In September, The Coworking Institute taught its first classes. Operators from five continents joined AI for Leaders · The Briefing across two time zones and left with practical frameworks for putting AI to work in their businesses.
It was a small start to something I’ve wanted for this industry for a long time: a place to learn how to run a coworking business well.
Coworking needs its own education
Running a space means juggling leases, cash flow, technology, hospitality and people. Lots of people. You’re managing real estate, running a hospitality business, choosing software and building a community, often in the same morning.
A traditional business program can teach you finance and strategy. Applying it to coworking is another matter, and real estate experience alone won’t prepare you either. Some days, it feels like adult day care. Anyone who has run a space knows what I mean. It also helps explain why real estate experience alone doesn’t prepare you for this business.
There’s a lot to learn. Leases, revenue shares, and management agreements. Pricing, sales, and member retention. Hiring, training, and keeping the technology working. And for many operators, an events business on top of everything else.
You have to make the numbers work while taking care of the people who walk through your door. Education built for coworking should help you do both.
Why now?
Real estate is changing
Landlords and cities are trying to work out what to do with underused offices and how to bring life back to downtowns. Coworking has a role to play because flexible workspace is part of the commercial real estate toolkit. Operators need to be ready for those conversations and understand the economics and be able to explain their business clearly to a landlord, lender or investor.
People need connection
You can work from almost anywhere and still feel alone. A good space gives people somewhere to show up, be known and spend time with other humans. Putting desks in a room won’t do it. How you welcome someone, handle a problem or notice that a member needs help shapes their whole experience, and we teach that side of the business with the same care we give the financials.
AI needs to find its place.
Operators have always needed automation and systems to make coworking viable. The best operators in the world are masters of operations. The industry needs to know where AI saves time, what it does well, and when a person still needs to step in. Generic advice only gets you so far. The training has to reflect the work of running a space.
What we’re building
We’re bringing back Foundations
After the pandemic, we paused Camp GCUC, our old introduction to operating a coworking business. The market was unsettled, and many people were focused on keeping their businesses alive. A few brave souls opened spaces and did brilliantly, but it was a hard time to start.
Now it returns in two formats both online only and as a 1-day intensive with GCUC Foundation Miami, on April 5, 2027 the day before GCUC Miami. It’s a must for the co-curious with lessons from the people who have been there.
We wrote The Coworking MBA: for the people who will lead this industry
Ten modules over ten months, each taught by an operator who is expert in that area. Maybe you’re a CEO investing in a rising team member. Maybe you want your finance lead to understand the business better. Or maybe you’ve been operating for years and are tired of learning everything the hard way. Entry is selective and asks for at least two years in coworking or flex. Graduates earn the CMBA credential, awarded on a portfolio of real work and a defended capstone. And yes, it’s possible to fail. But it’s going to be an incredible room of people.
Institute Membership: for practitioners who want to stay current
The calendar is ramping up but each month already includes a specialist AI briefing, a creative marketing session, and a guest conversation or case study. Members also get a monthly “AI skill” to help train their LLMs. Membership also includes access to the member-only side of The Coworking Wiki, the operator community, future member events around GCUC gatherings, and discounts on Executive Education.
AI for Leaders · The Program: for leaders ready to put AI to work
Fourteen weeks from October 20, 2026, led by Pawel Majak, who ran European operations at Airbnb and was COO of bookingkit. Seven live 90-minute sessions alternate with five hands-on Clinics where you work through your own operational bottlenecks. You’ll build a fully functioning personal AI ecosystem and leave with a rollout plan for your business: where AI belongs, and where people stay in charge. A handheld approach to AI deployment.
Hospitality and Wellbeing run through everything
We know in coworking that how you welcome someone, handle a problem, or notice that a member needs help shapes their experience of your space. We need to teach that side of the business with the same care we give the financials.
Learn from people who have done the work
We reached out to our friends who have built spaces, led teams, worked through turnarounds, and learned a few things the hard way. Those are the people we want teaching.
Coworking MBA module leads
- Craig Baute, Creative Density and DenSwap: Positioning & Niche
- Koral Ibrahim, The Ready House: Attraction & Marketing
- Chiko Abengowe, Perfect Office Solutions: Sales & Revenue
- Tobi Skovron, Cubes.Co: Productization & Strategy
- Liz Simon, Industrious: Operations & Systems
- Cat Johnson, Coworking Convos: Community Stickiness
- Jessica Knapp, GCUC: Technology & Software
- Jamie Apostolou, Second Home: Financial Fundamentals
- Lisa Skye, SkyeCo: The Art of the Deal
AI for Leaders: Pawel Majak, former Head of Operations for Europe at Airbnb, who now runs an independent AI systems practice in Germany.
Also on the faculty: Brad Krauskopf (Hub Australia), Emilie Lashmar (GCUC UK and TOGETHER) and Andrew Runnette (Fractional COO for FlexSpace Operators).
The cofounders: Jonathan O’Byrne built and exited Collective Works in Singapore, in joint venture with CapitaLand, led partnership and franchise growth across Asia Pacific at IWG, and has led multi-country coworking turnarounds. He wrote Coworking Inc. and After Coworking. And me, Liz Elam: I founded Link Coworking and GCUC, host the GCUC Podcast, and studied foresight at the University of Houston.
Who are we building this for?
We designed these programs around the questions people we meet at GCUC every year struggle to answer: the ones who corner a speaker after a session with a business problem that’s been keeping them up at night.
Who is the Coworking MBA for?
The founder who built it on instinct. You’ve been open for years. It works, and you learned most of it the hard way. Now you want to expand, sell, raise money or sign a management agreement, and instinct won’t carry that conversation with a landlord or an investor.
The number two about to become number one. You’ve been running the floor as a general manager or head of operations, and the P&L is coming your way. Maybe your CEO is sending you, because investing in you is cheaper than learning the hard way twice.
The finance or real estate lead. You understand the building and the spreadsheet, but not why members stay, leave or pay more. The MBA teaches you the business the numbers describe.
The operating partner. You run flex for an owner, landlord or investor, and you need to defend your decisions in their language as well as yours.
Who is Coworking Foundations for?
The aspiring operator. You have a city, an idea and maybe a spreadsheet. You want to understand the business before you commit to a site.
The landlord with empty floors. You’re weighing coworking as a way to fill space, and deciding whether to run it yourself, bring in a franchise or hand it to a management operator.
The career changer. You’ve come from community management, hospitality or property, and you want to avoid the structural mistakes that sink new spaces.
The recent operator. You’ve been open less than two years and want to check your foundations before you expand.
Think of it as an investment in avoiding some of the mistakes we made.
Who is the intensive AI course for?
It’s for senior leaders who already know their business runs and need to decide what AI should and shouldn’t do in it.
The experienced operator. You don’t need the fundamentals. You need a working AI system of your own and a clear answer for your team, and you haven’t had the time to work it out alone.
The corporate flex team. You run flex or workplace inside a larger real estate or corporate business, where AI decisions come with security and governance questions attached.
The leadership team. You enroll together, so the AI conversation in your business stops being six private opinions and becomes one plan.
The Coworking Industry now has a home for education
We’re so proud to offer these courses and we are building a community to gather knowledge in our industry.
See you in class.
