It may seem a little odd to think about building community inside your workspace, given that many spaces are sitting virtually empty as people continue to work from home.
“But we’re expecting a wave of people coming to coworking spaces,” countered Cat Johnson, a content marketer for the coworking sector. “You need to be ready to welcome people into an activated, engaged coworking community, not just a desk rental facility.”
Cat made these comments during her latest Coworking Convo, which focused on how to create a vibrant and welcoming culture in a coworking space. During the online conversation, of which 100+ participants joined, Cat invited three coworking community managers to share their insights and experiences:
Maya Delano from NextSpace Santa Cruz
Shervonne Cherry from Spark Baltimore and Spark Kansas City
Garrett Tichy from Hygge Coworking
Here are three top tips from Maya, Shervonne and Garrett on how to create a vibrant community inside your space.
Maya Delano
Maya has almost a decade of community engagement at NextSpace Santa Cruz.
“My number one important thing is staying connected to your current members,” she said, which applies both to those working from home as well as those who are coming back into the space.
“Keep them informed and communicate with them regularly. We created a weekly video chat that we call ‘Reimagining NextSpace’. Members can listen in and we talk about our latest updates, and what we’ve done to make the space safe.”
One of Maya’s members came back to the space once it reopened after lockdown, purely off the back of listening to these weekly calls, as it gave her the information she needed to head back into the workplace. “She knew about all the health and safety measures we had been implemented, which gave her confidence to come back in.”
Shervonne Cherry
Shervonne’s Baltimore space has been open since 2015, and Spark is planning to open a second location in Kansas City in a few weeks.
For Shervonne, it’s all about being human. “One, be a good human. Two, be a good partner.”
One of the main things that keeps their community strong is knowing what each of their members does, and how Spark can help them achieve it. “Our lifeblood is digging into the side hustle,” said Shervonne. “What’s happening with our members? I have a sensepoint of what everyone is doing, who just hired, what’s going on. We share that with our community and the local Baltimore area, which connects them with the outside space.”
This shows members that when they come to Spark, they get so much more than a place to work. They get information, resources and connections that support them and their teams.