There were three themes at GCUC 2018.  Liz Elam, GCUC Executive Producer and Founder of Link Coworking laid them out.  

Three Main Themes for GCUC 2018

Health is your most valuable asset.  However, health is different from healthcare.  In the United States, we often associate health with disease prevention.  What we mean by health is that we need to be addressing wellness, both mental and environmental in our spaces.  We currently have a loneliness epidemic circling the world. The younger generation is especially starting to feel anxiety in increasing amounts.  The workplaces we are building should make us healthier and we need to work to make that happen.

There is also a huge element of design involved in improving the industry.  “Industrial chic” has been done time and time again so we should start moving away from it.  Think about what makes your space innovative. Niche spaces are a huge thing for us as well. There are spaces that focus on women, spaces that focus on real estate, spaces that focus on lawyers, etc.  

Additionally, there are many Request for Proposals (RFPs) floating around.  There are new ventures and management agreements coming about.  Landlords and real estate is starting is get savvy towards coworking.  A lot of change is happening there. Landlords will even come to us and ask us to come to their property.

We cannot predict the future but we are the ones building it.  This is our opportunity to change the world. Don’t focus on the desk.  Design is important but coworking is so much more than that. More focus should be on the software rather than the hardware.