Dr. Gleb Tsipursky – The Office Whisperer
Cat Johnson – Coworking Marketing Maven
Angela Howard – Culture Expert
Drew Jones – Design & Innovation
Andrea Pirrotti-Dranchak – Competitive Advantage
Jonathan Price – CRE & Flex Expert
Jeremy Fennema – Tech Innovation Alchemist
During The Real Deal and Spaces’ panel discussion on the state of coworking that was held this week, industry experts discussed what to expect from the future of coworking.
After the fallout from WeWork’s IPO, other prominent coworking operators were forced to reevaluate their own models moving forward.
“It’s really made the operators say, ‘Man, I’ve got to button up. Man, I’ve got to do this a little better and make money,” said Katherine Lau, senior director of real estate for Industrious. “That been our M.O. at Industrious since our inception in 2013. We feel we are well positioned for that.”
Jim Doorn, executive vice president for IWG’s western division, said that the company has benefited the massive rise of coworking in the past few years.
Bridgid Coulter, founder and CEO of Blackbird House, which gears its services towards women of color, said she did not see a direct impact on her company from WeWork’s failures.
“We are really building a brand from the community up. Our mission and motto is to be of service in a very specific way in to a demographic way,” said Coulter. “We are positioning ourselves to be a different model.”
Both Lau and Doorn said they have started seeing more interest from Fortune 500 companies who are seeking to become tenants.
