Back in November about twelve folks from Baltimore involved in space design were flown out to Grand Rapids to visit Steelcase's corporate headquarters on their corporate jet. Needless to say it was an awesome day trip.
There were a few take-aways I've been finding myself referring to often enough that I thought they were worth sharing here: 1. Corporations are downsizing their spaces and preparing for Gen Y's willingness to work more flexibly and collaboratively. GE's global standard for space-per-worker is now 70 sqft. Accenture's is 50 sqft. This doesn't mean each person gets a phone booth; it means they're not providing space for all their employees anymore. They expect people to be working from home, shared facilities, coffee shops, airports, and client sites. 2. Coworking spaces are a lot like restaurants, and you probably don't want Mexican or Italian every day. They think a major city should be able to support 12/25/50 coworking spaces over time, and that you'll make your decision about which one(s) to go to on a daily basis around the design of the space. By "design" I am talking about "design constraints," not just layout and furniture. Who's attracted to the space? Is it coders or fine artists? Which group do you need to be inspired by / move with that day? This turns the "space competition" question into a moot point. We don't think about a Thai place being in competition with a taco joint. In the same way, we should be preparing our cities to handle multiple coworking facilities and welcoming new entrants and multiple experiments. Other tidbits of interest: a) Steelcase owns IDEO, the creative consulting / "design thinking" firm. b) Steelcase's more whimsical/coworking-targeted brand is Turnstone, which has been referenced here. Turnstone is very interested in supporting coworking. c) They have a "wormhole" video link between Grand Rapids and IDEO's office in Palo Alto. We've been talking about doing this between some coworking spaces but haven't quite gotten it going yet. Thought y'all would appreciate these ideas. Best, Dave -- Dave Troy Beehive Baltimore Community Coworking in Baltimore, Maryland -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/coworking?hl=en.
