Late last year, I had an idea that wouldn’t leave me alone.
I’m always on the lookout for ways to support coworking space operators—particularly with their content and marketing. I also love helping coworking pros strengthen their connections as the movement expands into a global workspace industry.
We have a handful of Facebook groups, social media and a growing number of coworking masterminds. But it occurred to me that coworking, as a whole, didn’t have a great way for space operators to connect and share tips, best practices and questions in a free and informal, real-time virtual setting.
So we built it.
The Early Days
In collaboration with my friends at CloudVO, we hosted a beta Coworking Convo on using Yelp to market a space. 25 space operators registered. For the next Convo, we capped registration at 50 and sold out.
This trend continued, with a growing number of registrants joining us for each call.
We were testing the limits of Zoom for a group conversation and it was working.
For last month’s Convo on using coffee to market a coworking space, we had 115 operators register. Jamie Orr from Cowork Tahoe kicked things off with tips, insights and some coffee science, then we opened the conversation up to the community.
It went great and we’re gearing up for much more.
Coworking Convos is a Thing
Long story short, Coworking Convos is a thing. As one of my mentors said, “There’s a there there.”
Yep, there is a there there.
It’s important to me that Convos remain free and open to operators, so I’m using a sponsorship model to support and grow Convos.
Our All-Star Convos Partners
CloudVO has been a Convos partner since day one. I’m forever grateful to their leaders and team for seeing my vision and going all-in on this project. I’ve collaborated with Karina Patel, Kim Seipel and the CloudVO team on dozens of projects over the last few years. It’s hard to put into words just how much they inspire and support me and my work. They are part of the driving force and collaborative spirit behind Convos.
included.co, run by my friend and tech wiz Hector, was next to jump in and support Convos. Hector is one of the most generous people in coworking and his work to create the coworking member perks program has been nothing short of inspiring. Side note: included Premium has a bunch of cool offerings, including managed swag shops and hyper-local perks you can set up with local businesses. If local perks and merch are on your todo list, reach out to Hector to get set up.
Shortly after we launched Coworking Convos, I was in Austin, Texas, where my friends and GCUC producers Liz and Stormy gave me pro guidance and some tough love about how to tighten up the Convos model. We then masterminded with Felicity from Fibercove and Laura from Soma Vida and Women Who Cowork about some of the details and to fine-tune my approach.
I left Austin feeling like Convos had been leveled-up. GCUC Community is now a top-tier Convos partner and the GCUC team has been instrumental in helping me think bigger and plan more strategically.
Convos Supporters
This year, I’m pleased to announce that Allwork.space and Coworking Resources are both Coworking Convos Supporters as the official media sponsor and content sponsor, respectively.
These two powerhouses are industry standards for news and resources. They are also both driven by amazing teams creating a ton of value and content around coworking, the workspace industry, and the future of work.
When Allwork.space and Coworking Resources joined the Convos team, registrations spiked! Between the two of them, they have quite a large audience. It’s been fun to connect with a whole new group of people.
Rounding out our current sponsors are Satellite Deskworks and Women Who Cowork. These organizations are both near and dear to me as I manage the marketing for Deskworks workspace management software and regularly collaborate with Iris and Laura from Women Who Cowork. I’m so pleased to have them both as our founding Community Level sponsors.
Convos + Community During a Pandemic
This month, we have a Convo on using virtual mail to generate revenue and leads, with special guest Keith Warner from CloudVO and Pacific Workplaces. We scheduled this Convo months ago, but, turns out, it’s more timely and important than we ever could have imagined. We’ve upped the number of spots available to 200 and upgraded to Zoom’s large room feature to accommodate us all!
As space operators look for ways to create revenue streams and continue to serve their communities, virtual offerings are becoming absolutely vital to keeping a space afloat during these uncertain times.
If you have questions, ideas, tips or insights to share, please join us. With more than a week to go, we already have well over 100 operators registered and that’s growing by the minute.
Looking forward, we’re planning Coworking Convos to chat about greening your space, generating revenue and leads by renting event space, using happy hours to market a coworking space, creating drip email sequences for leads, and much more.
Get Involved
The future is bright for Coworking Convos. Here’s how to get involved:
Space operators: Join the Convos community by registering for the next Convo on virtual mail.
Workspace service providers: contact me to talk about sponsorship opportunities as we grow Convos from an idea into a go-to resource for space operators around the world.
Stay safe, take care of yourselves and each other, and let’s chat soon,
Cat
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