Adam Lis works at the Flexible Workplace department of JLL Poland. He perfectly knows both world, as he has previously been active as a coworking operator in Warsaw.
According to Adam Lis, due to the Covid-19 crisis, companies will acknoweldge the value of the coworking subscription model the same way they understand the value of paying a premium for an insurance. Overall, the flex workplace model will take more ground after the crisis, he expects. The price war between coworking operators in more competitive environment, such as big cities like Warsaw, and likely elsewhere in Europe, will end. The demand will rise as the tenant will also, probably, ask for a wider surface per member. So, the coworking operators could offset the decrease in attendance by a higher price per desk, explained by the physical distanciation needs at least in the first months after the lockdown.In general, the coworking model will likely take a bigger slice of the office market, also in smaller citites, observe the JLL consultant.
Interview with Jean-Yves Huwart, from SocialWorkplaces.com
www.socialworkplaces.com
www.coworkingeurope.net

#1 Adam Lis (JLL Poland): "Employers will see the coworking model as their best insurance policy"

A virtual conversation between coworking practitioners and operators on the measures to be taken to go through the current Covid19 pandemic. 
SocialWorkplaces.com gathered :
- Nir Kelner, from Brain Embassy (Tel Aviv, Israel)
- Paula Almansa, LOOM Coworking (Madrid, Spain)
- Thom Wernke, StartDock (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
- Liz Elam, GCUC (Austin TX, USA)
The conversation was moderated by Jean-Yves Huwart, CEO of SocialWorkplaces.com, and suggested by Nir Kelner.
We cover the crisis and the perspective of recovery of the coworking operator, retention strategy, community links sustain, financial discussion with landlords and other stakeholders. Teleworking is know embraced. So coworking has a nice future ahead.
www.socialworkplaces.com
www.coworkingeurope.net

#2 Coworking first reactions to Covid-19 - International Panel (March 19th, 2020)Audio)

China and South Korea are slowly seeing the end of the Covid19 crisis. 
As the rest of the world is in the middle of the pandemic, we wanted to know how the coworking industry in Asia experienced the the containment and how is the situation for them now that China or South Korea are now releasing the pressure and steadily allow people to get back to their regular work. 
Did they manage to retain their members ?
What do landlords propose ?
Is the meeting rooms booking business back on track ?
How about protection equipment within the coworking spaces ?
Will companies and real estate property owners embrace the flex workspace model further ?

How does the future look like ?

The panel, co-organized by SocialWorkplaces.com and GCUC, brought in the conversation :
- Ally Hong, from The Executive Center, in Seoul
- Jonathan Wright, from Colliers, in Hong Kong
- Liz Elam, from GCUC, Austin TX
- Bob Zheng, from People Squared, in Shanghai
- Jean-Yves Huwart, from www.socialWorkplaces.com , in Brussels

#3 How China and South-Korea are managing the post-Covid19 coworking re-opening (March 2020)

Luca Dioda operates Yoroom, a Milan based coworking space, that was hit, as everyone by the Coronavirus pandemic.
Luca explains how they choose to shut down the space, in the middle of the month, how they handled the billing of their members, how the space deals with the financial commitments.
The Italian governement is currently issuing a number of measures to support Small and Medium Size Businesses.
Yoroom is confident they will go through the situation and get out safe from it.

#4 Coworking in Milan during the peak of the Covid19 crisis (with Luca Dioda, Yoroom)

Rapal is a Finnish company active in workspace optimzation and IoT. SocialWorkplaces.com interview Maija Patjas, director Workplace management services, and Pontus Kihlman, executive consultant, of the Helsinki based organization, on their recently release Optimaze report on the main trends observed in office building and workspace uses within Europe countries.
Altough coworking and flexible models remain a small portion of the overal office use on the continent, the percentage is on the rise. Remote working remain more accepted in the Nordic countries as well as in the Benelux. However, the Covid19 coronavirus crisis will likely change the perception dramatically. Employers are to embrace new flexible model and digital working more massively.
One important takeaway from the Optimaze report regards the meeting room usage. 
26% of meeting rooms are used by a sole person, looking for privacy. 
And 78% of all meetings gather 4 people or less.
The way coworking spaces and regular workplace will be layout and planned will likely be influenced by those findings in the coming months and years.
Workplaces of the future are expected to have a lot more working pods, alcoves, small corners for collaboration and phone calls. And this is not only related to social distancing requests we are likely to experience once the Covid19 containment will end.
Work hubs, coworking and flexible solutions, will be much more part of the overall portofolio of workplaces employers will embrace.

#5 Small Meeting Rooms will become more and more important (Rapal Report, April 2020)

Eamonn Sayers is the CEO of the Guinness Enterprise Centre (GEC), a Dublin based coworking and startup incubator. Located in an underprivileged area of the Irish capital, the GEC plays a major role in boosting the local start-up scene and neighbourhood. Beyond that, the GEC supports a lot of initiatives on the national level, working as the entrepreneurial touch down hub of entrepreneurs operating from more than 40 entrepreneurial centres from across the country. 

The current Covid-19 crisis is no reason to stop the expansion plans. In the coming months, GEC will complete a building extension that will increase the hosting capacity of the coworking space and incubator to 160 startups.

Eamonn Sayers explains how GEC is complementary to the rest of the coworking ecosystem in Dublin and articulates its offering with the rest of the market : "Are you a starter when you can afford to work from one of the nice new coworking brands locations which are now operating across the city ? Actually, we fill in their pipe, as our successful entrepreneurs, once their team has grown up, can't anymore be accommodated within the GEC building. Hence, they are happy to move to new convenient coworking environment that are now available in Dublin."

In terms of engagement with the rest of the country, GEC is involved in a program aiming at convincing the rural diaspora to give back to their historical community once they have succeeded in their activity. The goal is to keep jobs and startups in the countryside by using coworking and enterprise centres to connect rural spaces with the Dublin ecosystems and foreign networks.

Eamonn Sayers is interviewed by Jean-Yves Huwart from www.socialWorkplaces.com

#6 The Guinness Enterprise Centre (GEC) keeps expanding in Dublin and Ireland

Neo-Nomade is a French company working with corporates and medium size businesses to create customized packages they can use to let their employees roam between coworking spaces in France. We had a discussion with Baptiste Broughton, one of Neo-Nomade's co-founders.

#9 "We expect 15% of remotely working employees to opt for coworking" - Neo-Nomade

Karina Kerja is a Poland based workspace expert, next office concept manager, for the Swedish furniture company Kinnarps.
According to a recent survey, 30% of employee are happy with home working and 30% are un-happy. The flex workplace industry is also seeing a very strong of rise in interest in the last week. The dynamic is changing from one week to another, and it often comes from those who were the most reluctant towards it, just a few weeks ago. Companies are really looking at how to reduce their overhead cost, and coworking is an option for that.
That being said, the need to put safe workplace environments will remain.
We really see three phases. The lockdown was the first one. We are now leaving this phase, but the virus is still around.
In some European countries, public transportation are re-opening but with limited in capacity. No more than 30 or 50% of users is allowed. There is no way a slice of the workforce can reach up to their office, as simple a that.
On the other hand, the workforce is discovering home office. In Poland, less than 5% had a home working experience and a dedicated place to work from home. Though, the had to jump into it overnight.
However, it only work for some people, not with everybody. People want to come back.
There are a lot of differences culturally to deal with social distancing. US companies are very strict on it. Nordic countries are used to it. More latin European countries are less. In Spain, you now have to wear a mask. But all of a sudden, you have someone from Poland were it isn't. We will have to deal with a lot of different behaviors and that not something to leave in only a few weeks. We will have to address it in the coming months, if not years. So we have to prepare for it.
We have a lot of issues with social distancing. We like to be together and re-unite. There is a huge discord with our gut feelings. 
After 2 weeks, relaxation will come and we will retrieve the old habits.
Now, how to change the layout of the space to take into account ?
Kinnarps made a case study of a open space, pretty dense, 900 m2 with 130 desks. We know many coworking spaces work with such high dense standards.
Social distancing rule is now 1,5m in Poland. We made a simulation. We tried to keep empty seats with that rule in mind. The result shows that the capacity drops to 36% only, as opposed to the regular planned capacity. 
On the other hand, would you take away tables, you will keep up to 48% capacity in the workspace. It would bring a huge psychological advantage.
Where to bring the furniture not used then ?
A lot of companies are shipping it to people's home, when they have no proper set up to home working.
"Our business does change a lot", observes Karina.
If the transportation opportunities decrease and the office capacities decrease, we have to adapt and re-invent new models.
We will likely see retail real estate made available in the coming future. And coworking space could take over.

#10 You save more space by taking away tables than by asking people to leave empty seats - Kinnarps

Frank Zorn is the co-founder of Deskeo, nowadays one of the biggest coworking operators in France, with 75.000 m2 under management, spread across 50 locations, mainly in the Paris and Lyon areas.
Deskeo is the French arm of the US coworking giant Knotel, that recently invested in the company. 
Knotel policy, so far, was to keep building on the local brand. Ahoy!, the Berlin based operator taken over by Knotel in 2019 is operating under the Ahoy! brand as well.
"Knotel had the same positioning as ours. We rapidly figured out there was a good fit between us. We have the same understanding and philosophy of what we want to build. So Knotel and Deskeo joined forces", tells Frank Zorn.
In terms of market positioning, "we see a place between the demand of landlords to convert part of their business towards more flexible models and the companies requiring more flexible commitment for their workplace needs. We see we are well positioned to match the two sides of the demand.", says Frank Zorn.
Deskeo focuses on the middle size and scaling up companies, as well as corporates. 
"Once a company grows higher than 10-20 people, they start to look for an environment where they can build their own culture, their own iconography within their location. We co-create an office that looks like their own office, bringing on top of it our service layer and flexibility." 
Frank Zorn is involved in the development of France, but not only. He also helps to develop the Knotel European offering elsewhere in Europe, in Amsterdam and Dublin, a.o. 
According to the country, the strategy will either be to keep the operations under as existing local brand - such as was the case with Deskeo (which benefits form a strong recognition in France)- or to develop directly and organically a new offering under the Knotel brand. 
"For contracts involving locations in different countries, with international customer, for instance, we commit as Knotel (...) We are a global brand, present in 70 cities."
"We focus first on the most attractive and biggest markets, for the moment, but could look go for smaller cities, as a second steps."
Frank Zorn says the company is also aware of the shift in culture that is brewing, in the post-Covid19 time. Employees and companies start to consider to distribute their workforce differently. Silicon Valley and some other places are losing some of their appeal, as people are thinking differently after the Covid-19 impact. 
"This is a shift that is going to take place", observes Frank Zorn. However, we expect the changes not to happen overnight. It will take a few years."
Deskeo recently released the outcome of a Survey on how teleworking is accepted and perceived in France.
"Work from home policy will  become an asset for companies talent attraction, we see from the results", explains Frank Zorn. "Employees are also ready to give up their dedicated desks, would the workspace policy change and become more flexible, integrating home office. The head down tasks can be made at home. Brainstorming, collective creativity sessions, social stimulation rather take place within a workspace environment."
"Proper Workspace design will become even more important in that new era", adds the CEO of Deskeo.

#10 You save more space by taking away tables than by asking people to leave empty seats - Kinnarps

Coworking Europe Podcast