative impact on creativity, cooperation, and many, many other things.”The solution? Flexibility and the idea of coworking. Multi-purpose community hubs where work happens but community forms. Spaces that fit into daily life—Hector’s “ecosystem” insight—rather than requiring members to build their lives around the space.If freelancing is genuinely the future of work, your coworking space isn’t competing with WeWork. You’re building civic infrastructure for how humans will work for the next fifty years.Why European Coworking Day Isn’t Just MarketingEvery May 6th, coworking spaces across Europe open their doors for European Coworking Day.In Hungary, the Coworking Association runs it as part of their “Open Coworking Week”—an extended celebration that’s been happening for six years.Szilvia explains why they participate: “This gives an extra credibility and visibility to the things that we do here in Hungary. We are not just sayi

“The unsung heroes are the smaller companies who are… They’re not trying to raise a billion pounds... Being a home where they feel happy, safe, productive is a good thing.”Tom BallTired of running yourself into the ground?Then stop running alone.On February 24th, the London Coworking Assembly presents Unreasonable Connection Goes Live!—a one-day working session for the people running London’s most vital neighbourhood spaces and the public sector allies working to help them thrive. It’s a day to share the load, find real solutions, and build a new playbook, together.Tom Ball has been banging the drum for micro and small businesses longer than most people have been paying attention.While everyone else obsesses over billion-pound unicorns and corporate flex contracts, Tom’s been quietly building DeskLodge in Bristol—a coworking space that actually makes money whilst refusing to become a soulless corporate service provider.The tension he lives with daily is the same one every independent coworking operator faces: you can’t be a purist because you can’t pay the bills that way. But you also can’t rip out everything that makes your space special just to chase higher margins.Tom chose a third path. He runs a financially viable business with a diverse tenant mix—freelancers, small firms, and corporate teams—whilst maintaining what he calls an “indie-friendly culture” and refusing to compromise on the values that matter.The conversation covers what the last brutal year has done to small coworking spaces, why government and big corporates consistently fail small businesses despite calling them “the backbone of the economy,” and the practical frameworks Tom’s developed over a decade to stay solvent without losing his soul.He shares DeskLodge’s award-winning flexible pricing model, including the “Flex One Plus” membership that changed how they think about belonging. The environmental design philosophy that treats productivity as a design problem, not a community-building one. The “Pay It Forward” scheme that gives free hot desking to well-connected people between jobs—not out of charity, but as strategic network investment.This episode is for operators who are exhausted from pretending the last year wasn’t brutal. Who want to support freelancers and micro-businesses but can’t figure out how to make the maths work. Who know their space needs corporate revenue but refuse to become WeWork.Tom doesn’t pretend to have all the answers. What he has is a decade of making it work whilst staying honest about what it actually takes.Timeline Highlights[01:24] Tom on what he’d like to be known for: “They’re actually really productive and we love small companies”[02:26] The unsung heroes: “I think the unsung heroes are the small companies... Where you spend your money matters. We should be doing more to support these people”[04:11] The brutal year: “Small coworking spaces... huge verbal hug to everybody out there running a space because the last year has been brutal... The build-up to the last budget was basically creating paralysis and nobody was making decisions”[05:48] How to support small businesses: “Use small businesses, pay them well... Pay them on time... And give a good fair shout out. Don’t ask for makes rates. Just treat them well”[07:02] The purist trap: “I don’t think you can be a purist because I don’t think you can pay the bills... We would make more money if we ripped out a load of the hot desking... but we choose not to”[09:50] Being home for small companies: “The unsung heroes... are the smaller companies who are… They’re not trying to raise a billion pounds... Being a home where they feel happy, safe, productive is a good thing”[13:24] Environmental design matters: “We’ve got a silent zone... places that are designed for doing video calls... open plan areas... We deliberately designed these different spaces for doing different things”[16:58] The Flex One Plus insight: “You pay a monthly membership and it gives you one day a month, and then you get a discount rate for other days... having that one a month means you feel that you belong and you’re leaning forward slightly”[17:31] The pricing breakdown: “It’s 30 quid for a day pass, 25 quid a month with one day included, and then it’s 25 for the extra days”[21:50] Community acquisition strategy: “The best thing that we do is let other people host their events in our space... free hot desk for free as a group... as a way of pulling in new people”[23:55] Pay It Forward: “If somebody well connected leaves their job, then I give them a few months free hot desking... It’s a lovely thing to do... what goes around comes around”[25:29] The Gap defined: “The Gap is from when you realise you’re doing the wrong thing to when you start doing the right thing... We’ve got the wrong energy around it... it’s a time when people want, deserve, need help”Nobody Actually Believes in Small TeamsTom doesn’t waste time being diplomatic about this.Labour is big government. Tories are big corporate. Nobody in power actually believes in smaller teams, despite the rhetoric about small businesses being “the backbone of Britain.”If you look at government, it’s small teams that make stuff happen. Massive hierarchies spend more time in meetings. Yet policy consistently favours large organisations because that’s where the power sits.The same pattern shows up in coworking. Everyone talks about community and supporting freelancers. Then they optimise for corporate contracts because that’s where the reliable revenue lives.Tom’s watched this play out across his members. The two-person consultancy doing brilliant work. The small coffee shop. The slow-growing companies that have been with DeskLodge for a decade, slightly bigger now but not chasing unicorn status.These are the actual lifeblood of local economies. And they’re systemically unsupported.Where you spend your money matters. Not as a moral statement—as an economic one. When you choose the indie coffee shop over Starbucks, you’re keeping wealth circulating locally rather than extracting it to shareholders.The challenge for coworking operators is you can’t run on ideology. You need revenue. The question becomes: how do you build a business model that supports small companies without going broke yourself?The Brutal Year Everyone’s Pretending Didn’t HappenTom offers what he calls “a huge verbal hug to everybody out there running a space because the last year has been brutal.”Not just tough. Brutal.And it wasn’t Indies getting picked on whilst chains thrived. The whole market struggled. The build-up to the last budget created paralysis—nobody was making decisions. That meant nobody was moving into spaces. Clients’ pipelines delayed. Projects stalled.Small coworking operators felt it hardest because they don’t have the cash reserves to weather extended slow periods. One bad quarter threatens survival.Tom’s point isn’t to wallow. It’s to stop pretending.Knowing everyone’s finding it tough helps. It’s not you. It’s not your pricing. It’s not your marketing. The external conditions have been genuinely difficult.You’re in the right place doing the right thing. It won’t be like this forever.That acknowledgment matters. Too many operators are quietly drowning whilst scrolling past other people’s Instagram posts of “sold out” events and “record months.” The isolation compounds the financial stress.The indie coworking community needs more honesty about when things are hard. Not as resignation, but as solidarity.Use Them, Pay Them Well, Pay Them On TimeTom’s call to action for corporates is blunt.If you’re a big company working with small vendors, do three things:* Use small businesses. Choose them over the big agency or corporate supplier.* Pay them well. They’re already cheaper than the alternatives. Don’t beat them up on price. Don’t ask for “mates rates.”* Pay them on time. Or early. Not 60 days. Not 90 days. Not “were you short of cash?” when they chase payment. On time. They’re paying their bills on time. How are you doing?It used to drive Tom “nuts” when big companies insisted on ridiculous payment terms, then had the audacity to act surprised when vendors needed paying.This isn’t charity. It’s basic decency. And it’s economic sense.When small businesses thrive, they hire locally. They spend locally. They create resilient local economies. When they’re squeezed by poor payment practices and exploitative pricing pressure, they fold.Then everyone wonders why high streets are dying and local economies are hollowing out.The same principle applies inside coworking spaces. If you want to maintain an indie-friendly culture whilst taking corporate revenue, you need to be intentional about how corporate members interact with smaller members.Are your corporate members hiring your freelancers? Paying them fairly? Treating the space as a genuine community rather than just cheap desks?The tenant mix isn’t just about revenue diversification. It’s about economic ecosystem design.You Can’t Be a Purist, But You Can Choose Not ToHere’s Tom’s central tension: “I don’t think you can be a purist because I don’t think you can pay the bills.”DeskLodge would make more money if they ripped out the hot desking and filled the space with high-paying dedicated desks and private offices. Tom knows this. He’s run the numbers.But they choose not to.Because the hot desking is where the magic happens. That’s where freelancers sit next to small company founders. That’s where someone awkwardly working through a WordPress problem at lunchtime realises they’re not alone.Tom calls these people “the unsung heroes.” Not trying to raise a billion pounds. Just building something sustainable. They need a home where they feel happy, safe, and productive.That matters more to Tom than maximum profit.But—and this is critical—he’s not pretending you can run on values alone. DeskLodge has a diverse tenant mix. Corporate teams. Bigger companies that have grown with them over ten years. That revenue subsidis

“Inclusivity basically doesn’t mean that you have to include everybody. It’s just making sure that the space that you’re offering is where people can feel safe... it’s about who feels comfortable staying or speaking up or knowing that whatever opinions they have to give will be heard.”Rosee ShresthaTired of running yourself into the ground?Then stop running alone.On February 24th, the London Coworking Assembly presents Unreasonable Connection Goes Live!—a one-day working session for the people running London’s most vital neighbourhood spaces and the public sector allies working to help them thrive. It’s a day to share the load, find real solutions, and build a new playbook, together.The best version of your space is being specific about who it’s for.Being for everyone is a recipe for building somewhere nobody belongs.Rosee Shrestha writes and creates content at Cobot, where she documents what actually works in coworking. Through her newsletter and interviews with operators across Europe, she’s noticed a pattern. The spaces that thrive aren’t casting the widest net. They’re being specific about who they serve—because that’s the only moat they have.In an industry where the rent keeps climbing and corporate chains can outspend you on marketing, your community is the one thing they can’t replicate.Bernie and Rosee unpack her recent piece featuring perspectives from Ashley, Silia, and Hector on what’s shaping coworking in 2026.The thread connecting all their insights? Hyper-local spaces that know exactly who they’re for.Ashley talks about returning to first principles—community hubs that serve multiple purposes, not just desk rental. Hector describes members choosing an ecosystem that fits into their daily lives, not just a place to sit. Rosee shares what she learned from Selina at Werkhain in Berlin about what it means to be “seen” in a space without anyone forcing interaction on you.Bernie brings his own observations from FENTO coworking near Vigo, where Camino pilgrims walk past speaking German, Dutch, French, and English—and from a hostel café in Kathmandu where travellers and locals found each other without strategic community programming.This episode is for operators tired of competing with everyone for nobody in particular.Timeline Highlights[01:35] Rosee on what she wants to be known for: “Write in ways that it feels honest and helpful for every operator or just anybody who wants to learn about the industry”[02:29] The hyper-local thread: “One thing that was in common between every perspective... you really were betting on hyper local coworking spaces”[03:37] On Ashley’s first principles: “The essence of coworking was just having a hub where people can come together instead of having to work alone at home”[04:47] The buzzword confession: “Meaningful human connection... it does sound like a buzzword a little bit. But when it comes to coworking, I definitely feel like it’s true”[05:49] Bernie on foundations shaping communities: “How you build the foundation of your community in the beginning will help shape what happens later on”[06:15] The Urban MBA example: “Community is basically the Caribbean kitchen at Urban MBA or people taking care of Elena Giroli when she had to be away”[07:08] Hector’s ecosystem insight: “Work just now happens across so many different settings... does it really fit into everything that I try to do”[08:42] On Werkhain in Berlin: “It didn’t feel like a coworking spaceship that had landed in the neighbourhood unannounced”[09:30] What being “seen” actually means: “Having these daily interactions... being supported without really forcing interaction”[11:06] Bernie on coworking’s grounding effect: “You’re sitting in a room with other people doing the same thing. It’s really grounding”[12:30] The “for everyone” trap: “Inclusivity also not saying we are open to everybody. It’s just about making this safe space for people, like-minded people”[16:23] The hostel in Kathmandu: “There was so much cultural exchange going on... one person brings somebody there, then it’s like oh, it’s open for everybody”[19:56] On travellers with intent: “There’s this energy you get from people travelling with intent”What “First Principles” Actually MeansAshley’s phrase stayed in the conversation: getting back to first principles.Rosee frames it simply: “The essence of that is based around the connection between each other, like how you form the community in a space.”It’s not nostalgia. It’s recognition that AI and remote work have stripped away so much human contact that the original premise of coworking—gathering with others instead of working alone—matters more than it did five years ago.When everything else becomes commoditised, the irreducible core remains. People need to see other people. Not through screens. Not in managed corporate environments. In spaces where they can sit with their own thoughts while knowing they’re not alone.Bernie nails what this actually feels like: sitting in a coworking space knowing you’re not the only one “slogging it out, trying to work out how WordPress works and whether I use ChatGPT for this or Claude for this, or do I send my invoice now and then do the work or do the work and then send the invoice.”The spaces getting this right aren’t trying to be WeWork. They’re becoming what Rosee calls “multi-purpose community hubs”—places where the coworking is almost incidental to the gathering.Why “For Everyone” Creates Nobody’s SpaceBernie pushed Rosee on language that matters.She used the word “tolerant” when discussing inclusion. Bernie picked it up immediately: “If you said to me, you’re going to have to tolerate three women in your coworking space today, I’d be like, I’m not really… that makes me feel like I’m putting up with them.”Rosee clarified what she actually meant: “It’s about just making this safe space for people, like-minded people who can just be there for each other instead of having to tolerate each other.”Inclusion doesn’t mean inviting everyone. It means being clear about who your space is for, then making sure those people feel genuinely welcomed—not tolerated. A space for gamers includes gamers. A space for climate activists includes climate activists. A space that supports caregivers considers childcare. A space designed for neurodivergent members considers sensory needs.Rosee mentions this in her recent article on neurodivergence—”just creating a space where you can actually recognise those people.”When someone says “our space is for everyone,” they’re really saying “we haven’t thought about who we’re actually serving.”The Ecosystem FitHector’s contribution reframes how members evaluate spaces.It’s not: “Is this a nice place to work?”It’s: “Does this fit into my actual life?”Rosee explains: “Work just now happens across so many different settings, like home, coworking spaces. Instead of being like this is my main office, does it really fit into everything that I try to do.”When billing is confusing, when booking is painful, when the systems feel unreliable, members don’t just get annoyed—they lose trust. As Rosee puts it: “When the system at the coworking space doesn’t feel so reliable, it’s easy to lose that trust a little bit. People do tend to disengage.”Members are evaluating your space against every other option: home, cafés, libraries, other coworking spaces, client offices. If you make their life harder rather than easier, you lose.Being Seen Without Being ForcedRosee learned something from visiting Werkhain in Berlin—a space that transformed a former gym into a fully booked hub. What struck her was how they were “definitely well known in the local area” and hosted community events that drew visitors, not just members.Being “seen” doesn’t mean constant interaction. It doesn’t mean organised networking events or mandatory icebreakers.Rosee puts it simply: “It’s about knowing... just being supported without really forcing interaction. That is what being seen to me means.”The magic isn’t in the programming. It’s in shared presence.The best spaces create conditions for connection without mandating it.The Kathmandu CaféRosee’s story about working at a hostel in Kathmandu offers something useful about organic community.A hostel with a café and bar. Backpackers passing through. Local young people discovering it. No strategic community programming.“One person brings somebody there,” Rosee explained. “Then it’s like, Oh, it’s open for everybody. We can all go in and then meet other people as well. Then bigger groups of Nepal people start coming in, and then the tourists are always coming because it’s a hostel.”She went there wanting to learn German before moving to Berlin. She ended up in a cultural exchange with a traveller wanting to learn Nepali.Bernie connected this to FENTO coworking near Vigo, where Camino pilgrims walk past speaking German, Dutch, French, and English. And to Patricia’s coworking and co-living space on the Camino between Vigo and Santiago, where digital nomads mix with locals.The pattern: spaces that welcome movement naturally develop community. Not because someone planned it, but because the conditions were right.Travellers With IntentBernie made a sharp distinction near the end.There’s a difference between people travelling with purpose—Camino pilgrims, backpackers seeking cultural exchange, digital nomads building lives abroad—and tourists seeking cheap consumption.“There’s a difference between the people we’re talking about because if you’re doing the Camino, you’re essentially backpacking... versus, which I used to be, someone who’s gone to Ibiza to drink as many pints of cheap lager as they can in 48 hours, that travelling is not as intentional.”This applies directly to coworking membership.Some members join with intent: to build something, to connect meaningfully, to contribute. Others are looking for the cheapest desk with the best wifi.Knowing which audience you’re attracting—and being honest about which you’re designed for—determi

“For an industry that professes to be about community, that’s the co-part of coworking, it sure doesn’t include the entire community. We owe it to ourselves, practise what we preach...” Jerome ChangTired of running yourself into the ground?Then stop running alone.On February 24th, the London Coworking Assembly presents Unreasonable Connection Goes Live!—a one-day working session for the people running London’s most vital neighbourhood spaces and the public sector allies working to help them thrive. It’s a day to share the load, find real solutions, and build a new playbook, together.Jerome Chang started coworking in 2008.He runs the oldest coworking brand in America. He’s a licensed architect. He also plays aggressive adult slow-pitch softball.That last part surprised Bernie, too.Here’s what didn’t surprise him: Jerome stopped going to the big conferences.In London, over 51% of coworking spaces are owned by operators with one to five locations. Jerome calls them “people in the trenches.” But walk into a major industry conference, and you’ll hear the National President of WeWork talking about strategies for hundreds of sites.After the top three or four brands—WeWork with around 200 locations, Regus with 1,000, and Premier with 120—everyone else drops to fewer than four locations.That’s the actual industry.Nobody was building events for them.So Jerome built one. The Coworking Operators Weekend. Now in its second year. Rotating through secondary cities: Los Angeles, then Raleigh, then Detroit in 2027, Denver in 2028.Jackie Latragna handles marketing for Pacific Workplaces and helps organise the event. She came from logistics two years ago and is still shocked at how genuinely helpful people are in this industry. Her takeaway from last year: “You walk away from an event, and you know every single person’s name.”The conversation goes somewhere uncomfortable too.Jerome points out that Biznow—a traditional real estate publication serving one of the most conservative industries in America—manages diverse speaker lineups at every event. Coworking, built on community, does worse.Bernie shares his own awkward moment: telling a conference organiser that 70% of their lineup was men. The response: “The women just don’t call me back.”Bernie’s answer: “You have to call them more. They’re not hanging around waiting for you to call.”One attendee last year opened her space within the previous twelve months. She came to confirm she wasn’t doing everything wrong. She brought her dog.She left knowing she belonged.⏱ Timeline Highlights[00:00] Bernie opens with the stat that frames everything: 51% of London coworking is owned by operators with one to five locations[01:27] Jackie’s introduction: marketing at Pacific Workplaces, wants to be known as an epic baker, got a KitchenAid mixer for Christmas[01:58] Jerome: started in 2008, oldest coworking brand in America, licensed architect, and “a very greedy bass runner” in adult softball[02:50] Bernie: “It’s the aggressive part in that sentence that threw me off.”[03:28] Why Jerome created the summit: big conferences shifted toward macro topics, leaving operators in the trenches[05:40] Jackie on connexion: “You walk away from an event, and you know every single person’s name.”[07:25] Jerome: Smaller rooms mean every conversation is accessible, even if you know no one[09:21] The industry reality: after the top three or four brands, “everyone’s under three or four locations.”[10:56] Jackie’s most anticipated session: using your space for events as revenue—” I haven’t seen this topic anywhere else.”[13:07] A new operator came to confirm she was on the right path. She brought her dog. She left knowing she belonged.[14:13] Jackie on why this industry is different: “Somebody in the room is going to help you, and they’re going to help you genuinely.”[17:03] Bernie’s COVID memory: the daily Zoom calls where the peacocking operators finally asked for help[19:13] Jerome’s sharp comparison: Biznow does diversity better than most coworking conferences[22:15] Bernie’s confrontation with a conference organiser: “The women just don’t call me back.” His response: “You have to call them more.”[23:16] Jackie: “Maybe they’re just scared to be the first one.”[24:14] Event details: February 6-7, 2026, Raleigh, North CarolinaThe Actual IndustryAfter the top three or four brands, everyone’s under four locations.Jerome lays this out plainly. WeWork has around 200 sites. Regus has 1,000. Premier has 120. Then there’s a cliff.The majority of people running one, two, three spaces are. Bernie adds London data: over 51% of coworking spaces there are owned by operators with one to five locations.These aren’t hobbyists.They’re the actual industry—but they’ve become invisible at events designed to attract sponsors and impress investors.The Operators Weekend exists because someone finally said: the majority are still in the trenches. They deserve content that meets them where they are.Events as RevenueJackie flags something most conferences miss entirely: using your space for public events as a revenue stream.“I haven’t seen this topic anywhere else,” she says.The logic is obvious once stated. Meeting rooms sit empty during off-peak hours. Workshops, pop-ups, markets—each represents income and visibility.But obvious doesn’t mean easy.How do you price event space without undermining membership? How do you promote to the broader community without alienating members who value quiet?The Saturday session tackles this directly. For operators watching margins, this could change their financial model.Why Small Rooms WorkJerome and Jackie both circle around something counterintuitive: smaller events create better connections.When you walk into a room of 300 people, existing relationships look like cliques to newcomers. Jerome puts it simply: “Unless you’re very socially outgoing, you’re not breaking into those tight-knit groups.”In a smaller room, every conversation becomes accessible.Jackie saw this firsthand last year. She’d spot someone new, learn their background, pull over someone relevant. “Then you just fade into the background after that conversation starts, and you just watch it blossom.”The choice to rotate through secondary cities—Raleigh, Detroit, Denver—serves the same purpose.These aren’t glamour destinations. The focus stays on the room, not the location.The Diversity ProblemJerome doesn’t soft-pedal this.He’s watched coworking conferences stay predominantly white and male for years—despite an industry built on community rhetoric. His comparison lands hard: Biznow, a traditional real estate publication serving one of the most conservative industries in America, does better.“If they can do it, my gosh, we are overdue.”The problem isn’t just optics. Jerome notes that he—and others—stopped attending certain conferences because they didn’t want to aid the situation by being there.That’s lost ticket sales for organisers who refuse to change.Bernie shares his own uncomfortable moment. He pointed out a 70% male lineup to an organiser. The response: “Well, the women just don’t call me back.”Bernie’s answer: “You have to call them more. They’re not hanging around waiting for you to call.”Jackie adds the quiet truth: maybe women and minorities aren’t responding because they’ve never seen anyone like themselves on stage.They don’t want to be the token.The ask has to be both authentic and persistent.Coworking Space Imposter SyndromeBernie introduces a phrase that deserves circulation: “coworking space imposter syndrome.”He’s heard it roughly a hundred times.Operators with 70 desks saying, “Oh, I’m not a real coworking space.”His comparison lands: “It’s like the artisan coffee guy on the corner going, I’m not a real coffee shop because I’m not Starbucks.”This syndrome has real consequences. It keeps independents from attending events where they’d find support. It stops them from contributing knowledge. It makes them vulnerable to copying what chains do rather than building what their neighbourhood needs.Jackie shares a testimonial.One attendee opened her space within the previous year. She came not for strategies but for confirmation she wasn’t doing everything wrong.She left knowing she was on the right path.Sometimes the most valuable thing a conference offers isn’t new information.It’s knowing you belong.What COVID RevealedBernie recalls March 2020.Daily Zoom calls. Nobody knew whether to stay open. Whether to paint the building in bleach. What was coming?What struck him wasn’t the panic.It was the person who showed up asking for help.People who’d been peacocking at conferences—claiming fifth-location expansions, talking big numbers—suddenly revealed the truth: “My mum lent me the money for the building and she wants it back because this has happened.”The crisis stripped away the performance.This matters because peacocking creates imposter syndrome. When someone tells you they’re opening their fifth location this year, you feel like a fraud struggling with your second.COVID revealed that many of those claims were theatre.The Operators Weekend seems designed to keep that honesty alive.Small rooms. Operational topics. People who actually want help, not people performing success for an audience.Cities as Strategic PartnersOne session in the programme points to something most operators haven’t explored: partnering with municipalities.Cities need activated buildings, supported entrepreneurs, and community hubs. Coworking spaces need legitimacy, visibility, sometimes planning permission or rate relief.When the relationship works, both gain.The session promises real examples: spaces that have partnered with economic development teams, tourism boards, and city planners.For Bernie, this connects to his broader mission: educating MPs and local authorities about coworking’s value as civic infrastructure, not just desk rental.Too many officials still see coworking as fancy hot-desking.The work of changing that perception happens one pa

“Anyone who tells you to have this little bit of code, do this, is lying. Nobody knows exactly how to optimise towards it.”Hector KolonasTired of running yourself into the ground?Then stop running alone.On February 24th, the London Coworking Assembly presents Unreasonable Connection Goes Live!—a one-day working session for the people running London’s most vital neighbourhood spaces and the public sector allies working to help them thrive. It’s a day to share the load, find real solutions, and build a new playbook, together.That’s Hector Kolonas on AI search strategy.Not the consultant version. The honest version. The version you get from someone who’s been watching coworking patterns since 2013 — not because he planned it, but because the Cyprus banking crisis wiped out his business overnight.Banks froze. ATMs stopped. His advertising clients axed his contracts.What he found himself staring at: empty ad agency offices, Herman Miller chairs gathering dust, and a new class of displaced workers with nowhere to go. So he filled those offices with freelancers. Not as a business plan. As survival.That’s why he sees fragility where others see trends.When he talks about the shifts happening in coworking right now, he’s not predicting from a conference stage. He’s pattern-matching against what happens when systems fail. Three shifts are reshaping how people interact with coworking spaces.Not abstract trends. Real changes happening now.The first shiftPeople aren’t choosing a single office anymore.They’re building an ecosystem of workspaces based on what task they’re trying to complete and what else is happening in their life that day. A coworking space for collaborative work. Home for deep focus. A hotel lobby for client calls.The question isn’t “Should I join?” It’s “Does this space fit the specific thing I need right now?”The second shiftWho pays and how billing works is becoming the silent killer.When employers centralise workspace spending, they gravitate toward spaces that make accounting simple. If your billing creates friction, members stop showing up — not because they don’t love the community, but because finance said no.This is a power shift disguised as a logistics problem.The third shiftDiscoverability is fragmenting.Google Maps still matters. But AI search is producing queries so specific that traditional SEO can’t answer them:“I need a workspace with a podcast studio near Abby’s soccer training on Tuesday afternoons that I can book on a per day basis.”“I need somewhere quiet to get some deep work done that has great coffee, isn’t too busy on Wednesday mornings and is within five minutes walk of Tottenham Court Road Station.”That’s what people are typing into OpenAI, Claude, Perplexity, Comet Browser.If your space can’t be stitched together from Reddit conversations, podcast appearances, and member testimonials, you’re about to become invisible. And invisible doesn’t mean you’re competing with WeWork.It means you’re competing with someone’s kitchen table.What else this episode coversHector unpacks what “operational AI” actually means.Not chatbots or content generators, but systems that prompt your team: “This is Bernie’s 200th day pass. He’s coming in tomorrow.” That’s hospitality meeting data. The community manager still decides what to do.The AI just ensures they know the opportunity exists.The conversation takes a turn into vibe coding — describing what you want a system to do and having AI build it, without knowing how to code. Bernie asks Hector to explain it “to an eighth grader.”After a proper answer, Bernie says: “I’m so glad I asked.”Hector’s warning for operators tempted to chase every AI trend: in the early days of coworking, every space built their own software. Now, many spaces are building their own AI agents and database infrastructure without expert guidance.They’ll learn the same painful lessons about maintenance, security, and technical debt.Bernie’s version is blunter: “It’s tempting to solve problems you don’t have yet. You see, I can launch aeroplanes in AI. It’s like you’re a blogger in a three-site coworking company in Birmingham. Stick to what you’re doing.”By the end, when Hector finishes describing This Week in Coworking — the newsletters, the undercurrents, the games, the leader profiles — Bernie’s response is honest:“I’m so jealous. Anyway, did I say that out loud?”If you’ve been wondering whether all the AI talk is hype or something you need to act on, this episode gives you a framework for deciding what matters now versus what to file away for later.Timeline Highlights[01:14] Bernie introduces the “second best coworking podcast in the world.” Hector immediately: “How many guests have asked you what the number one podcast is?”[01:18] “According to all the AI engines, This Week in Coworking is an encyclopaedia for the coworking industry. It’s not how I would have called it, but it’s an interesting way to think about it.”[02:03] Bernie: “I thought it was earlier than that. I thought it was the economic crash in Cyprus.” Hector: “Yeah, that was in 2013, man.”[03:07] The ecosystem shift: “This idea that you don’t have to be in a specific physical place to achieve a task, but there are physical spaces that make certain tasks easier to achieve.”[06:01] The billing reality: “The easier it is to access the space from a billing perspective... is changing how people interact with space. They’re leaning towards the ones that are easier to pay.”[07:32] The AI prompt that should worry you: “I need somewhere quiet to get some deep work done that has great coffee, isn’t too busy on Wednesday mornings and is within five minutes walk of Tottenham Court Road Station.”[09:49] The anti-b******t moment: “Anyone who tells you to have this little bit of code, do this, is lying. Nobody knows exactly how to optimise towards it, but good fundamentals is what we are recommending right now.”[14:01] The hospitality AI enables: “Being told that this is Bernie’s 200th day pass, he’s coming in tomorrow... there is so much you can do with the right hospitality hat on.”[15:51] Vibe coding explained: “I can tell it, I need this outcome, and I’m not really fussed about how you do it.”[20:47] Bernie on AI search: “I’ve had the luxury of hanging around Koffi since it all started... that Gemini enterprise thing, it surfaces so much from my Google Drive, which is now 15 years old.”[24:22] Where to start: “What is the frog you would want to eat first? Or what is the thing that you have to do every day that puts that pain in your stomach? Automate that first.”[27:02] Bernie’s warning: “It’s tempting to solve problems you don’t have yet. You see, I can launch aeroplanes in AI. It’s like you’re a blogger in a three-site coworking company in Birmingham. Stick to what you’re doing.”[34:06] After Hector describes everything TWIC has become, Bernie: “I’m so jealous. Anyway, did I say that out loud?”Why Nobody’s Choosing One Office AnymoreThe first shift Hector describes isn’t about hybrid work policies.It’s about how people mentally map their working lives. Pre-pandemic, most desk workers had one office. Post-pandemic, the narrative became “office versus home.”But what’s actually emerging is more fluid.An ecosystem where different spaces serve different purposes depending on the task and the day. Someone might work from home for focused writing, hit a coworking space for collaborative sessions, use a hotel lobby for client calls, and pop into a coffee shop for a change of scenery.The choice isn’t binary. It’s contextual.For operators, this changes the value proposition. You’re not competing to be someone’s primary workspace. You’re competing to be the right workspace for specific moments.This also explains why fractional office models and day passes are growing.People don’t want long commitments to spaces they’ll use inconsistently. They want access when the context demands it.The Silent Killer: When Finance Says NoHere’s something most operators don’t track.How many potential members quietly disappear because the payment process is a headache. Hector points out that as organisations become more “workspace ecosystem enabled,” they’re centralising accounting, reporting, and billing for employee workspace expenses.This isn’t just about reimbursement.It’s about tax implications, PnL visibility, and audit trails. When an employer gives staff a corporate card or workspace allowance, they want clean data flowing back. They want to know where money is being spent and categorised correctly, without their people having to upload invoices manually.The spaces that make this easy win.The spaces that create friction lose members — not because of the community or the coffee, but because accounting said no.The deeper issueWhen employers control where workers can spend workspace allowances, the worker loses autonomy and the indie operator loses direct relationships.The same forces making freelance work precarious are now making indie coworking precarious. You’re not just competing on hospitality anymore.You’re competing on whether you’ve integrated with the employer's expense platform.The AI Search Problem Nobody Knows How to SolveGoogle Maps isn’t going anywhere. Neither are booking platforms.But Hector is tracking something new: search queries so specific that traditional SEO can’t answer them. Someone doesn’t just search “coworking space London.” They ask an AI for a workspace with a podcast studio near their kid’s soccer training on Tuesday afternoons.That prompt combines location, facilities, schedule constraints, and booking flexibility.No amount of keyword optimisation answers it. What does answer it is having content spread across multiple platforms — Reddit conversations, podcast appearances, videos, member testimonials — that AI can stitch together into a contextual recommendation.The practical adviceGood fundamentals still matter.Marked-up website, clear facility descriptions, Google Business Profile. But you also need presence i

"It wasn't because they weren't listening – it was because they weren't educated. Once that penny drops, they're super helpful."Ewan BuckTired of running yourself into the ground?Then stop running alone.On February 24th, the London Coworking Assembly presents Unreasonable Connection Goes Live!—a one-day working session for the people running London’s most vital neighbourhood spaces and the public sector allies working to help them thrive. It’s a day to share the load, find real solutions, and build a new playbook, together.Ewan Buck has been working on Contingent Works since 2018. The space opened on Bromley High Street in late 2020, weeks before England’s second lockdown.For the first four years, the council didn’t get it.Not because they were hostile. Because they’d never seen what a coworking space actually does. They work in dull corporate offices. They don’t know what it looks like when freelancers and micro-businesses find each other, share leads, and build something together.So Ewan did what Gerald from a Brixton coworking assembly told him worked: he educated them. Slowly. Persistently. For four years.He dragged councillors into the space. He introduced them to members. He let them see faces light up over laptop screens on a Friday afternoon when central London offices sat empty.Then the personnel changed. Someone new arrived in the department and asked the obvious question: “Oh, you’ve got a coworking space on the high street? That’s really handy.”Once the penny dropped, they were super helpful.Now Contingent Works runs an accelerator programme with Goldsmiths University. Ten scaling companies get monthly mentoring. Regular networking events bring local businesses together. The MP is scheduled to visit in February.But here’s the part that stopped Bernie mid-conversation:A member, Jack, wrote to the MP. Without telling Ewan. Without being asked.“I don’t know why you’re not here. I don’t know why you don’t support this place. It’s absolutely brilliant. I couldn’t work without this place.”The parliamentary office responded.That’s what four years of patient, connected, ecosystem-minded work actually produces. Not just a profitable space. A space that people fight for.Timeline Highlights[01:34] “I like to be known as a connector, someone who connects people together.”[02:20] Bromley’s identity: London borough since ‘68, but “the post office couldn’t be bothered to change all the codes.”[04:23] Why “Contingent Works”: “We wanted to align ourselves with disruptors that embrace the new.”[05:49] The toilet wall photo and Simon Barker’s response: “I’ve made it from the gutter to the toilet.”[07:04] How Ewan met his co-founder, Stephen, at the school gates of David Bowie’s old primary school. “We sat in all the chairs, hoping it might be in the same chair.”[09:56] Discovering Soho Radio: “Someone must have thought this is a great idea. I’m just going to do it.”[11:34] On London changing: “Cities always change... Maybe people take fewer risks. I don’t know.”[14:45] Gerald’s lesson from Brixton: “It wasn’t because they weren’t listening – it was because they weren’t educated.”[14:55] “Once that penny drops, they’re super helpful.”[16:11] What the council partnership produced: “An accelerator hub with Goldsmith University... a really tight cohort of 10 companies that are all scaling.”[17:33] “That took four years. More importantly, it took a change of leadership in the council.”[18:15] “You need a backer. You need an advocate in the council to help you.”[18:54] The method: “You have to drag them, kicking and screaming, into your space.”[19:30] GLA team visiting on a Friday: “Oh, this is where all the people from London work.”[22:24] Jack writes to the MP: “I don’t know why you’re not here... He did that off his own back.”[25:30] High street reality: “2019 was the worst retail year ever... they’re going ‘Oh, we’re nearly at 2019 levels’ – forgetting that it was terrible”[26:54] The infrastructure case: “Every single bus going through Bromley stops opposite our building.”[29:45] What success means: “It only really works if everything around you is successful as well.”[30:45] “You can’t just live in isolation.”Identity as ConnectorWhen Bernie asks what Ewan wants to be known for, he doesn’t say “successful business owner” or “coworking operator.” He says: “A connector. Someone who connects people together.”This isn’t branding. It’s how he moves through the world. He works with the council “quite a lot” because it lets him meet other groups of people. He introduces people “in a positive way.” His value isn’t the desks – it’s the relationships.Deep Local RootsEwan didn’t parachute into Bromley as a developer. He lives there. His kids go to school there. He met his co-founder Stephen at the school gates, where they discovered David Bowie had also been a pupil.“We sat in all the chairs, hoping it might be in the same chair.”That’s not a businessman. That’s a neighbour. And neighbours think differently about what a high street needs.Learning From the CommunityThe breakthrough insight came from Gerald at a coworking assembly event in Brixton. Ewan went. He listened. Gerald explained that councils aren’t hostile – they’re uneducated. “You have to educate your councillor. They don’t understand. They don’t know what a coworker is.”Ewan took that lesson and applied it for four years.This is what coworking assemblies and peer networks are for. Not just moral support – tactical intelligence from people who’ve already made the mistakes.Physical Presence as StrategyThe method is specific and replicable:“You have to drag them, kicking and screaming, into your space. They work in an extremely dull corporate environment. It’s a council office. They’re never glamorous. They walk into somewhere like Contingent and go, ‘Oh, right. Wow. These people work here. This is amazing. It’s like a hotel lobby.”Then, introduce them to members. Let them see what actually happens. Let them feel the energy.The GLA team walked in on a Friday and said, “Oh, this is where all the people from London work.” That’s the moment understanding shifts.Finding Your AdvocateEwan is clear about what made the difference:“More importantly, it actually took a change of leadership in the council. Not the top leaders, but in that department. It took a change of personnel in that department for someone new to come in and go, ‘Oh, you’ve got coworking space in the high street. That’s really handy.’”And once you find that person:“You need a backer. You need an advocate in the council to help you. As long as you can get in there and educate them, it should be a reciprocal relationship. It has proved so, so far.”The lesson: keep educating. Keep showing up. The right person will eventually arrive.Creating a Space Members Fight ForJack didn’t write to the MP because Ewan asked him to. He wrote because the space mattered enough to him that he couldn’t understand why it wasn’t recognised.“I don’t know why you’re not here. I don’t know why you don’t support this place. It’s absolutely brilliant. I couldn’t work without this place.”You can’t manufacture that. You can only create conditions where it happens: a space so good, so connected to people’s working lives, that they advocate without being asked.Ecosystem ThinkingBernie asks what Ewan hopes for 2026. He doesn’t say “profitability” or “growth.” He says:“You want things to turn over and be settled... But it only really works if everything around you is successful as well.”And later:“If everyone’s doing that and if we’re supported and we can all survive, then there’ll be a real buzz to the town. You’re part of something bigger. You can’t just live in isolation.”This is why he’s a trustee of The Hub (Greener & Cleaner’s sustainability charity in the Glades). Why Contingent Works hosts Talk Club for men’s mental health. Why does he go to coworking assembly events and learns from people like Gerald?Success isn’t Contingent on Works thriving while Bromley struggles. Success is the whole ecosystem working.The Business Rates ContextBernie frames this conversation against the UK’s business rates crisis – a policy mess threatening coworking spaces and the small businesses inside them.The Valuation Office Agency is reclassifying flexible workspaces in ways that strip Small Business Rate Relief from member businesses. Operators across the country are fighting for survival.This is where member advocacy becomes tactical. When operators lobby alone, they’re easy to ignore. When members like Jack independently write to MPs saying, “I couldn’t work without this place,” politicians pay attention.The call to action: email your MP. But the deeper point is structural. Spaces like Contingent Works aren’t just businesses – they’re civic infrastructure. Policy that undermines them hollow out the local economies everyone claims to want.The High Street ArgumentRetail is finished. Ewan says it directly:“2019 was the worst retail year ever. Now they’re trying to get back to post-COVID, and they’re going, ‘Oh, we’re nearly at 2019 levels’ – forgetting that it was terrible.”So what replaces shops? Destinations. Leisure. Healthcare. Coworking.The infrastructure argument is compelling: every bus going through Bromley stops opposite Contingent Works. They’re five minutes from a mainline station, twenty minutes from Victoria. The connectivity exists – it just needs someone willing to occupy the empty units.Bromley is investing. A local developer has put £10 million into restoring an old hotel. The council is opening a new library in the old Topshop. But these investments only matter if the people building community infrastructure can survive long enough to benefit.The Bromley Contingent ThreadThe name isn’t marketing. It’s values.The original Bromley Contingent were Sex Pistols fans from this south London suburb who walked through the high street in mohicans, appeared on Bill Grundy’s TV show, and accidentally birthed British punk. Siouxsie Sioux. Billy Idol

“If coffee shops could have innovated a bit, the coworking industry might have never even happened, honestly, because coffee shops have all the ingredients that coworking movement wanted. It just needed an extra layer of intentionality.” — David WalkerTired of running yourself into the ground?Then stop running alone.On February 24th, the London Coworking Assembly presents Unreasonable Connection Goes Live!—a one-day working session for the people running London’s most vital neighbourhood spaces and the public sector allies working to help them thrive. It’s a day to share the load, find real solutions, and build a new playbook, together.David Walker is back on the podcast, and this time he’s got a provocation that might sting.That indie coffee shop you love? The one where you spend eight hours nursing a single flat white, running speed tests on their wifi, hunting for the corner seat with the working plug socket?It could have been a coworking space. Should have been, perhaps.The ingredients were all there: the energy, the ambient productivity, the regulars who recognise each other but never speak because it’s against social norms. What was missing was a membership model and a barista willing to connect people instead of just pulling shots.In our first conversation back in August, David talked about the bias towards design over engagement — how spaces get the aesthetics right but miss the human facilitation that makes community actually happen. This episode picks up that thread and runs with it: what does intentional community facilitation look like when you strip away the fancy furniture?David has been in coworking since 2008, back when Conjunctured was a refurbished house in East Austin with beer in the vending machine. He’s watched the industry grow from grassroots movement to asset class. He’s always working between two worlds — the grassroots ethos in one side of his brain, the future evolution of the industry in the other.This time, he’s looking backwards and forwards simultaneously.Backwards: to the coffee shop owners who watched laptop warriors colonise their tables without ever figuring out how to monetise them. Who posted “no wifi” signs and two-hour table limits instead of building the community hub they were accidentally creating.Forwards: to how AI might be the “permission slip” that lets small operators embrace the complexity of hybrid models.Bernie’s been thinking about this too. There’s a café in Vigo where he’s got a sticker on his phone to show his commitment. It looks like a coworking space. It functions like a coworking space. But the people in there would never call it that.There’s something in that gap between what we call things and what they actually are.The conversation spirals into territory that matters right now — especially for UK operators watching the business rates crisis unfold. If your model isn’t sustainable, you’re vulnerable. And sustainable doesn’t just mean profitable. It means generative. Building something that creates value for everyone in the room, not just extracting rent from them.What David loved about the original coworking world was precisely this: it was a business with an element of social activism. A sustainable model that enabled community. The Cluetrain Manifesto’s “markets are conversations” made real in a room where people actually talked to each other.The episode closes where all the best coworking conversations do: with a reminder that talking to AI all day will get you high on your own fumes. This is when we need to be talking to other coworking people in our area. Get together. Maintain that human connection.This conversation touches something fundamental to why the Coworking Values Podcast exists: the belief that Accessibility, Community, Openness, Collaboration, and Sustainability aren’t nice-to-haves but the actual point.Uncertain times. Exciting times. A jungle out there.Timeline Highlights[00:04] Bernie announces Unreasonable Connection going live on 24th February in London — tickets on sale in January[01:37] David on bridging two worlds: “always having the ethos of the grassroots mindset in one side of my brain and the future evolution of the industry in the other”[02:28] The provocation: “if coffee shops could have innovated a bit, the coworking industry might have never even happened”[04:43] Bernie’s pricing puzzle: “How do I charge? Is it like you can only sit here if you’ve got a membership?”[06:31] David on the business model wall: “You saw these coffee shops struggle with this new influx of a new type of customer, but they could never figure out how to properly monetize the customer”[08:05] The disconnect: “the average user of a coffee shop has never been a member at a coworking space”[11:57] The unlock: “if a barista was at an hour or two out of the day, almost like a light community manager where they tried to introduce people or catalyse conversations”[13:33] David’s blueprint: “one phone booth, some external monitors, reliable power, a membership fee for free drip coffee, and a barista who cared to connect people — there, you got a new business model”[17:17] AI as permission slip: “open up Gemini or Claude or ChatGPT and tell it everything about your business and say, How do I get from point A to point B? It’s going to have a plan”[20:37] Bernie’s shock: “I was shocked at how many people where they used AI was like spell check in a newsletter”[21:50] The hard truth: “at the end of the day, if it’s not going to create more money in the door, then it’s just a volunteer effort”[24:17] David on what made coworking special: “it was a business, a quote, unquote business. But it had this element of social activism... we were enabling community through a sustainable business model”[27:03] The vision: “A business owner or a coworking space owner has the ability to build a microeconomy in their own coworking space”[29:15] Bernie’s closing wisdom: “this now more than ever is when we should be talking to other coworking space owners and community people in our area”The Coffee Shop That Almost WasWalk into any indie coffee shop and you’ll see the ghost of what coworking could have become.There’s the guy who’s been here since opening, laptop slowly murdering his thighs, running speed tests every hour. There’s the woman who recognises the regulars but hasn’t spoken to any of them because that’s not what you do in a café. There’s the owner watching their tables occupied by people spending a tenner over eight hours, unable to turn them for the lunch rush.David calls this the coffee shop’s collision with the wifi revolution. He remembers when not every café had wifi, when you had to scout for plug access like a detective. Now the infrastructure exists everywhere, but the business model never evolved to match.Coffee shops had everything the coworking movement wanted. The energy. The ambient productivity. The sense of being around other humans doing their own thing. What they lacked was intentionality — a membership model, a mechanism for connection, a way to monetise the all-day laptop warriors without resorting to passive-aggressive “no laptops” signs.Bernie sees this playing out in Vigo right now. His friend’s café has a huge event space upstairs. He keeps trying to convince Josh to put a big table up there, add some monitors, create a coworking area. The blueprint is obvious. But there’s that gap between knowing what could work and actually building it.The ingredients were all there. The recipe was never written.The Barista as Light Community ManagerDavid’s blueprint for the café-coworking hybrid is disarmingly simple.One phone booth. Some external monitors. Reliable power and wifi. A membership fee that includes free drip coffee (espresso upsold separately). And crucially: a barista who cares enough to connect people.That last bit is where most coffee shops fall down. They’ve never thought of their staff as community facilitators. The barista makes drinks, handles payments, maybe asks how your day’s going. But what if, for an hour or two each day, they deliberately tried to introduce people? Catalyse conversations? Unlock the latent community that’s been sitting there all along, held back by social norms that say you don’t talk to strangers?We’ve created an entire class of workers who spend eight hours in cafés pretending not to be working. They recognise each other. They nod. They never speak. The social code says: we’re all here alone, together. Breaking that code feels transgressive — unless someone gives you permission.David studied sociology alongside business. He’s fascinated by how you take a retail environment centred on purchasing a product and transform it into something that functions like a community centre. The early coworking spaces did this intuitively. They had that extra layer of intentionality that coffee shops never quite achieved.The purchase of coffee is actually part of the problem. When you buy a drink at a coffee shop, it codes the space as transactional. This is retail, not community. But if there was some membership fee — even something tiny — that shifted the relationship?Membership changes everything. You stop being a customer. You become a citizen.AI as Permission SlipDavid’s worked with coworking spaces that have embedded coffee shops and restaurants. He knows firsthand that running food and beverage is already complicated — inventory, spoilage, staff management, massive menus. Adding workspace operations on top feels impossible.But AI changes the calculation. Not by automating the human connection that makes community work, but by giving operators the tools to manage complexity they previously couldn’t handle.David’s advice is direct: open up Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT. Tell it everything about your business. Ask how to get from point A to point B. It’ll have a plan.Bernie saw this when talking to people about AI in the London Coworking Assembly. He was shocked how many people — working in spaces at the heart of fintech i

“If we can make people feel like anything is possible, anything is solvable, together... We can find a way together.” - Karen TaitTired of running yourself into the ground?Then stop running alone.On February 24th, the London Coworking Assembly presents Unreasonable Connection Goes Live!—a one-day working session for the people running London’s most vital neighbourhood spaces and the public sector allies working to help them thrive. It’s a day to share the load, find real solutions, and build a new playbook, together.Karen Tait’s electricity bill has tripled in four years.The reality of running an independent coworking space in 2025 is about to get worse.Karen founded The Residence in Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, after years of commuting to London while affordability kept pushing her further out. She went from investment banking to building the kind of space she desperately needed: a place where small business owners could find energy, support, validation, and community—not just desks and Wi-Fi.She knows both worlds. The City, and the country lane.Now, a single policy change threatens to undo it all.The UK’s business rates reclassification—specifically the stripping of Small Business Rates Relief from private offices within coworking spaces—could force operators like Karen into an impossible choice: absorb costs they can’t afford, pass them on to members who don’t deserve the hit, or close.The same policy that strips relief from Karen’s members gives breaks to distribution warehouses on the edge of town.This episode is part of our ongoing series on the business rates crisis, following conversations with Jane Sartin from FlexSA and Roland Stanley from Dragon Coworking.What makes Karen’s perspective essential is what she reveals about the hidden economic engine that coworking creates.The Residence doesn’t just provide workspace.It provides infrastructure for 150 members who would otherwise be scattered across home offices and coffee shops. It sources everything locally—coffee beans from Saffron Walden, cleaning services, IT support, catering—all within Hertfordshire.Every pound spent circulates through the local economy rather than vanishing into Amazon’s supply chain.Bernie cites research from an Islington Council social value impact report: for every £1 spent with a local business, that pound circulates through the local economy four times.When money goes to national chains, it disappears.Bernie asks about the hidden costs of running physical space—and Karen doesn’t flinch. She’s started being more vocal about the actual running costs.It’s eye-watering, she says.This is a very lean business, incredibly lean.Every price rise, every vacancy, every increase in employment costs is a strain. And now this whole threat to how rates will be applied to the building... it really could be the final blow.The episode isn’t all grim.Karen shares how she’s fighting back—meeting with her local MP Josh, working with Jane at FlexSA, and refusing to accept that everyone else will deal with it.If you run an independent coworking space in the UK, this episode is essential listening.If you use one, it’s time to understand what’s at stake.Timeline Highlights[00:00] Bernie sets the scene: “The value it has to the local area is way beyond desks and WiFi.”[01:42] Karen’s origin story: “The Residence” was born out of my own selfish needs of needing a place to work.”[02:27] The energy you can’t bottle: “A level playing field for small business owners, a place where startup dreams can happen together.”[04:01] Location context: “We’re actually on a farm development, a little bit tucked away down a country lane, but in the middle of our housing estate.”[06:26] Why face-to-face support matters: “Connecting with all the businesses that are in your community who perhaps can cross-pollinate.”[08:03] The Amazon boycott: “We will not use Amazon. We will work with people in our community to supply everything that we need.”[08:03] Cross-pollination in action: “Lighting engineers working with interior designers, small business owners working with the VAs in our space, estate agents working with the local videographer.”[09:41] The £200 challenge: “If every single person who lived in Bishop Stortford spent £200 on their local high street, their local high street could survive.”[11:23] The reality of rates: “Whilst building valuations are going up, the rates multiplier is coming down, which means a higher bill, bottom line.”[12:58] The electricity shock: “My electricity bill over the four years here at Bishop Stortford has tripled in price”[13:49] The breaking point: “It’s just being penalising the system, penalising the very people that are the backbone of this country.”[15:39] The truth: “This is not a highly profitable business. This is a very lean business, incredibly lean.”[17:33] Taking action: “That’s talking to our local MP, engaging with Jane at Flexer... sometimes you just have to”[22:48] The stakes: “The Residence” as a whole has 150 members. If The Residence closes, that’s going to be 150 people that suddenly have no space.”[25:29] The beating heart: “We gave up a lot of space at the residence for a beating heart, the big kitchen area.”[29:28] The closing philosophy: “If we can make people feel like anything is possible, anything is solvable, together... We can find a way together.”Karen Built The Residence Because Nothing Like It ExistedKaren describes something that sounds almost utopian until you realise it’s just thoughtful design.Dropping children off at school. Parking outside. Going for lunch in the café. Doing a workout. All woven seamlessly around a workspace.The Residence sits on a farm development in Bishop’s Stortford—a market town of about 40,000 people, tucked down a country lane but surrounded by a café, gym, beauticians, and other businesses.It’s intentional infrastructure for the way modern life actually works.This “five-minute life cycle” isn’t about luxury.It’s about making entrepreneurship accessible to people who can’t afford to disappear on a three-hour daily commute to London.Karen lived that commute herself. She moved from the Docklands to Epping to Bishop’s Stortford as affordability kept pushing her further out—but she was still commuting back every day.The space she built isn’t theoretical.It’s the answer to a problem she lived.The Residence Banned Amazon Two Years AgoA couple of years ago, Karen made a decision that sounds radical but shouldn’t be.The Residence would not use Amazon.Everything they need—food, cleaning supplies, coffee, IT support, engineering, health and safety—comes from businesses within Hertfordshire.When you spend with local suppliers, that money stays in circulation. When you pay with national or international chains, it leaves the community immediately.Karen’s approach is intentional. She’d love to document what it physically looks like in terms of cash, because she thinks that, without realising it, you’re having an impact on the local community by spending your money.But you have to be intentional about that.The cross-pollination happens daily.Lighting engineers working with interior designers. Small business owners are working with the VAs in the space. Estate agents are working with the local videographer.When your members’ businesses grow, they need more services. When local businesses thrive, they need workspace. The interdependence is structural.Business Rates Are Complicated — Here’s What Actually MattersThe business rates issue is complicated, even for people who’ve been studying it.Karen listened to Bernie’s show with Roland from Dragon Coworking and admits that business rates are complicated even for Jane and her.But she breaks it down to its essential impact.Building valuations are going up.The rate multiplier is coming down.But the result is a higher bill.There’s also a new five-tiered system, changes to how vacant buildings are treated, and—critically for coworking—the potential loss of Small Business Rates Relief for private offices within shared workspace.Here’s why that matters.When a small business takes a private office within The Residency, Karen protects them from rising costs. She sets their rates for a year or two, absorbing the uncertainty so they can plan their business.If rates on those offices suddenly spike, Karen has no good options.The cruel irony is that if those same members had taken space directly on the high street, they’d still qualify for Small Business Rates Relief.As Karen puts it, the policy is penalising the very people that are the backbone of this country, taking risks, employing local people, growing their businesses from little acorns into big oak trees.They Gave Up Space For a Kitchen Because That’s Where Community HappensKaren gave up a lot of space at The Residence for what she calls a beating heart—the big kitchen area.People come and have their lunch. They sit on the big sofa. They talk about what’s troubling them, what’s keeping them awake at night, what they’d love help with.Then everyone gathers around. How can we help you? Do you need more clients? Do you need some funding?It’s a place to build authentic relationships.Bernie shares a moment that captures something most business discussions miss entirely.When your business is failing at 9 AM, and you’re sitting at home, it fails for the whole day.When your business is failing at 9 AM, and you’re standing in a coworking kitchen, someone asks what’s up. You say you can’t get your website to work. Someone offers help.By 9:15, it’s no longer failing.Karen builds on this.The most important thing I have control over is how I can make people feel.If we can make people feel like anything is possible, anything is solvable, together—you’re not living in your head. You’re not talking yourself out of it. You’re not telling yourself you’re a failure.The WhatsApp group. The kitchen conversations. The visibility of other people trying hard at similar things.All of it counteracts the isolation that

“I’m currently aware of two operators on the smaller size that have been handed £400,000 backdated bills... being hit with backdated business rates bills would clearly be business destroying.” - Jane SartinTired of running yourself into the ground?Then stop running alone.On February 24th, the London Coworking Assembly presents Unreasonable Connection Goes Live!—a one-day working session for the people running London’s most vital neighbourhood spaces and the public sector allies working to help them thrive. It’s a day to share the load, find real solutions, and build a new playbook, together.This isn’t a warning about something that might happen.It’s already happening. Two operators have received six-figure backdated bills. The letters arrived without warning. The amounts are payable now.Jane Sartin is the Executive Director of the Flexible Space Association. She’s spent this year in rooms with ministers, civil servants, and treasury officials trying to stop a policy change that could wipe out independent workspace operators across the country.The fight has been going on longer than you know.In 2023, the same issue emerged. FlexSA resolved it quietly behind the scenes — most of the industry never even knew. Then it came back in spring 2024. This time, ministers kept batting Jane back to the VOA. “It’s a technical matter for the agency,” they said. “Not a political decision for government.”So Jane went public.Here’s what’s working: the minister has acknowledged the pressure. “I am aware of this,” he’s told people. “I know. I’ve had a number of letters.”The letters are landing. The campaign is having an effect.But the power of Jane’s ministerial meeting next week depends entirely on how many more letters arrive before she walks into that room. One email gets ignored. Fifty emails from operators in the same constituency? That’s a political problem that demands a response.This episode tells you exactly what’s happening and what to do about it.Timeline Highlights[00:02] “Your workspace is under attack. Might be a little bit dramatic for this, but...”[01:26] “We exist to represent the industry. We operate as a membership body, but we play a wider role than that.”[02:57] “What they are doing is stopping the individual assessment of serviced offices and assessing the whole building or floor... as a single hereditament.”[04:20] “Talking publicly about potentially businesses based in serviced offices no longer being eligible for reliefs... could clearly spook customers.”[05:41] “We realised we were going to have to start bringing their attention to it by making more public noise about it.”[06:12] “I’m currently aware of two operators on the smaller size that have been handed £400,000 backdated bills.”[07:41] “It’s horribly complicated. I’ve learned a lot, even just this year, but by no means am I an expert.”[09:03] “FlexSA currently has commissioned some economic value research, which is being finalised at the moment.”[11:14] “If people haven’t already, I would definitely encourage them to write to their MP.”[12:43] “I’m a big believer in trying to keep things succinct... ideally, you don’t really want to be going to more than a page of A4.”[14:19] “He said, I am aware of this. I know. I’ve had a number of letters on this.”[18:41] “Being able to say this isn’t just a theoretical thing that might happen, it’s something that’s already happening. It’s really important.”[19:33] “I’m absolutely aware of operators that have had expansion plans but have put those on hold... the current uncertainty is putting them off.”[23:10] “Don’t feel like that’s a deadline because as much as I’d love to think that one meeting is going to fix it, realistically, I suspect it’s not.”They Tried This Before — It’s BackThis is the second time FlexSA has fought this exact battle.In 2023, the same issue emerged. Jane worked to resolve it quietly, behind the scenes. It worked. The problem went away. Most of the industry never even knew how close they’d come.Then it came back in spring 2024.This time, quiet diplomacy hit a wall. Jane spent months in meetings, making the case privately. The response from ministers? “This is a matter for the VOA.” The message was clear: we’re not getting involved.That’s how systems protect themselves.The agency makes the decision. The politicians refuse responsibility. The operators are left holding bills they can’t pay. After months of being batted back, Jane made the call to go public.It carries risk — talking openly about members potentially losing their rates relief could spook customers.But staying quiet wasn’t working.What the VOA Is Actually DoingThe Valuation Office Agency assesses properties for business rates.Historically, individual offices within a serviced workspace have been assessed separately. Small businesses occupying those offices can claim Small Business Rates Relief — often paying nothing.The VOA now wants to assess entire floors or buildings as single units.One assessment. One massive bill. Landing entirely on the operator. This strips relief from the small businesses inside the space. It removes the operator’s ability to claim empty rates relief on unoccupied units.The backdating element makes this existential.The VOA can apply these changes back to April 2023. An operator who thought their rates situation was settled could receive a letter tomorrow demanding two years of payments they never budgeted for.Jane knows of operators who’ve already received bills of around £400,000.For a small independent workspace, that’s not a problem to be solved.That’s “business destroying” — her words.Why Operators Have Been Reluctant to Speak UpBernie asks the question many people are thinking: why haven’t we heard more about this?Jane’s answer is bracingly honest.Talking publicly about your members potentially losing their rates relief could drive customers to competitors. In a market where trust and stability matter, admitting vulnerability feels dangerous.There’s also the hope factor.When the issue was resolved quietly in 2023, many operators assumed the same approach would work again. Why make noise when diplomacy might deliver?But diplomacy has limits.When ministers refuse to engage, when the VOA keeps insisting this is just technical implementation rather than policy choice, the only remaining option is political pressure.That pressure only works if MPs hear from the people in their constituencies who are affected.What Actually Works When Writing to Your MPFlexSA has created a toolkit to help operators contact their MPs.But Jane is clear about what separates an email that gets filed from one that gets action.Keep it local.MPs care about their constituency. The number of businesses you support, the number of people who work from your space, the local economic contribution — that’s what cuts through.Keep it short.One page of A4, maximum. “If they have to turn the page, you’ve lost them.”Don’t copy-paste.FlexSA provides template letters, but using them word-for-word backfires. When an MP receives twenty identical emails, they stop reading.Make a specific ask.Invite them to visit your space. Ask them to write to the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury. Request that they submit written parliamentary questions.Here’s the proof it works.The minister has already told people he’s aware of the issue because of the letters he’s received. More letters increase the pressure.Why Suppliers Should Get Involved TooThe flexible workspace industry isn’t just operators.It’s the entire ecosystem of companies that supply them. Technology providers. Furniture companies. Cleaning services. Coffee suppliers. Access control systems. Vending companies. Insurance providers.Jane agrees they’re integral to the industry.They have insights into the sector’s value that can strengthen the case. If you sell to coworking spaces, the survival of those spaces matters to your business too.Writing to your own MP adds weight to the campaign.It shows this isn’t a niche industry problem. It’s an economic ecosystem at risk.Real Stories Are the Most Powerful WeaponJane is honest about a gap in the campaign: FlexSA needs more real-world examples.Statistics matter.But what changes minds is a specific operator, in a specific place, with a specific bill they can’t pay. That’s what makes the problem real for politicians and journalists.Some operators have shared their situations.At least one case has appeared in the national press. But many are understandably anxious about going public with their financial difficulties.Jane makes clear that even anonymised information helps.“Being able to say this isn’t just a theoretical thing that might happen, it’s something that’s already happening. It’s really important.”If you’ve received a backdated bill, FlexSA wants to know about it — even if they can only use the details without identifying you.Investment Is Already on HoldThe damage isn’t just the bills that have arrived.It’s the decisions that aren’t being made. Jane confirms she knows operators who had expansion plans — new locations, refurbishments, growth — and have put them on hold.The uncertainty makes investment impossible to justify.This is the hidden cost that doesn’t show up in headlines. Every workspace that doesn’t open. Every refurbishment that doesn’t happen. Every job that doesn’t get created.The VOA has said they’re not actively pursuing new reclassifications right now.But that’s not the same as resolution.The threat remains. And as long as it remains, the sector can’t move forward.What Happens NextJane has a meeting with the minister scheduled for the following week.She’s realistic about what it might achieve: “As much as I’d love to think that one meeting is going to fix it, realistically, I suspect it’s not.”It might be a listening exercise rather than a decision point.The issue may drag into 2025.But that’s not a reason to wait.Jane is explicit: the Monday meeting isn’t a deadline. The campaign continues beyond it. “Don’t feel like that’s a

Episode Summary“If these people have their own little standalone office somewhere, if they literally picked their office up and went to put it on the street outside, they would qualify for small business rates relief. But just because they’ve had the audacity to come and get an office in a coworking space, they’re going to lose that benefit.” - Roland StanleyUnreasonable Connection Going Live! London, February 2026.🎟️ Tickets go on sale in January 2026.The entire day is co-created by the coworking community builders on the co-creation waitlist.Roland Stanley is angry. Not performatively angry. Not LinkedIn-post angry. Actually angry.The founder of Dragon Coworking in Rochester, Kent, has spent eight years building something real in a part of England that doesn’t make the tourism brochures. He trained as a chef at Canterbury College, grafted in kitchens across France and London, then came home to help his dad run the St. George Hotel “for two weeks” — and stayed 20 odd years. When a spare function room sat empty and eating business rates, someone mentioned coworking. Roland went up to London, saw what was possible, and asked a question that still drives him: Why can’t this work in Medway?Dragon Coworking was born in 2017. The name came from a friend’s suggestion — St. George Hotel, St. George and the Dragon. It stuck. What also stuck was Roland’s hospitality instinct: make people feel welcome, build relationships before asking for anything, treat your members like they’re part of something rather than just paying the bills.But now that something is under threat. Then the Valuation Office Agency sent a letter.The VOA has begun reclassifying coworking spaces in a way that strips Small Business Rate Relief from the micro-businesses inside them. Roland calls it an “extinction-level event” — and he’s not being dramatic.In this episode, Bernie and Roland dig into what’s actually happening with the VOA reclassification, why the government is using an ATM legal precedent to justify treating freelancers like cash machines, and what the coworking industry needs to do right now to fight back. Roland has already secured a meeting with his local MP, Lauren Edwards. Jane Sartin from FlexSA has a meeting with the relevant Minister in the diary. But they need numbers. They need noise. They need you.If you run an independent coworking space, work from one, or supply software to them: this episode is your call to action.Timeline Highlights[00:00] Bernie’s urgent intro: “This is possibly the best opportunity I’ve seen for the whole UK coworking industry to unite.”[02:06] Roland on what he wants to be known for: “Helping make people’s lives better. In a small way, that’s what I’d like to be known for.”[02:17] Bernie’s warmth: “I think you’re doing okay. Whenever I mention your name, most people react quite positively.”[02:53] The origin story: a spare function room at his dad’s hotel that was “eating business rates and just empty all the time.”[03:54] Why it’s called Dragon: “St. George Hotel, so St. George and the Dragon. That’s where it originally came from.”[04:16] Roland’s kitchen credentials: Canterbury College, City & Guilds, France for six months, then the London Clinic[08:33] The authenticity principle: “Run a business that’s a reflection of who you are. Don’t try to run a false business.”[11:07] How Dragon builds local perks without apps and gimmicks: “We’ll start liking their posts, get to know each other first, then go down and visit them.”[12:04] The local economy philosophy: “We don’t want a discount. Perhaps just a bit of added value, like a free garlic bread at the local pizza place.”[14:21] The “indie gang” of coworking operators: Teresa, Ewan, Karen, and John meeting up to share what’s working[15:30] The one rule: “We’ve got a bit of an informal rule that we’re not allowed to talk about mugs in the sink.”[18:12] Roland breaks down the VOA threat: offices that would qualify for relief on the street lose it “just because they’ve had the audacity” to join a coworking space[19:02] The ATM precedent: “They’re trying to treat our members like ATMs.”[19:47] Roland names it: “Extinction level event.”[24:46] The immediate action: “Literally, Jane has done a wonderful toolkit about what to do.”[25:20] Bernie’s challenge to software companies: “Perhaps all the software companies that we all spend lots of money with could help us out by shouting about it as well.”Thematic BreakdownThe Chef Who Built a Kitchen for FreelancersRoland Stanley came to coworking through the pass.City & Guilds training at Canterbury College. Six months working in kitchens in France. A stint at the London Clinic. Eight years total in professional kitchens before he “managed to escape.” Hospitality isn’t a metaphor for Roland. It’s muscle memory. The instinct to make someone feel welcome, to exceed expectations without being asked, to read a room and respond.When he describes how Dragon builds relationships with local businesses for their perks programme, you can hear the kitchen logic. No cold outreach. No transactional asks. “We’ll start liking their posts, get to know each other first, then go down and visit them... quite often they’ll come to us and say, can we do something for you?”That’s just how you treat people when you’ve spent years reading a dining room.The Name You RememberBernie opens the episode, declaring Dragon Coworking “the best name for a coworking space ever in the world.” He’s not wrong.The origin is accidental. Roland was going to call it “River Coworking” because it overlooked the River Medway. A friend pointed out the obvious: you’re inside the St. George Hotel. St. George and the Dragon. Done.In a sector full of forgettable compounds — [Location] Works, [Something] Hub, The [Noun] — Dragon Coworking sticks. The name came from a friend’s offhand suggestion. That’s the story. And eight years later, it’s still the thing people remember.The Indie Gang: What Real Peer Support Looks LikeOne of the most valuable sections of this episode has nothing to do with business rates.Roland describes how a small group of independent coworking operators — Teresa from Collaborate, Ewan, Karen from The Residence, and John from Freedom Works — started meeting up regularly. No mastermind fees. No ten-grand-a-month coaching programme. Just dinner, conversation, and one rule: “We’re not allowed to talk about mugs in the sink.”They share what’s working. They troubleshoot problems together. They’ve had “real lightbulb moments.” And crucially, they meet in person a couple of times a year while maintaining a WhatsApp group in between.Reach out to the spaces in your area. Have a coffee. You’ll learn more than any course can teach you.The Extinction-Level EventNow to the reason Bernie opened this episode with unusual urgency.The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) has begun reclassifying coworking and serviced office spaces. Under the old model, individual offices within a space could be separately rated — meaning the small businesses inside them could claim Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR). Under the new approach, the VOA treats the entire space as a single “hereditament,” making the operator liable for the building’s entire rates and removing SBRR from every business within.The legal precedent they’re using? Cardtronics v Sykes [2020], a Supreme Court case on whether ATMs in supermarkets should be rated separately. The court ruled no—the retailer retains ownership even though the bank operates the machine.A rule designed for Tesco’s cash machines is now being used against two-person design agencies.Roland’s response is visceral: “They’re trying to treat our members like ATMs.”The wider industry context is alarming. Roland’s LinkedIn post on this issue cites one operator who has already received a backdated bill for £400,000. For independent spaces operating on thin margins in regional towns, this isn’t a cost increase — it’s closure.Why This Is a Fight for Local EconomiesFollow the logic.A freelancer renting a standalone office on the high street qualifies for Small Business Rate Relief. That same freelancer, doing the same work, loses that relief the moment they join a coworking space. The only difference is location — and the “audacity” of wanting to work around other people.This punishes exactly the behaviour the government claims to support: micro-businesses coming together, spending locally, employing people, growing. These aren’t WeWork arbitrage plays. They’re graphic designers, consultants, and two-person agencies trying to build something in their own community.There’s a class dimension here too. Roland’s a fourth-generation Medway business owner. He trained as a chef, not an MBA. His members are freelancers and micro-agencies, not venture-backed startups. The VOA rule favours those with capital buffers — the big chains who can absorb or structure around these costs — and punishes those without.As Roland puts it: “These guys are the lifeblood of this country. These are the ones actually out there working, paying taxes, employing people. These are the guys that will grow eventually.”What Needs to Happen NowJane Sartin from FlexSA has been working on this since March 2025, initially hoping to resolve it quietly. That’s no longer possible. The campaign is now public, and there’s a meeting with the relevant Minister in the diary.But individual operators need to act. Roland’s advice is direct:* Contact your local MP — Jane has a toolkit with templates* Request a meeting to explain what’s actually happening* Personalise the template letter so it stands out* If you supply software, chairs, locks, or coffee to coworking spaces, use your platforms to amplify thisRoland has already secured a meeting with his MP, Lauren Edwards. Karen from The Residence met with Josh Dean MP. The momentum is building, but it needs critical mass.This is a chance for the entire UK coworking industry — fragmented across a dozen labels and definitions — to unite around a common ca

“I just want to be able to do a little bit of work and be near enough my kids to continue feeding or to be able to help out and know what’s going on with them.”Unreasonable Connection Going Live! London, February 2026.🎟️ Tickets go on sale in January 2026.The entire day is co-created by the coworking community builders on the co-creation waitlist.Forty thousand (ish) coworking spaces exist worldwide.One hundred and twenty of them offer childcare.Georgia Norton spent 2025 tracking them down. She interviewed founders from Sydney to Washington State, Berlin, and Athens. She pored over floor plans, took virtual tours, and visited spaces in person across the US.She found the operational models, yes.But she also found the graveyard—roughly forty more that tried and couldn’t make it work.Georgia worked with Playhood in Crouch End, North London. A micro-nursery integrated with a coworking space. Children aged 18 months to five years old learned and played while their parents worked nearby. Karen Partcher, the founder, had renovated a Victorian terrace house to create a 34-square-metre studio in the garden.Eight children maximum. One neighbourhood. Deep roots.Her research, published on 17 December 2025 through the US think tank New America, reveals something uncomfortable.The glossy, high-end childcare-coworking experiments all folded. The Wing. The Jane Club. Second Home. Even Impact Hub couldn’t sustain it.The settings that survived weren’t private-equity-backed family clubs in central business districts. They were neighbourhood-scale operations run by mums who refused to choose between career and proximity to their children.Every founder Georgia interviewed was a mother.Every one of them had reached a point where the existing system—commute to work, outsource childcare to a distant silo, pretend you don’t have kids during business hours—stopped making sense.Bernie brings his own memory to this. When his son was born, the only coworking space with childcare he could find in London was Shazia Mustafa’s Third Door. Getting from Ilford to Putney with a pushchair felt like a bridge too far.The geography of exclusion. The exhaustion of separation.Timeline Highlights[00:04] Bernie frames the episode: “She’s tracked down 100 coworking spaces around the world that have some form of childcare and coworking offering.”[01:21] Georgia on what she’s known for: “Saying, ‘But what if?’ and ‘Have you met so and so?’”[02:28] The New America report announcement: “December 17th, this think tank called New America is publishing my report.”[05:00] The numbers that matter: “120 operational right now... I stumbled across the graveyard, if you will, of about another 40 settings that had experimented with the model and not found it sustainable.”[08:42] Georgia on the core problem: “When you have a kid, your relationship to your work will change. There’s no way to insulate your worlds, to keep them separate forever.”[11:17] The research finding that stopped Bernie: “Interestingly, in the research, all of the founders were mums.”[13:50] The design philosophy: “You can’t give everything to everyone all the time.”[18:38] Georgia’s conviction: “I wholeheartedly think that colocating care with spaces to develop our workforce and to explore our careers and to defend remote working are transformative at the neighbourhood level.”[21:05] The graveyard of corporate attempts: “Places like The Wing and the Jane Club and big employer initiatives, they quietly folded away this option.”[24:02] Pandemic communities that thrived: “During the pandemic, we thrived as a little micro-community. We set up community dynamics that sustain us now.”[27:05] The design revelation: “That boundary wasn’t like a strong doorway that no one was allowed across. It was this really permeable threshold.”[29:38] Children's understanding work: “They would tap, tap on a fake laptop because they knew... these kids know what their parents do for a living.”[34:17] The barrier nobody talks about: “The whole Ofsted context is really intimidating... We’ve made it really hard to try and design the type of settings we want for our kids.”[35:56] The research gap: “There’s just no research being done on this model.”[40:08] Where to find Georgia’s work: “At our website, playhood.club”The Graveyard Nobody Talks AboutGeorgia found roughly forty childcare-coworking spaces that had closed.Not struggling. Closed.The pattern was unmistakable. The high-end experiments folded. The Wing tried it. Jane Club tried it. Second Home tried it.Big-employer initiatives from Yahoo to Patagonia to Goldman Sachs in the 1990s sought to bolt childcare into corporate workspaces.They all quietly removed the option.Different reasons—cost centres, zoning regulations, the sheer difficulty of bridging two different regulatory frameworks—but the same outcome. The spaces that survived weren’t in central business districts. They weren’t funded by private equity. They weren’t trying to serve everyone.Bernie put it bluntly during the conversation: childcare and coworking for the one per cent.The big shiny spaces in the centre of town, where housing a child costs the price of a small car every month. Georgia’s research confirms they’re not sustainable.What works is neighbourhood-scale integration. True integration, not bolt-on amenities.Spaces where childcare workers use the coworking facilities to get their teaching licences or start side businesses. Where parents’ careers become part of the children’s learning—a doctor parent visits to talk about their work, a civil engineer grandad explains what they do.The Permeable ThresholdThe design insight that changed how Georgia understands these spaces: the boundary between work and childcare doesn’t need to be a hard wall.At Playhood, Karen Partcher renovated a Victorian terrace house. It looks like every other house on the street. But in the garden, she created a 34-square-metre studio. Purpose-built at a child scale.The threshold wasn’t a door that stayed closed.It was permeable. Parents visible. Children aware. Staff flow between spaces.Georgia found this pattern in settings across the world. The assumption that children must be hidden for serious work to happen got blown out of the water when she actually visited and interviewed founders.Children in these spaces grow up knowing what their parents do for a living.They see work happening. They tap on fake laptops because they understand the rhythm. Georgia finds this sociologically fascinating—what happens to a generation’s relationship with work when they grow up understanding you can defend the right to work on your own terms, in your own neighbourhood?The parents change, too.Georgia mentioned an unpublished post she wrote: an apology to schools. Because families who experience this level of integration come to expect collaboration with everyone who cares for their children.Traditional school feels jarring after that.The Pandemic CatalystThe pandemic tore down the wall between work and care for millions of families.Children walked in on Zoom calls. The discourse focused frustratingly on working from home as a blanket term, as though everyone could stay in their houses.Georgia points to something different.The pandemic catalysed a new wave of founders—predominantly women—who discovered how difficult it was to work and care in the same room and decided they didn’t want to compromise anymore.These weren’t people building amenity lists for membership tiers.They were mothers who had paused or parked their careers and decided to create settings where desk space sat right next to provisions for their children.Georgia gathered stories from founders who were almost nervous to confess this: during the pandemic, their micro-communities thrived.Playhood in London. The Haven Collection in Rhode Island. Settings in Tacoma, Washington.While the world collapsed around them, these tiny neighbourhoods helped one another. Created bonds that sustain them now.If there’s a recipe for neighbourhood-level crisis resilience, Georgia wants the world to know it.Why All the Founders Were MumsBernie asked directly: When you say a new group of people, do you mean men?Georgia’s answer was unambiguous.Every founder in her research was a mother. Everyone.This isn’t an academic observation. It’s data about who carries the burden of solving the care crisis.Women who had careers before. Maybe backgrounds in marketing or community building. But women who reached the point where the traditional separation between work and care no longer made sense for their lives.The discourse around flexible working pretended everyone had the same needs.Georgia noticed something different: some mums found a middle ground, who knew about the power of coworking, who got together with others to do work while staying close to their children.The spectrum she maps runs from extremely casual and ad hoc—cooperatives taking turns, nannies watching kids in small pieces, flying under licensing radar—to fully enrolled nursery schools with qualified educators, planned curriculum, children attending all day while the corresponding parent works in the coworking space next door.No hierarchy between the two activities.Meaningful work on your own terms. Enriching education for the children. That was what Playhood tried to achieve.The Regulatory WallGeorgia doesn’t soften this part.The whole Ofsted context is really intimidating.* The paperwork. * The insurance. * The licences. * The zoning inspections. We’ve made it extraordinarily difficult to design the settings we actually want for our children.This isn’t bureaucratic inconvenience. It’s a system designed to exclude.When Georgia talks about the graveyard of closed spaces, she’s also talking about the founders who intended to open but couldn’t overcome the barriers.People who had the energy, the vision, the community need, and couldn’t navigate the regulatory maze.There’s no research being done on this model. No public funding routes. No establ

“To me, rearranging the room is a metaphor for rearranging how you and I find each other.” - Peter Block.Unreasonable Connection Going Live! London, February 2026.🎟️ Tickets go on sale in January 2026.The entire day is co-created by the coworking community builders on the co-creation waitlist.Peter Block doesn’t give keynotes anymore. Not really.He asks people to move the chairs.That’s the work. Move them out of rows. Put them in circles. Watch the room change.Peter is the author of Community: The Structure of Belonging—a book that’s shaped how thousands of coworking operators think about what they’re actually building. He’s spent decades working with corporations and Cincinnati neighbourhoods, slowly dismantling our addiction to the market economy and replacing it with something older: the creative economy.Not “creative” as in artsy. Creative, as in we make things together.In this conversation, Bernie digs into what that actually means for anyone running a coworking space. Because Peter doesn’t see your space as real estate. He sees it as a “convening possibility”—a place where strangers might discover they’re not alone, not crazy, and that there’s nothing wrong with them.The market economy wants you to be a consumer. Buy the membership. Use the wifi. Complain when expectations aren’t met.The creative economy wants you to be a citizen. Create the culture. Connect the strangers. Build something you can’t purchase.Bernie brings his usual questions about what this means practically—how do you actually invite people to something they care about? What’s the difference between entertainment and experience? Why does sitting in circles change everything?Peter’s answer cuts to the bone: “Your coworking spaces, the way you do them, are designed for liberation, not for productivity. Do I want you to be productive? Yes, but that’s the easy part. The hard part is to create culture and space for liberation.”If you’ve read Community and wondered how to apply it, this is your next step.If you’ve never read it, consider this your invitation.Timeline Highlights[00:04] Bernie sets up why Peter Block matters: “A lot of people in coworking have referenced Community, the Structure of Belonging.”[02:31] Peter on what he’d like to be known for: “Loving uncertainty, gratitude, being kind from time to time.”[03:59] The question that unlocks everything: “How do they get into the neighbourhood?”[05:36] Why Black Friday tells us everything wrong with the market economy: “It was named Black because that’s when the retail stores start to make money.”[06:44] Bernie tells the Contingent Works story—punks, David Bowie’s school, the Blitz Club, and a carpet shop in Bromley[10:09] “The connector is what creates genuine wealth, an authentic wealth.”[10:09] “You’re designing an experience where they become agents, they become connectors instead of leaders.”[12:55] Bernie asks about colonial thinking, and Peter traces it to the 1600s Enclosure[14:40] The health data that should change everything: “If you live in a coworking context, you’re going to live two years longer.”[16:14] The missionary quote that captures colonialism: “When I opened my eyes, I was holding the Bible, and they owned the land.”[22:05] ACTionism discussion: “Anxiety means that I’m alive. And my aliveness is created by our capacity to create something.”[34:42] The developer meeting where Peter changed everything by askin,g “What is the crossroads you’re at?”[36:09] Common good protocols vs royal protocols: “They’re up front. They’re on a platform. They have microphones.”[37:42] “You find it everywhere if you’re looking for it”—pocket neighbourhoods, churches, coworking spaces[42:04] The liberation line: “Your coworking spaces are designed for liberation, not for productivity.”The Market Economy’s Hidden ColonialismPeter traces our current isolation back to a specific moment: Enclosure in the 1600s.Common land where people could support themselves was fenced in because sheep were more profitable. We’ve never recovered.What started as a physical enclosure became psychological. The market economy doesn’t just want your money—it wants your identity. It turns you into a consumer, an audience member, a demographic to be sold to. Gen X, Gen D, Gen R. We label each generation according to what we can extract from them.Coworking, with that small “co” at the front, offers something different. An invitation to produce together rather than consume alone.But only if the people running these spaces understand what they’re actually doing.Why Connectors Create Wealth (And Consumers Destroy It)Peter distinguishes between wealth (scale, upward mobility, accumulation) and genuine wealth (health, safety, connection, purpose).The market economy measures well-being by what can be monetised. Gross domestic product loves isolation—every transaction it can insert between neighbours is a win.Coworking spaces, at their best, create genuine wealth. They’re places where a local graphic designer meets a local bakery owner, bypassing extraction entirely.Bernie gets this instinctively from his newsletter work. He’s been writing about the difference between the market economy and creative economy for years. Peter gives him the language to understand why it matters.The alternative isn’t anti-economic. It’s a different economy.The Geometry of DemocracyPeter believes that how you arrange furniture is a political act.Sit in rows facing a stage? You’re recreating a monarchy. The person at the podium holds power. Everyone else waits to be entertained, instructed, or sold to.Sit in circles facing each other? Power gets distributed. You’re accountable to the person whose knees you can touch. You can’t hide behind your phone.He tells the story of a developer meeting. Eighty angry neighbours showed up ready to fight. Instead of letting them line up at microphones to yell at the suits, Peter broke them into small groups. He asked: “What is the crossroads you’re at in this neighbourhood? When did you first start caring about this place?”By the end of the hour, they weren’t angry anymore. They felt connected. The developers said, “Thank you for coming. I got it.”Same people. Same building. Different geometry. Different outcome.Safety as Connection, Not PolicePeter is blunt about the American obsession with safety: it’s a product being marketed.The narrative is simple: the world is dangerous, you are vulnerable, buy this alarm system, vote for this tough-on-crime politician.He flips this entirely. A safe neighbourhood isn’t one with more police cars. It’s one where neighbours know each other’s names.He organises gatherings where, instead of asking “How can the police protect us?”, he asks a terrifying question: “What is my contribution to the lack of safety in this neighbourhood?”This forces people to confront their own withdrawal. Their judgment of the “other.” Their refusal to engage.For coworking operators, this reframes everything. Your space isn’t safe because of the keycard system. It’s safe because people know each other’s first names.From Anxiety to ActionBernie brings up ACTionism—the documentary he’s been encouraging coworking spaces to screen. What caught Peter’s eye was the phrase “We went from anxiety to action.”Peter unpacks this beautifully. Anxiety means you’re alive. It’s not a problem to be medicated away. It’s a signal that you care about something and don’t know what to do about it.The market economy wants you to consume your way out of anxiety. Buy the self-help book. Download the meditation app. Take the prescription.The creative economy offers a different path: create something with others that you care about. Find your agency. Stop waiting for someone else’s transformation.This is what coworking promises at its best. Not a cure for anxiety, but a context where anxiety becomes fuel.Common Good Protocols vs Royal ProtocolsPeter distinguishes between two kinds of protocols that govern how we come together.Royal protocols (what we inherited from colonialism): Robert’s Rules of Order, old business, new business, discussion, vote. “I promise to get you out of here by 5:25.” These protocols prioritise efficiency and control. They keep us well-behaved.Common good protocols (what Peter is trying to recover): Ask ambiguous, uncomfortable questions. “Why was it important for you to be here today?” Break into small groups. Let people find each other before the keynote begins. Value connection over content.Bernie recognises this from his own Unreasonable Connection events—monthly online gatherings where people spend 40 minutes talking in small groups before coming back to share. No presentation. No expert. Just a connection.Peter’s point is simple: we don’t need new content. We need new containers. The structure of how we gather determines what becomes possible.Liberation Over ProductivityThe line that stopped Bernie: “Your coworking spaces, the way you do them, are designed for liberation, not for productivity. Do I want you to be productive? Yes, but that’s the easy part. The hard part is to create culture and space for liberation.”Liberation meaning: I came here to create something with other people, even if we never talked about it.This is Peter’s gift to every coworking operator exhausted by the amenity wars. You’re not competing with WeWork on wifi speed or coffee quality. You’re offering something they can’t systematise: the experience of being seen, of belonging, of discovering that your future is in your own hands.The market economy will always win in terms of efficiency. The creative economy wins on humanity.The InvitationPeter’s not trying to save neighbourhoods all over the world. “They don’t need saving. They need to be seen.”That’s the work. Not heroic intervention, but patient attention. Showing up week after week, rearranging the chairs, asking the uncomfortable questions, creating the spaces where strangers become neighbours.Bernie’s been doing this for years through the podcast, through the Lon

“That’s the only thing that I would like to be known for, not for designing coworking spaces, just that I was able to show up each day to do the work that inspires me the most.” - Dean Connell.Unreasonable Connection Going Live! London, February 2026.🎟️ Tickets go on sale in January 2026.The entire day is co-created by the coworking community builders on the co-creation waitlist.You know that exhausted feeling when another LinkedIn post promises to reveal “the future of work”?Dean Connell spent seven years building WeWork spaces across the globe.He’s designed over two million square feet of workspace.He’s seen the industry from the inside of the machine.And he’s done predicting the future.Dean is the founder of I-AM.D.C., a workplace strategy, FF&E, and interior design consultancy specialising in workspace design and sustainable furniture sourcing. But before all that, he was employee number seventy-something at WeWork, one of seven designers tasked with scaling a Brooklyn aesthetic across continents.What makes Dean different from the conference circuit commentators is simple: he’s actually built the things he talks about.Not frameworks borrowed from McKinsey reports. Not insights repurposed from other people’s data. The proof lives in the spaces he’s made, the furniture he’s designed, the mistakes he’s learned from.In this conversation, Bernie and Dean trace coworking’s evolution through three distinct eras.There’s Bernard de Coven’s original vision from 1999—coworking as a method of working, equals gathered around a shared project.Then there’s the 2005 version most of us know—work as the abstract centre, operators competing on price, location, and aesthetics. Beautiful design became table stakes. Everyone got good at desks and fast WiFi.But Dean’s proposal for what comes next is a fundamental recentring.Coworking 3.0 isn’t about work at all. It’s about the “hook”—a specific experience that unifies the community.Veterinarians. Musicians. Parents need childcare. Food obsessives. Wellness practitioners.The centrepiece shifts from “we have desks” to “this is who we are and why we gather.”If you’ve been watching younger generations crave in-person experiences whilst the definition of “work” dissolves into digital abstraction, this framework makes sudden sense.Dean isn’t selling certainty. He’s walking the path and documenting the journey.For operators tired of chasing trends and ready to create something with genuine gravitational pull, this conversation offers a different way forward.Timeline Highlights[00:01] Bernie’s intro: “Today I’m talking with the best coworking space designer in Lewisham ever.”[01:14] Bernie on the Unreasonable Connetion event: “150 seats because that’s Dunbar’s magic number for community”[01:55] Dean’s philosophy distilled: “I would like to be known for doing the work... just that I was able to show up each day.”[03:27] The LinkedIn exhaustion: “Performing in order to engage people to sell your services, for me, is exhausting.”[04:38] The content trap exposed: “A lot of the content... is created from frameworks or they’re created from data... They’re taking that information, repurposing it.”[06:46] The proof principle: “I’ve done the work, I have the proof, and so therefore it gives me the confidence to continually talk.”[11:55] The design maturity problem: “Beautiful design is table stakes... you end up a little bit with beautiful design slop.”[14:41] The uncomfortable truth: “There is no framework for creating something new... you just have to walk the walk.”[20:31] Coworking 1.0 explained: “His idea of coworking was people working together as equals... congregate around the table in a non-hierarchical way.”[22:49] Coworking 2.0 reality: “Most operators today are competing on price, location, and the quality of space.”[25:51] The 3.0 proposal: “The centrepiece needs to shift to this concept of what I call a hook.”[26:38] Beyond desks and WiFi: “It’s something beyond we have desks and super fast WiFi... It’s a new centre of gravity.”[28:34] Programming for purpose: “You can programme the space... to accommodate different hooks.”[29:24] Where to find Dean: “I am Dean Connell. You can find that on Substack... It’s called Work in Progress.”The Exhaustion Economy: Why Future-of-Work Content Is BrokenDean names something every operator feels but rarely articulates: the content industrial complex around “the future of work” has become performative theatre.He’s been meditating on this. Actually doing the work of thinking it through rather than spinning plates for algorithm engagement.The pattern he identifies is damning.Most future-of-work content creators build from borrowed materials—McKinsey frameworks, conference insights, and other people’s data repurposed into LinkedIn carousels. They’re aggregating rather than originating. There’s nothing wrong with synthesis, but when the entire ecosystem runs on recycled thinking, exhaustion becomes inevitable.Dean’s exit strategy is radical simplicity: stop predicting, start creating.Rather than telling people what the future holds, show them what today’s actions can generate. The future materialises through the act of doing the work, not through speculation about what might come.For independent operators drowning in thought leadership that never seems to apply to their actual Tuesday morning problems, this reframe is liberating.You don’t need to know where coworking is heading. You need to know what you’re building today and why it matters to the humans who show up.The Proof Problem: Consultants vs. BuildersDean draws a sharp line between those who advise on workspace and those who’ve actually delivered it.His own credibility comes from a specific vantage point: he worked in-house.Not as an outside consultant dropping recommendations and disappearing, but as someone embedded in the business delivering the product to end users. Strategy, design, user experience—he held the whole stack. The feedback loops were immediate and unforgiving.This 360-degree view changes everything you understand about work.When you’re accountable for outcomes rather than presentations, theory becomes expensive. What survives is what actually functions.The workspace design industry has matured to a point where landlords are waking up to their ecosystems—retail, residential, commercial, all woven together. They’re hiring traditional consulting firms to develop these products.The result, Dean argues, is beautiful design slop. Polished surfaces with no product evolution underneath.The inherent product isn’t really evolved, he says. It’s just prettier.For operators making decisions about their spaces, this is a helpful filter. Is this advice coming from someone who had to live with the consequences of their recommendations? Or someone who delivered a deck and moved on?Coworking 1.0: Bernard de Coven and the Original VisionDean traces coworking back to its etymological roots, and the history matters more than most operators realise.Bernard de Coven, an American game designer, coined the phrase in 1999.His vision had nothing to do with shared desks, hot-desking, or any of the real estate language that would later colonise the term.De Coven imagined people working together as equals. A project or task at the centre. Ten people congregating around a table in a non-hierarchical way to solve a particular problem. Breaking down corporate structures. Everyone is equal in his eyes.This is the crucial insight: coworking, in its original form, was a method of working.A work style. Not a building type. Not a lease arrangement. A way humans could relate to shared challenges without the weight of corporate hierarchy pressing down on them.Somewhere between 1999 and now, the industry forgot this.We kept the word but lost the meaning.Coworking 2.0: When Work Became AbstractThe version most operators know emerged around 2005, often credited to Brad Neuberg in San Francisco.Dean describes the shift clearly: the centrepiece shifted from a specific project or task to an abstract concept.Your work, whatever that means to you. My work, whatever that means to me. Company A, Company B, and Company C are all working independently in the shared environment.The consequences are now obvious.Most operators today compete on price, location, and quality of space. These are the only levers available when your product is “somewhere to do work.”This isn’t a criticism—it works. Beautiful spaces in good locations at competitive prices attract members.But the competition becomes a race to marginal improvements. A slightly nicer fit-out. A slightly better coffee machine. Slightly faster WiFi.Dean calls beautiful design table stakes.Everyone’s reached a level of maturity where the baseline is genuinely good. Which means differentiation has to come from somewhere else entirely.Coworking 3.0: The Hook That Changes EverythingDean’s proposal for the next evolution isn’t incremental. It’s a fundamental recentring.If 1.0 had a project at the centre and 2.0 had abstract work at the centre, 3.0 puts something Dean calls the “hook” at the centre—a specific experience that unifies the community.His examples are deliberately varied: a coworking space for veterinarians. A space for people passionate about animals. Music. Food. Wellness. Childcare. Coffee. Sports.The hook isn’t work. The hook is identity.It’s the answer to “who are we and why do we gather?”This makes intuitive sense when you consider what’s happened to work itself.In a world where knowledge workers can work anywhere, where AI is dissolving the nine-to-five, where “the work” is becoming increasingly abstract—asking people to gather around work is asking them to gather around smoke.But asking them to gather around a shared passion? A community of practice? A specific problem set that matters to their lives?That’s something people will commute for. That’s worth leaving the home office for.Programming for Purpose: The Space as PlatformBernie connects Dean’s framework

“There’s definitely the trust aspect... People would come because they’re like, ‘Well, Williamz says that someone’s going to be here.’” - Williamz OmopeUnreasonable Connection Going Live! London, February 2026.🎟️ Tickets go on sale in January 2026.The entire day is co-created by the coworking community builders on the co-creation waitlist.“There’s definitely the trust aspect... People would come because they’re like, ‘Well, Williamz says that someone’s going to be here.’”In September, Williamz Omope told us about the radical principle behind his Job Clubs: no eligibility criteria. Just show up and get help.That episode introduced the philosophy. This one shows what happens when you take it further.Williamz has been running Community Connect events — a three-zone model that sequences people through a “look good, feel good” zone (haircuts, nails, styling, professional headshots), a health zone (blood pressure, diabetes screening, NHS talking therapists), and an employment zone (CV support, life coaching, business advice).The sequence matters. You get groomed. You get photographed looking your best. And because you’re already there, already feeling human again, you let someone take your blood pressure.The NHS practitioners who attended reported something they’d never experienced: engagement all day. Not one person. Not the usual empty room. They were, in their words, “literally overwhelmed.”The mechanism is trust. Williamz has spent months building relationships through the Job Club. When he says “come to this event, these health workers are good people,” the community believes him. They show up. They engage with services they’d normally avoid.For any coworking operator who wants their space to genuinely matter to the neighbourhood — not just serve the laptop class who already know what coworking is — this is the blueprint.It starts with a job club. It builds trust. And then that trust becomes infrastructure you can deploy for outcomes far beyond employment.London youth unemployment sits at 15.3%. In Newham, it’s 8.7%.The Job Clubs are busier than ever. At Space4, they had to stop advertising after two weeks. Fifteen people showing up when they expected three.This is what civic infrastructure actually looks like.Timeline Highlights[00:04] Bernie sets the stakes: “In London, youth unemployment is at 15.3%... In Newham, East London, it is 8.7%, which is way above the national average”[01:51] Williamz on what he’s known for: “I am known for being a social entrepreneur... we specialise in employability support, access to health messages, digital inclusion”[02:36] The disruptive philosophy: “We want to go against the grain. That’s how we want to be disruptive”[04:58] The Community Connect innovation: “We added three zones... a look good, feel good zone, a health zone, and an employment and business zone”[05:28] The golden sequence: “You’d get your haircut done, get your nails done, and then you go get your headshot done for LinkedIn... Everything’s free, everything’s accessible”[06:25] The mental health breakthrough: “A talking therapist from the NHS... she spoke about the taboos and the cultural misunderstandings, and she really broke things down”[08:57] The anti-performative principle: “Anything that we do is not performative... It’s giving real pathways and routeways to overcome such barriers”[10:39] Why trust is the infrastructure: “There’s definitely the trust aspect... People would come because they’re like, ‘Well, Williamz says that someone’s going to be here’”[11:53] The proof point: “We were busy all day. Normally... we see one person, if that, but we were literally overwhelmed”[21:07] The demand they didn’t expect: “The first couple of weeks was so busy that we had to stop advertising... we were getting 15 people per session”[25:01] The unlimited support promise: “This is a safe space for you to come back to. You don’t have a number of sessions... You can come here as much as you want”[28:07] Redefining success: “Them coming to the Job Club, that’s a huge journey because they’ve made that conscious decision to come”[32:05] Peer-to-peer magic: “When are you coming next week? 10 o’clock? Okay, I’m going to get there for 10:30. I’ll wait for you. I’ll keep a computer next to...”Trust Is Infrastructure You Can BuildThe September episode established the “no eligibility criteria” philosophy. This episode reveals what you can DO with the trust that philosophy creates.NHS outreach workers know the problem intimately. They set up stalls at community events. They wait. One person shows up. Sometimes none. The communities who most need health services are the ones least likely to engage with them.Williamz solved this by accident — or rather, by relationship.When health practitioners attend Community Connect, they’re not cold-calling a suspicious community. They’re being introduced by someone the community already trusts. Williamz has spent months showing up every Friday, helping with CVs, teaching digital skills, treating people with dignity.That trust transfers.The NHS talking therapist who attended spoke about mental health taboos and cultural misunderstandings. As a Black man with Nigerian heritage, Williamz understands the cultural tendency to avoid doctors, to “ride it out.” By hosting these conversations in a space where people already feel safe, resistance drops.For coworking operators: this is the long game. You can’t manufacture trust overnight. But every consistent, dignity-first interaction builds it. And once you have it, you can deploy it for outcomes far beyond your original remit.The Three Zones: A Model You Can StealCommunity Connect isn’t complicated. It’s just sequenced intelligently.Zone One: Look Good, Feel Good. A barber. A nail technician. A stylist offering budget fashion advice. A photographer taking LinkedIn headshots. The haircut comes first — you get groomed, then photographed looking your best.Zone Two: Health. Blood pressure checks. Diabetes screening. An NHS talking therapist. These services are placed AFTER the feel-good zone, when people’s guards are down.Zone Three: Employment and Business. IP advisers. Life coaches. A CV specialist. Local businesses recruiting.The genius is the sequencing. Nobody walks through the door thinking “I need my blood pressure checked.” They walk through thinking “free haircut.” By the time they reach the health zone, they’re already comfortable, already engaged, already trusting.Bernie notices what’s happening underneath: people finding what they need rather than being told what to do. Agency instead of top-down life management.The Space4 Story: Organic Growth Done RightWilliamz didn’t know what a coworking space was when he first walked into Space4 for something unrelated.A conversation with Natasha, one of the founders, evolved into partnership. She explained Space4’s social value model — a cooperative workspace funded by Outlandish, designed to reinvest surplus into community.Williamz arrived with a proposition: “Let’s just start a job club.”There was apprehension. “Are people going to turn up?”Within two weeks, they had to stop advertising. Word of mouth outran their capacity. Fifteen people per session when they’d expected two or three.Bernie’s known Space4 for a decade. It’s had hard times, mostly circumstances beyond its control. But it keeps putting itself together. Founders and Coders run programmes there. The community lunch happens every Wednesday. It’s woven into Finsbury Park in a way commercial spaces rarely achieve.This is what “matter to the neighbourhood” actually looks like.Measuring the Journey, Not Just the DestinationA young man challenged Williamz recently: shouldn’t success be measured by how many people get into work?Williamz’s response reframes everything.Yes, job outcomes matter. But what about the person who’s “really far away from that”? Are they failing? Or are they on a journey?Coming to the Job Club is already a huge step. Making the conscious decision to show up, week after week. Slowly improving digital skills. Learning to attach a CV to a job search site. Building confidence.These are all measurements of success.The alternative — focusing only on job placements — creates perverse incentives. If you’re a recruitment agency with targets, you focus on people who already have CVs, who left work recently, who have master’s degrees. The quick conversions.Everyone else gets forgotten.Williamz is developing an app concept inspired by football’s “expected goals” metric — a way to track progress and motivate people who aren’t yet close to employment but are moving in the right direction.Peer-to-Peer Support: The Magic Nobody PlannedThe most beautiful thing Williamz sees at the Job Club isn’t the formal support.It’s the relationships forming between attendees.People start interacting. Helping each other. Making plans: “When are you coming next week? 10 o’clock? Okay, I’m going to get there for 10:30. I’ll wait for you. I’ll keep a computer next to you.”Little networks emerging organically within the structure of the Job Club.Bernie recognises this from freelancer meetups he used to run. The most important conversations weren’t the scheduled content — they were the informal exchanges about rates, about closing deals, about the things you’re too embarrassed to ask publicly.This is what community actually is. Not programming. Not events. People choosing to help each other because they feel safe enough to try.The Over-50s Feedback LoopNot everyone felt served by the Community Connect event.Some older community members felt it wasn’t geared towards them — too much focus on AI and young people’s concerns.Williamz’s response: plan a mini Community Connect specifically for the over-50s. Age-appropriate health issues. Financial advice around pensions and insurance.He’s bouncing ideas off over-50s advisers. Taking feedback seriously. Adjusting.This is what “disruptive” actually means — not breaking things for drama, but listening carefully and

Episode Summary“It became the first seed of building the Hub Newry... a lived example of building a business with minimal capacities in terms of time, energy, childcare, and that emotional bandwidth that comes with it.” Unreasonable Connection Going Live! London, February 2026.🎟️ Tickets go on sale in January 2026.The entire day is co-created by the coworking community builders on the co-creation waitlist.Picture this: 2009.The world economy has just collapsed.You’ve left the high-pressure banking towers of London for a portacabin in Newry, Northern Ireland.A toddler screaming in the background.Your house isn’t built.Your business is barely breathing.You’re completely isolated in a border town that’s still processing thirty years of conflict.This is where Suzanne Murdock built The Hub Newry—not from a business plan, but from desperate necessity.Thirteen years later, she’s running one of Northern Ireland’s most successful coworking networks.More importantly, she’s become the person operators turn to when they’re drowning.When they’re holding everyone else’s problems, whilst their own systems fall apart.This conversation cuts through the productivity theatre that plagues small business advice.Suzanne doesn’t care about your morning routine or your notion templates.She cares about understanding your actual energy.Your real constraints.Designing structures that work with your life instead of against it.Bernie shares his recent ADHD diagnosis—a revelation that explained why conventional productivity advice never stuck.Suzanne responds with the coaching insight that changes everything: “The problem isn’t the problem.”Your speaking anxiety isn’t about public speaking.Your overwhelm isn’t about time management.Your burnout isn’t about working too hard.For community managers drowning in everyone else’s needs, this episode is a lifeline.For operators trying to scale whilst maintaining their sanity, it’s a roadmap.For anyone who’s ever felt like productivity systems were designed for someone else’s brain, it’s validation.Timeline Highlights[00:05] Bernie announces two critical 2026 dates: Unreasonable Connection in London (end of February) and European Coworking Day (May)[01:57] Suzanne’s origin story: fleeing London banking burnout for Northern Ireland isolation[03:26] The portacabin moment that sparked The Hub Newry: “minimal capacities in terms of time, energy, childcare”[06:16] Two years of explaining coworking to a market that didn’t understand it yet: “We spent a good two years trying to navigate that and script it”[07:39] Bernie on the underrated value of structure: “It’s an underrated resource of having this structure in your work day when you’re running your own thing”[08:39] Why coworking matters for new entrepreneurs: “There are so many unknowns out there. When other people surround you... It’s so helpful and rich.”[13:59] The productivity trap: “It’s just assumed as entrepreneurs or small business owners that you can work 24 hours a day... it doesn’t work like that in real life”[16:45] Bernie’s ADHD revelation: “Saying, Read David Allen, get things done, and it will all work, has never... You can’t just pull something out of a hat.”[17:38] Suzanne on understanding yourself first: “Until you understand those elements, I think it’s very hard to get those structural things right”[20:30] The importance of champions: “It really keeps coming back to really knowing yourself and having champions around you.”[22:40] The coaching revelation: “A lot of people don’t know what their problem is... Listening is a huge part of it.”[27:28] Community manager burnout: “That pot can sometimes feel very empty... we need champions around us... It can be quite a lonely place.”[29:53] Setting boundaries with members: “They need to understand that they have to reach out sometimes as well... it goes two ways”The Accidental OperatorSuzanne never intended to run a coworking space.She intended to survive.After leaving the financial sector in London in 2009, she found herself in a portacabin on a construction site.Trying to run a business whilst raising a toddler.In a town where she knew nobody.The isolation was crushing.Not just emotionally—economically.Without a support network, without casual conversations, without the energy that comes from being around other people working on their own things, productivity was impossible.The Hub Newry started because Suzanne and Patrick needed an office that wasn’t a freezing portacabin.They renovated the first floor of an old pub.Made it too big for just them.Started letting desks to other isolated freelancers.They didn’t know the term “coworking.”They were solving a cash flow problem and a loneliness problem simultaneously.This accidental beginning shapes everything about how The Hub operates today.It wasn’t built on venture capital or growth targets.It was built on the lived experience of what happens when you try to make something meaningful whilst juggling real-life constraints that business advice pretends don’t exist.The Problem Isn’t the ProblemThe most powerful insight in this conversation comes when Bernie admits his struggle with productivity systems.Suzanne responds with coaching wisdom: “A lot of people don’t know what their problem is.”Your speaking anxiety isn’t about speaking skills.It’s about finding a format that gives you energy rather than drains it.Suzanne discovered this when she started her podcast—terrified of public speaking but energised by one-to-one conversation.Your time management problems aren’t about time.They’re about understanding when your energy is highest.Designing your day around that reality instead of fighting it.Your team communication issues aren’t about communication.They’re about setting boundaries that protect your capacity to hold space for everyone else.This is why conventional productivity advice fails.It treats symptoms, not root causes.It assumes everyone’s brain works the same way.Bernie’s ADHD diagnosis explained why Getting Things Done never stuck—his brain doesn’t work that way.Zone of Genius Meets Real LifeSuzanne references Gay Hendricks’ concept of “zone of genius”—the intersection of what energises you and what you’re uniquely good at.But she grounds it in reality.Your zone of genius doesn’t matter if you don’t understand your actual constraints.If you’ve got childcare responsibilities, health challenges, or financial pressures, your ideal day needs to work with those realities.Not despite them.The breakthrough comes when you stop trying to fit your life into productivity systems designed for someone else.Start designing systems that fit your actual life.This means understanding your energy patterns.Your limiting factors.Your support network before you build your schedule.It means asking different questions:Not “How can I be more productive?”But “What structure supports my energy instead of depleting it?”Community Managers in the Lonely MiddleThe conversation exposes a hidden crisis in coworking: community manager burnout.You’re the person everyone turns to.Equipment problems, business advice, emotional support—it all lands on your desk.You’re expected to hold space for everyone whilst somehow also running a viable business.The emotional labour is immense and largely invisible.Suzanne’s insight: “That pot can sometimes feel very empty.”You can’t pour from an empty vessel.Community managers need champions, boundaries, and systems that prevent them from absorbing every problem in the building.The solution isn’t just self-care advice.It’s structural.Straightforward onboarding that explains what members can expect and what’s expected of them.Systems that distribute support across the community instead of funnelling everything through the manager.Recognition that holding space is skilled emotional work, not just part of the job.The Borderland EconomyThe Hub Newry operates in a unique environment—a border town between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.Complex political history.Economic challenges.But this context reveals something universal about regional coworking.Small towns and border regions often get treated as peripheries—places where talent leaves rather than stays.Coworking can reverse that dynamic.Creating infrastructure that allows people to access global opportunities whilst staying rooted in local communities.Suzanne’s ResMove project takes this further.Using coworking to integrate migrants and refugees into local economies.It’s not just about desk space—it’s about creating pathways to economic participation and community belonging.Structure That SupportsThe title of this episode comes from Suzanne’s philosophy: “Structure that supports, not suffocates.”Most business advice assumes structure means restriction—systems that force you into predetermined patterns.Suzanne argues for the opposite.Structure that amplifies your natural energy.Supports your real constraints.This means starting with self-knowledge.Understanding your energy patterns, your peak times, and your recovery needs.Then build systems that work with those realities rather than against them.It means recognising that sustainable business growth requires sustainable personal systems.You can’t scale something that’s burning you out.It means designing your space, your schedules, and your relationships to support the long-term vision.Instead of just solving today’s crisis.Champions and CommunityPerhaps the most critical insight in this conversation: “We need champions around us.”Running a community space is inherently isolating.You’re responsible for everyone else’s connections, whilst often lacking your own support network.The irony is profound—you’re creating community for others whilst experiencing loneliness yourself.Suzanne’s solution is intentional relationship building.Not networking.Genuine champions.People who notice when you’re struggling and actively support your success.This includes other operators, mentors, peers, and even members who understand their ro

“I’m not going to hide my tears right now. So often, people sit behind keyboards and write these comments, and they don’t see the impact of their words. And today I want you to see the impact.” - Tash Koster-Thomas.Unreasonable Connection Going Live! London, February 2026.🎟️ Tickets go on sale in January 2026.The entire day is co-created by the coworking community builders on the co-creation waitlist. Tash Koster-Thomas was delivering a paid webinar on LGBTQ+ allyship when the anonymous racist comments started scrolling across the screen.Two hundred people watched as she broke down live on camera, choosing vulnerability over politeness, truth over comfort.This wasn’t just a difficult moment. It was a perfect distillation of what Trans Awareness Week actually means in 2025 Britain—and why every coworking space owner needs to understand what’s happening right now.Bernie sits down with Tash, equity and inclusion consultant and co-founder of Breaking the Distance, to unpack the brutal reality of the Supreme Court ruling that just made trans people legally vulnerable in British workplaces and public spaces.You’ll hear how the law now allows employers to ask about someone’s “gender status.”How the state’s own equality watchdog has redefined trans people’s right to exist as merely a “preference.”And crucially, what coworking operators can do to create a genuine sanctuary when the government won’t.This isn’t academic theory. This is survival economics in real time.If you’ve ever wondered how to signal safety without performativity, or how to support marginalised communities when the law actively works against them, this conversation will show you exactly where to start.The personal cost of this work is real. The political stakes couldn’t be higher.And the practical steps forward are more straightforward than you might think.Timeline Highlights[00:04] Bernie’s announcement: Co-creating the London Coworking Assembly for February 2026—”you will design the curriculum or the agenda together”[02:11] Tash’s mission statement: “Being a good human, actually. That’s what I’d like to be known for.”[03:21] Trans Awareness Week scope: “It is global, but probably more prominent in the UK”[04:16] The Supreme Court ruling explained: “Sex refers to being assigned female at birth, and are biological women. And therefore, if you’re a trans woman, you are not a biological woman.”[06:45] The legal contradiction: “Just because you’re protected in this instance here, it still means you can be highly discriminated against.”[07:48] The impact on coworking spaces: “We want to be a trans inclusive space and we welcome all, but now we feel like this ruling is a contradiction of that.”[09:02] The intersex reality: “1.7% of our global population are intersex and fit into neither one of those binary categories”[10:24] Fear as the weapon: “What happens is it creates fear more than anything”[11:53] Clear signals matter: “If I see a space that says we are inclusive and it includes all women, trans and non-binary folk. That to me signals safe space.”[13:57] The exclusion principle: “A safe space can’t always be a space that everybody comes to, because then by default, it stops being a safe space.”[17:06] The moment of truth: “I’m not going to hide my tears right now. I want you to see the impact of these words.”[19:24] Bernie’s visceral reaction: “I couldn’t believe you held it together.”[21:04] The spotlight problem: “Trans community is facing the most amount of hate that it’s been facing all year because now it’s a spotlight”[23:30] Allyship as consistency: “Allyship isn’t a thing that you can do as a performative thing. It has to be a consistent effort that you put in day in, day out.”[24:32] Practical bathroom policy: “Put something up that says, We recognise that ideally we would be using gender-neutral toilets... you have the freedom to use whatever bathroom feels right for you.”The Supreme Court Ruling Nobody Talks AboutIn April 2025, the UK Supreme Court ruled that “sex” in the 2010 Equality Act means biological sex only—not gender identity.Most people missed this. Most coworking operators definitely missed this.But Tash explains the brutal implications with surgical precision: trans people can now be legally questioned about their “gender status” at work and excluded from toilets matching their lived identity.The state’s own equality watchdog calls this loss of dignity a mere “preference for things to be a certain way.”This isn’t legal theory. It’s economic precarity by design. When you can’t safely use a workplace toilet, you can’t safely earn a living.For coworking spaces, this creates an urgent choice: follow the government’s new permission to discriminate, or become a sanctuary that provides the rights the state just stripped away.Why Safe Spaces Can’t Include EveryoneTash cuts through the liberal fantasy that inclusion means “everyone welcome always.”“A safe space can’t always be a space that everybody comes to, because then by default, it stops being a safe space for the core demographic that you’re trying to defend and support.”She draws the parallel with racism: if you’re creating a space for the global majority people to process discrimination, you can’t also welcome people who deny racism exists. Their presence destroys the safety you’re trying to create.The same logic applies to gender-critical voices in trans-inclusive spaces. Not because those voices are evil, but because safety requires boundaries.For coworking operators worried about appearing exclusive, Tash offers clarity: know who you’re serving. If you try to serve everyone, you serve no one safely.The Viral Comments That Exposed EverythingThe story that stays with you: Tash delivering a virtual LGBTQ+ session to 200 people when anonymous participants started posting racist comments in the chat.The organisers, thinking they were being helpful, put the comments on screen for everyone to see.Tash broke down live on camera. But instead of hiding her tears, she looked directly into the lens: “So often people sit behind keyboards and write these comments, and they don’t see the impact of their words. And today I want you to see the impact.”That moment of vulnerability became the most powerful teaching tool imaginable. The CEO immediately stepped in. The entire organisation had to confront what they’d been harbouring. Allies reached out privately.But here’s what haunts her: this only mattered because it was public. How many trans people face this abuse daily without witnesses? Without support? Without organisational learning?The Economics of Absorbing HateTash reveals the hidden cost structure of diversity work: companies pay her to process their toxicity.She gets a fee for the webinar. But the real price—the emotional devastation, the tears, the psychological impact—gets absorbed by her personally. The company externalises its cultural problems onto the consultant it hires to fix them.This is the diversity industry’s dirty secret. The very people most equipped to diagnose the problem are also the most vulnerable to its damage.For coworking operators, this raises uncomfortable questions about how you handle incidents. Do you expect marginalised members to educate aggressive members? Do you put the burden of explaining discrimination on those experiencing it?Or do you do the work yourself?Practical Allyship That Actually MattersTash’s advice cuts through performative gestures to focus on sustainable support:Learn the legal context. If you don’t understand the Supreme Court ruling and its implications, you can’t protect your members from it.Be explicit in communications. “Women’s events include trans and non-binary folk” tells people exactly where you stand.Work with infrastructure constraints. If you can’t change your toilets, put up a sign: “We recognise that ideally we would be using gender-neutral toilets. But, given the infrastructure, you are free to use whichever bathroom feels right for you. And everybody within this space honours that.”Check in consistently. Not just during awareness weeks. Trans Awareness Week is actually when the hate peaks because transphobes see it as permission to attack. Real allyship happens in February, not November.Set and enforce norms. Decide what behaviour you tolerate, then hold that line. Safety isn’t a feeling; it’s a set of enforced boundaries.When Coworking Becomes Civic InfrastructureBernie and Tash explore what happens when the state abandons its duty to protect citizens.If the government won’t guarantee trans people’s right to exist safely in public spaces, then private spaces become political. A coworking space that provides gender-neutral toilets isn’t just being nice—it’s providing civic infrastructure the state refuses to build.This elevates the Coworking Citizenship Playbook from community guide to survival manual. When democracy fails, citizen-led spaces fill the gap.The question isn’t whether this is political. It’s whether you’ll use your space to expand dignity or contract it.The Cost of TokenismBernie raises the visual everyone recognises: London buildings with faded rainbow stickers from when DEI was trendy.Tash’s response is measured but cutting. Tokenistic gestures don’t just fail to help—they actively harm by creating a false sense of security.Better to be honestly unwelcoming than pretend to be safe when you’re not.The alternative isn’t perfect inclusion from day one. It’s committing to the work consistently, learning publicly from mistakes, and prioritising actual safety over comfortable symbolism.🔗 Links & ResourcesTash’s Work* Tash’s website KT Consulting: Equity, diversity and inclusion consulting* Instagram: @tashtee.uk and @breakingthedistance* LinkedIn: Tash Koster-Thomas* We Create Space: Community-led learning platform and consultancy* Breaking the Distance: LGBTQ+ visibility platform with wife MartheProjects & Community* European Coworking Day* London Coworking Assembly* European Coworking Assembly* The annual C

Episode Summary“Do you know who your coworking space’s biggest competitor is? It’s the Home Office, working from home.” - Lucy McInallyUnreasonable Connection Going Live! London, February 2026.🎟️ Tickets go on sale in January 2026.The entire day is co-created by the coworking community builders on the co-creation waitlist.Lucy McInally, founder of The Inclusive Coworker and coworking industry writer, drops a truth bomb that stops Bernie mid-conversation. After two years in a beloved coworking community that closed down, she’s been working from home ever since—despite being one of the industry’s most thoughtful voices on inclusive community building.This isn’t a story about laziness or preference. It’s about the hidden friction that kills coworking adoption: the 50-minute commute that used to be 25 minutes, the Spanish conversation anxiety that paralyses Bernie from entering perfectly good spaces in Vigo, the seasonal darkness that makes walking across Blackheath feel unsafe for Lucy.Bernie admits his own contradictions—knowing 15 coworking spaces in his new Spanish city but unable to pluck up the courage to walk into any of them. Lucy shares the practical magic of Clockwise Edinburgh: free yoga in the morning after her trial day, whiskey tasting on Friday evenings, and invitations that converted her from a curious visitor to a committed member.The conversation unearths something deeper than marketing tactics: the micro-barriers that prevent connection, the difference between discount-led positioning and value-based invitation, and why showing lifestyle trumps showing desks every time.This is for anyone who’s wondered why perfectly good coworking spaces struggle to fill their rooms, and why the biggest threat to your community might not be competition—it’s comfort.Timeline Highlights[01:15] Lucy’s revelation: “The biggest rival with your coworking space isn’t another coworking space. It’s your home.”[03:13] Lucy’s confession: “I was part of a coworking space for two years... it closed down... I haven’t joined another coworking community.”[05:00] Bernie’s Spanish anxiety: “The realistic blocker is, I’m so apprehensive about speaking Spanish to anyone that I don’t know.”[05:50] Lucy’s commute reality: “What was 25 25-minute commute initially for me, then turned into 50 minutes... I don’t have the capacity to commute in and back again.”[08:46] Bernie’s Vigo challenge: “It’s more of a membership place than a drop-in place... It’s hard to buy a day pass.”[09:38] Lucy on trial days: “A lot of spaces here offer that free trial day... it is a really good way to test out if a space is right or not”[11:54] The Clockwise magic moment: “Tomorrow we’re doing a yoga class in the morning... and we’re doing a whiskey tasting on Friday evening”[12:58] Lucy’s safety barrier: “To get there, the most direct way is to walk across the heath... I don’t feel like that’s the safest way to commute.”[13:13] Bernie’s coffee ultimatum: “If I go to a place that looks amazing and they’ve got this mediocre coffee machine... I don’t want to go there.”[14:38] Bernie’s pricing frustration: “Their main flyer was 50% off... devaluing their product... then in the small print it read ‘for your first month’ I was ripped off before I even took the offer.”[15:30] Lucy on value positioning: “You don’t need to say 50% off, because if you give me all the benefits... then I’ll pay full price”[16:44] Lifestyle over space: “They don’t just show, here’s the space... They show, this is where we go for drinks... some of the local restaurants”The Hidden Geography of Working From HomeLucy’s confession hits like cold water: the coworking advocate who can’t bring herself to join another space. This isn’t hypocrisy—it’s human truth. The space she loved closed, her commute doubled, and suddenly the sofa became the easier choice.Bernie’s Spanish paralysis adds another layer. He knows coworking spaces, runs coworking events, literally wrote about coworking citizenship—but anxiety about speaking Spanish keeps him from walking into perfectly good spaces opposite his apartment. The expertise doesn’t translate to courage.These aren’t edge cases. They’re the hidden geography of remote work: the 20 micro-decisions that tip someone towards isolation over community. The slightly-too-long journey. The slightly-too-awkward interaction. The slightly-too-much effort.Working from home isn’t just about convenience—it’s about avoiding the emotional labour of belonging somewhere new.Why Location Anxiety Is a Real Community KillerLucy’s Blackheath revelation is faced by women everywhere: the most direct route to a promising coworking space requires walking across heathland in seasonal darkness. For women especially, safety calculations happen automatically, unconsciously filtering out options that men might never consider.This geography of anxiety shapes community access in ways that marketing rarely addresses. It’s not about the space itself—it’s about the journey to get there, the time of day, the lighting, the route home.Bernie’s Vigo situation adds another dimension: language anxiety creating invisible barriers. The professional confidence that works in London evaporates when faced with Spanish conversations. Suddenly, every interaction feels like an exam.The spaces that win understand that accessibility isn’t just about ramps and doorways—it’s about emotional safety, practical safety, and the hundred tiny comfort calculations that happen before someone leaves their house.The Discount Trap That Devalues EverythingBernie’s visceral reaction to “50% off your first month” captures something essential about positioning. The space he loves—genuinely loves—cheapened itself with Black Friday language that made him feel manipulated before he’d even walked through the door.Lucy’s counter-insight is brilliant: if you communicate the real value of community, connection, and belonging, people will pay full price. The discount suggests you don’t believe in your own worth.This isn’t about being expensive for expensive’s sake. It’s about leading with what matters: the yoga class that happens the morning after your trial day, the whiskey tasting on Friday evening, the invitation to become part of something larger than workspace rental.The spaces that thrive understand they’re not selling desk time—they’re selling the antidote to isolation. That has value. Price it accordingly.When Cool Becomes ExclusionBernie’s story about feeling excluded by “two incredibly good-looking guys with MacBook Pros drinking cappuccinos” reveals how aspiration can become alienation. Those photos weren’t meant to exclude—they were meant to attract. But they sent a clear message about who belonged.Lucy pushes back with nuance: there’s a difference between having a clear niche (tech bros for tech bros) and accidentally signalling exclusion through lazy representation. The all-male panel phenomenon isn’t usually intentional—it’s what happens when you book from your immediate network without thinking about whose voices are missing.The most successful coworking marketing shows real people in real moments, not aspirational lifestyle shots that feel like permission structures. Projects in Brighton nail this: they don’t just show the space, but also highlight where members go for drinks, local restaurants, and the lifestyle that comes with joining this community.It’s lifestyle marketing done right: inclusive, specific, and rooted in an actual place.The Ecosystem AdvantageLucy’s insight about Projects showing “this is where we go for drinks in Brighton” reveals a sophisticated understanding of community value. Coworking spaces aren’t islands—they’re part of local ecosystems. The best ones make those connections explicit.Bernie’s Indy Hall observation reinforces this: their content makes you want to move to Philadelphia because it showcases the entire cultural ecosystem in which their members participate. It’s not workspace marketing—it’s place marketing.This ecosystem approach serves dual purposes: it shows potential members what they’re joining, and it demonstrates the space’s commitment to local economic development. Members aren’t just renting desks—they’re becoming part of a network that supports local businesses and cultural life.The spaces that understand this become genuine civic infrastructure rather than just commercial property.The Trial Day That Actually WorksLucy’s Clockwise Edinburgh experience offers a masterclass in conversion through genuine invitation. The trial day wasn’t just about testing the workspace—it was about experiencing the community.The sequence matters: trial day leads to tour, which leads to an invitation to a yoga class, which leads to whiskey tasting, which leads to membership. Each step built social connections and demonstrated ongoing value beyond desk rental.This isn’t about elaborate programming that smaller spaces can’t afford. It’s about understanding that people join communities, not workspaces. The yoga and whiskey weren’t expensive add-ons—they were evidence of what membership would feel like.The spaces Bernie visits in Vigo that don’t offer day passes miss this entirely. Without trial experiences, potential members can’t imagine belonging. The commitment threshold becomes impossibly high.Why Vibe Matters More Than AmenitiesLucy’s search for “vibe”—that abstract but essential quality of space—highlights what actually drives community choice. You can’t fake vibe with better coffee machines or fancier furniture. Vibe emerges from genuine human connection and shared values.Bernie’s coffee machine obsession seems shallow until you realise it’s about standards and attention to detail. If they can’t nail something as basic as coffee, what does that say about their approach to community care?The spaces that work understand that every detail—from coffee quality to billing processes to the way tours are conducted—either builds or erodes trust. Vibe isn’t an accident—it’s the accumulated result of

Episode Summary “We are in a time of a meta-crisis... when everything around us is falling apart, what’s going to remain is each other. I believe that in those times, community is immunity.” - Xavier Damman.Unreasonable Connection Going Live! London, February 2026. 🎟️ Tickets go on sale in January 2026. The entire day is co-created by the coworking community builders on the co-creation/waitlist.Xavier Damman spent a decade in Silicon Valley building companies, making exits, and playing the venture capital game to perfection.But when he returned to Brussels six years ago, he brought something unexpected back with him: the conviction that the economic system that made him rich was leading us all to extinction.In this episode, Bernie sits down with the co-founder of Storify and Open Collective—and now the founder of Commons Hub Brussels—to explore how a former tech entrepreneur is experimenting with dual currencies, peer-led governance, and radical transparency to rebuild community economics from the ground up.You’ll hear how COVID killed traditional five-day-a-week coworking and why themed community days are filling the gap.How Elinor Ostrom’s Nobel Prize-winning research on commons management became the blueprint for a new kind of space.And why Xavier believes the future of coworking isn’t about design and amenities—it’s about becoming laboratories for economic systems that value care as much as performance.This conversation cuts through the startup rhetoric to examine what it actually takes to build alternative economic infrastructure.Not because it’s trendy. Because survival might depend on it.If you’ve ever wondered whether there’s a way out of the extractive economy without abandoning community and connection entirely, this episode charts one possible path forward.Timeline Highlights[02:26] Xavier’s origin story: from Belgian engineer to Silicon Valley success to Brussels commons builder[04:56] The meta-crisis awakening: when everything around us is falling apart, community becomes immunity[06:26] Elinor Ostrom’s Nobel Prize research and why commons management beats privatisation[09:02] “Coworking is dead”: how COVID broke the five-day office model and what’s replacing it[10:30] Crypto Wednesdays, AI Mondays, and the rise of themed coworking days[11:45] Why magic happens at the intersection of different communities[13:50] Trust-building through doing: the priceless value of shared projects[16:18] Coworking as the new churches: rebuilding social fabric in a GDP-obsessed world[17:07] How we destroyed relationships to turn them into transactions[21:36] The Commons Hub token: introducing a dual-currency system that values care alongside cash[22:59] How some members pay more euros, others contribute more time—and why both matter[24:39] Why the current economic system is clearly leading us to extinction[28:53] Money is just a proxy: reducing dependency through community exchangeThematic BreakdownThe Silicon Valley Return: When Success Becomes a CrisisXavier’s journey from Belgian engineer to Silicon Valley exit and back to Brussels as a commons builder reveals a profound truth about our economic moment. Success within the system—the acquisition, the financial freedom, the validation—became the resource that allowed him to step outside and ask harder questions. His story isn’t anti-technology or anti-entrepreneurship. It’s about using the tools of capitalism to fund experiments in post-capitalism. The irony is deliberate: he needed to win the game to reveal how broken the game actually is.Community as Immunity in the Meta-CrisisWhen Xavier talks about the “meta-crisis” and “polycrisis,” he’s not being dramatic. Climate collapse, institutional failure, social fragmentation—these aren’t separate problems but symptoms of the exact systemic breakdown. His phrase “community is immunity” captures something essential about survival in unstable times. When the formal systems fail, what remains is the quality of relationships we’ve built with the people around us. This isn’t romantic community-building. It’s a practical resilience strategy.The Death and Resurrection of CoworkingThe five-day-a-week coworking model died with COVID, but something more interesting is emerging in its place. Xavier’s themed days—Crypto Wednesdays, AI Mondays, Regen Sundays—represent a fundamental shift from spaces trying to be everything to everyone to spaces that curate specific communities around shared interests. This isn’t just about efficiency. It’s about creating the conditions for what Xavier calls “serendipity”—the unexpected connections that happen when the right people show up at the right time.The Economics of Care vs. The Monoculture of PerformanceThe Commons Hub’s dual-currency system—euros plus community tokens earned through care work—strikes at the heart of everything wrong with our economic system. We live in what Xavier calls a “monoculture of a single currency” that only values performance and GDP contribution. Love, care, beauty, maintenance—the work that actually makes community possible—gets no recognition. The dual currency doesn’t solve capitalism, but it creates a small space where different values can breathe.Coworking as Economic LaboratoryXavier views coworking spaces as the ideal testing ground for new economic models, as they’re small enough to experiment with yet substantial enough to matter. When he says “coworking spaces could be this amazing laboratory where those experiments can be run,” he’s talking about something more radical than better coffee or faster WiFi. He’s referring to spaces where people can explore various ways of relating to money, work, and one another. Where the logic of extraction gets suspended, even temporarily.From Monoculture to PermacultureThe shift from “monoculture to permaculture” isn’t just an agricultural metaphor—it’s an economic strategy. Just as monoculture farming depletes soil, economic monoculture depletes communities. Permaculture farming recognises that ecosystems need diversity to thrive; human communities need multiple currencies and ways of contributing. Xavier’s vision isn’t about rejecting money entirely but reducing dependency on it by creating more ways for people to participate meaningfully in community life.The Physical Commons in Digital TimesDespite his tech background, Xavier insists on physical space as essential infrastructure for community building. Churches provided this network of neighbourhood gathering places; coworking spaces can fill that role in secular, pluralistic ways. But only if they embrace their civic responsibility rather than just chasing commercial real estate returns. The Commons Hub, located across from Brussels Central Station, isn’t coincidental—it’s positioned as infrastructure for the kinds of connections that make democracy possible.✅ Coworking Trends Survey 2025The Coworking Values Podcast is keen to support Carsten Foertsch and Deskmag - The Coworking Magazine Coworking Trends Survey - the longest-running global study tracking the evolution of coworking and flex spaces.If you’re a coworking community builder or operator, take 5–10 minutes to share how your space is doing this year. Your input helps shape the most accurate industry snapshot out there.➡️ Take the survey nowHelp make sure voices from all types of spaces - big and small, rural and urban - are heard.🔗 Links & ResourcesXavier Damman’s Work* Commons Hub Brussels* Open Collective* “Let’s turn 10,000 neighbourhoods into communities!” - Every Friday* DAO Brussels* Connect with Xavier’s on LinkedIn Projects & Community* European Coworking Day* London Coworking Assembly* European Coworking Assembly* The annual Coworking Trends Survey is live - it’s more important than ever.* Unreasonable Connection Going Live! London, February 2026.Bernie’s Projects* RSVP for ACTionism, the documentary at Urban MBA 19 November | 3 PM- 7 PM* LinkedIn Coworking Group: 8,000+ member community* Coworking Values Podcast LinkedIn: Showcase page* Workspace Design Show: February trade show and conference in London* Unreasonable Connection Events: Monthly online gatherings for coworking operators* Bernie’s LinkedIn: Connect directlyOne More ThingCoworking brings communities together, helping people find and share their voices.Each episode of the Coworking Values Podcast explores Accessibility, Community, Openness, Collaboration, and Sustainability—values that shape the spaces where we gather, work, and grow.If this resonates with you, rate, follow, and share the podcast. Your support helps others discover how coworking enriches lives, builds careers, and strengthens communities.Community is the key 🔑 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit coworkingvaluespodcast.substack.com