When we launched our first spaces, there were few others in the market. We spent the majority of our time explaining the concept, a lot of effort on education and outreach. As more and more spaces launched in our city, we definitely all began to benefit from the mainstream recognition, as well as the new opportunity to collaborate with each other.
You have a choice to 'compete' or to 'collaborate'. I feel our unique coworking communities in Toronto have a lot in common, and a lot to offer each other in terms of support, advice and experience. I believe our Coworking Toronto and Coworking Ontario collectives are similar to this google group - we genuinely like each other and want each other to succeed. We are all fiercely independent, but I think we all gravitated towards participating in a regional collective because were all facing similar challenges, and were looking for other like-mided friends, mentors and colleagues to connect with in Toronto. The same way our members want to connect. We can also benefit from collective advertising (the concept rather than the space) and our members benefit when we leverage collective bargaining power to create programs like COHIP. We might have different missions and mandates and markets, but we can agree that we all want our members to be happy and healthy and productive. Since coworking spaces in Toronto and Ontario began collaborating, we've seen a steady increase in coworking awareness, and community participation in our events. Since launching a collective website, we've seen more traffic, more tours, more media attention and more members. Our spaces are all better spaces and our communities are all stronger communities because we share best practices. And yes, the market is growing along with the number of active spaces. It's a beautiful cycle of supply and demand. If coworking is truly the future of work as we claim, I can't see a saturation point here anytime soon... Choose to be a champion and a collaborator rather than a competitor when you arrive, and introduce yourself as such. Then start to imagine what's possible if you work together. Ashley Ashley Proctor Creative Blueprint & Foundery www.creativeblueprint.ca www.foundery.is The Foundery Buildings 376 Bathurst Street Toronto, Ontario, Canada On 2014-10-07, at 6:50 PM, Aaron Cruikshank wrote: > One perspective to consider is what is the total addressable market? > Vancouver has many coworking spaces and I get asked often by the media if I > think the coworking market in Vancouver is saturated. > > By my math, if you consider every micro entrepreneur as a potential user, > Vancouver is addressing around 1.5% of the total addressable market. Far from > saturated, surely. > > Yet some of these spaces are struggling to fill desks. The problem isn't the > size of the market - it's lack of knowledge in the potential market about > coworking. > > More spaces = more potential awareness. There must be some critical mass in a > city or region that pushes coworking from obscurity to mainstream recognition. > > Thoughts? > > _______________ > Aaron Cruikshank > Principal, CRUIKSHANK > Phone: 778.908.4560 > email: [email protected] > web: cruikshank.me > twitter: @cruikshank > book a meeting: doodle.com/cruikshank > linkedin: linkedin.com/in/cruikshank > > On Oct 7, 2014 3:25 PM, "Jonathan Markwell" <[email protected]> > wrote: > This has been a common question over the years in my relatively small city > (Brighton, England population 273,400). I've just written about it and > created a checklist for future community founders to consider here: > > http://jonathanmarkwell.com/2014/10/06/multiple-coworking-spaces/ > > On 3 March 2013 18:20, Cameron Goldsmith <[email protected]> > wrote: > Curious how everyone feels about cities that have multiple coworking > spots.... Do you think this is generally a good idea? I know competition is > supposed to be good for the market, but what if the city is small?? > > Im asking because I'm looking to relocate soon. The city Im interested in, > St. Louis, already has a coworking spot. Ive been looking and researching to > open one for awhile now, but am now hesitant after finding out StL has a > fairly large spot already. > > Do you think this is something that is sustainable, or do you feel like I > would be stepping on the toes of a community catalyst by opening a new > business doing a very similar thing? > > > > -- > Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Coworking" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > > > > > -- > Jonathan Markwell > > Follow my adventures in space, time and code: http://jot.is/sustainablyindy > > The Skiff: Brighton Coworking Community http://jot.is/sharing-space > Coder Founders: Digital Product Consultancy http://jot.is/investing-time > CoGrid: Meeting Room Booking Software http://jot.is/writing-code > > +44 (0)7766 021 485 > skype: jlmarkwell | twitter: http://twitter.com/jot > > -- > Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Coworking" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > > -- > Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com > --- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Coworking" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
