Spent a day in Östersund with people from different coworking spaces all over Sweden and abroad. Good talk and discussions about the future for coworking, how the market is changing right now and what trends we see. Interesting also with the European and global perspectives from Dimitar Inchev and Pauline Roussel – who started out in Berlin and then have visited over 250 different coworking spaces!
Some take aways: we see more kind of coworking emerge. This has already been going for a while, with some focusing on certain topics (such as E-commerce Park of Sweden in our case), and those that want to build a broader and more inclusive community (Mindpark in our case). However there is also the change happening where certain are focusing on flexibility, and others on community. This will probably continue – and for some it can be part of the same concept, but others might focus on only one of these. Definitly not all coworking will be community focused in the long run – or it might change name along the way.
Other trends are “coworking with anything”, ie a gym with coworking space, malls with a coworking space and hotels with coworking spaces. Some of these might stick, but having seen all of them myself, and knowing not all are around anymore, I am unsure if this is a lasting trend or not.
Another thing that I think is lasting however is a trend for rural and remote coworking. Here it is easy to build a great community, which makes it possible to have a space that lasts and endures. Coworking is since years no longer a big city phenomenon.
And one of the most important insights: in the future you as a worker will not have one office. You will have many offices. We are already at that point, but I not everyone has realized that yet. This already started before the pandemic, but was accelerated during it (as much else).