155. Global Data on the Impact of COVID-19 on Coworking Spaces

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155. Global Data on the Impact of COVID-19 on Coworking Spaces

00:00:01 Welcome to the everything coworking podcast, where you learn what you need to know about how the world wants to work. And now your host coworking space owner and trend expert. Jamie Russo. Welcome. Thank you for joining us today. I have a returning guest to the podcast. Mike Everts is joining me today. And the last time we had Mike on was episode number 73.

00:00:40 So this is 154. We are going back a ways. And at that time, Mike was running shared space. He's the co founder of a coworking space with locations around Atlanta, Georgia, and Michael sort of took a turn and evolved his role. He was always a little bit super into his coworking software management platform. I remember him telling me that office R and D was doing sort of a us tour and they were stopping by shared space to visit with Michael because they loved his feedback.

00:01:17 And then Michael decided that was his calling and he has joined the officer in D team. And he is now the U S regional manager for office R and D located in Atlanta. Michael is also a fairly new proud puppy dad. So if we hear any interference with the background, exactly. Michael, thank you for joining me today. Yeah, absolutely.

00:01:40 Jamie so glad to be back. I think it was, you know, almost two years ago when we last did this. So, um, it's great to be talking to you again. Absolutely. Yeah. So Michael's episode number 73. If you haven't listened to that yet, Michael sheriffs didn't really get great tips on conference room technology. And we're probably going to update that a little bit today.

00:02:00 Michael is coming to us with his insights on COVID conference rooms and community, um, based on some office R and D data and what he hears from the marketplace. Michael's in a really kind of neat position of, of talking to operators all the time from around the world. So I asked Michael if and the office R and D team, if they would be willing to do an episode with us to share their insights around what's happening.

00:02:27 Cause I know for me, the thing I always want to know is like what's happening in other parts of the world, because we've all just experienced the same pandemic and the same crisis, but you know, some of us are coming out of it, um, you know, sooner than others I'm in California and we are, uh, moving slowly on re-entry as the moving fast. 00:02:48 Yeah. So, um, he's going to share his insights and some of the data that they're seeing from around the world, but, um, episode number 73 was, was great on, you know, sort of normal conference room technology. If you want to go back to that. So Michael, thank you. And I'll turn it over to you to kind of give us an intro and dive in.

00:03:08 Yeah, absolutely. And just for those people listening in, we will provide a recording of this with slides. So I'm currently talking over a slide show and I will do my best to describe any pictures or graphs we're talking about. But if you want to download this, you can always get it from Jamie's everything coworking website. Yeah. We'll remind you of that.

00:03:26 A couple of times, if you go to everything, coworking.com forward slash episodes four, I think it's another forward slash one 55. We will have the download for the slide. You can always reach out directly to my goal or myself to grab them, but they will be available. So Michael's going to talk through, but if, and he'll make sure we'll both make sure everything,

00:03:47 you know, he says is, is clear, but if you want the visual to go with it, you can definitely grab those slides. Yeah. So I'm going to start off by talking again, just kind of the initial effects that we've seen on the industry from COVID. Um, it is June right now, so COBIT hit us in March just a few months ago.

00:04:05 Um, but he, in those couple of months we've seen some pretty big repercussions, uh, across the industry. Um, just to be perfectly blunt, you know, across the board, we've seen a drop in revenue with a lot of spaces, occupancy and space utilization. Um, largely just due to the pandemic. People aren't as willing to come into the office.

00:04:25 Um, we've seen a lot of companies that are restructuring the revenue streams, uh, dropping product lines that aren't working as well, uh, changing others and even adding new product line like virtual offices, which we'll talk about in a little bit, um, in virtual memberships, um, we're seeing spaces, uh, you know, really just do complete,

00:04:44 uh, facility, uh, reconstructions and improvements, um, adding in technology to improve their space, um, and make it more safe so that people trust coming back to it, uh, and many safety procedures, um, that are going to be required to reopen these spaces. Um, you know, unfortunately right now, any place that brings together a sizable number of strangers,

00:05:05 um, is a top candidate for Pete where people don't want to be. There's a lot of unknown right now. And people, uh, really don't have the trust to go into a coworking space or an open space where they're going to see a lot of other people right now. Um, but more and more people are starting to crave that. Um,

00:05:24 at the same time, I truly believe that this industry is uniquely equipped to handle this crisis. Um, any space that has open areas is, is dealing with this right now. Um, and you know, due to a combination of the technology that coworking spaces use, the marketing that they have as opposed to a traditional real estate spot, um, you know,

00:05:42 a traditional real estate office, uh, I think it's going to really, really help kind of, uh, just accelerate people, getting back into the office and feel comfortable getting into these coworking spaces. Um, so yeah, that was just kind of a quick intro as we dive into the data. Um, Jamie, anything you'd add to that or you think I,

00:05:59 No, I think, I think that's right. I have a really positive outlook as well for the reasons you mentioned. I think the other thing I would mention is the control that we have over the physical space, um, and the, you know, teams that we have on our side to help us keep the space, you know, comfortable and,

00:06:18 and to your point, you know, trusted by our members. And if we can communicate that and have the, you know, the things in place and the tools that we need, which we're going to talk about that, you know, today, I think that's all really positive and it may take a little bit of time to get back there, but I think the future is bright.

00:06:36 Absolutely. Um, so, uh, I'm going to start talking about some of the, just data that we've pulled from our system. Um, really specifically looking at, uh, both revenue and meeting rooms in these spaces. Um, we took data starting from January all the way to may, um, just to see how that revenue is fluctuated. Um,

00:06:59 what we've seen is that from February to may, we have seen, you know, a drop in revenue among spaces roughly about 20% across the board. Um, and that's from people canceling memberships, that's from people not booking as many meeting rooms. Um, but, um, you know, that drop off has stopped in may. Uh, and we feel that as time goes on,

00:07:19 um, that's going to start to have positive growth, um, in terms of revenue now where things are very different is in meeting room bookings, uh, compared to February meeting room bookings and may have dropped by roughly 90%. So across the board, unfortunately, we are seeing a significant, significant drop in meeting rooms booking. Um, and this is,

00:07:42 you know, people don't necessarily feel like they can book meeting rooms right now. Um, a lot of coworking spaces just have their meeting rooms blocked off. Um, and there's just a lot of, kind of unclear rules about meeting rooms. And so, um, yeah, right now meeting rooms have dropped off quite a lot. Um, and this extends to events as well.

00:08:01 We're seeing almost a complete drop-off in terms of events. Um, and we, you know, we have some partners that are in Asia that we've kind of been looking forward to, to see what kind of events they have started to have, and they really never started having events. And they're now experiencing times experiencing a second wave. Apparently I think things are,

00:08:19 they're closing down parts of Beijing right now, again, so, um, we aren't really seeing events, um, in a physical sense, um, after this COVID has said, and that will come back, um, without a doubt, but it's going to take some time for that. Um, what we have seen is virtual events, workshops, webinars,

00:08:37 just take an insane, um, you know, rise, um, every single week. You're seeing more of these, you know, I know Jamie, I know you guys have been putting on a lot of these virtual contexts that I've been really successful and more so now than ever before. People are embracing digital events. And we have to imagine going forward post COVID,

00:08:55 Some aspect of digital will always be expected in your events going forward. Um, that's just what people have have, you know, I've gotten used to now and the convenience is really hard to beat. I think there's some upside there too, which, which we'll talk about, um, a little bit later in your data, Michael, the, does this include Asia data,

00:09:16 the meeting rooms, like, is that, so this is data from across the entire world right here. So if I have a meeting room space and I'm just reopening, I should expect there to be some gap of time before I see a big influx of, of meeting room requests. I do think this is another one of those things that I think has some upside,

00:09:35 but it's hard to predict when there's a lot of uncertainty about when that's going to kick in, you know, you and I were chatting about the GWA virtual conference from a couple of weeks ago. And you know, all the corporate folks were talking about like, look, we're going to need space for people to come together. And that, you know,

00:09:52 will be dispersed that won't necessarily be at the corporate office. And so I think that opportunity is there, but to your point, and we heard this from, from the folks on the conference, that was one of my big takeaways, was like, yeah, they're really nervous about the safety of third spaces. And I think they're really trying to figure out how do we vet,

00:10:14 how do we let our people that? And so that communication around your protocols and all the things you're doing will be pretty critical in terms of getting folks back in. I mean, we do see, and to your point about events in the community manager, Slack group today, somebody posted and said, we had a request, you know, for, for an event,

00:10:35 how do I think about, can they, can they be socially distant? I didn't, I didn't yet this just came up and they said their meeting room holds a hundred people. The request was for 50 it's seated. So I shouldn't have to do, you know, kind of a layout to, to figure out is it enough space and the things that I,

00:10:56 I didn't have time to respond to also, how will people enter? Can you keep people six feet apart when they're walking in the store, things that they need to worry about or think about and plan for? Um, yeah, absolutely. Um, but you know, I think what you said with a lot of the corporations in that third space, um,

00:11:15 more and more we're seeing these corporations, especially after COVID densify, um, they have these large corporate headquarters, um, that right now, and for the past two or three months, no one has been in or very few people have been in and it's their largest, you know, it's one of their largest costs that they have every single month. And so what we believe will happen is that they will shrink their corporate headquarters and move more to a hub and spoke model where you have a dedicated corporate headquarters and then spread out across the country or the world.

00:11:44 You have these smaller coworking offices that can be schooled up very quickly. Um, and we'll talk about this more in a little while, but that is going to only accelerate, you know, that's more Focused on private office, the meeting rooms, but, um, that is one of the big positives of this is just their reliance on coworking is going to continue to go up post COVID.

00:12:05 Um, all right, I'm going to jump on to the next slide. So I mentioned this earlier, but, uh, for our operators meeting rooms have been the second largest revenue stream, um, after, uh, just traditional memberships, whether it's a hot desk membership or a, uh, private office lease. One thing that, you know, we're,

00:12:25 we're also realizing is that even, you know, in a couple of months when the meeting space starts getting utilized again, the revenue per square foot is going to be effected. Um, a lot of places are putting capacity limitations in a meeting room space. So a meeting room that before could sit 12, you could only fit five in now that needs to be taken into effect.

00:12:43 Um, as well as a lot of coworking spaces are blocking off chunks of time before and after bookings to ensure that the room has been properly cleaned, that that wasn't something that you had to do with every booking before. Um, and because of that, that's going to shave some bookable time off your meeting rooms. Um, Michael quick question on that,

00:13:03 cause that came up in the Slack group today also does officer and D allow a way to manually do that on the backend to block off that cleaning time. Yeah. So we call it a buffer time and a lot of the coworking softwares do. Um, but yes, essentially, and I hope they do, you know, postcode it'll be even more important,

00:13:21 but yes, we let you set a buffer time. So if you want to say 30 minutes prior to every booking, there's a, you know, a blank spot that the customer is not charged for, but no one else can book during. Yeah, absolutely. We support that. Um, and yes, I mean that, those kinds of things are just going to make your customers feel more confident and trust you even more,

00:13:42 uh, which is really what this is about is reestablishing trust, um, space. No, I think that's right. We, we just booked an Airbnb and I don't know if it's a requirement, I'm guessing it's some sort of legal requirement. There's a 24 hour buffer on the front end and backend for the booking so that they can, you know,

00:14:00 do the full cleaning and let the surfaces, you know, be exposed window germs. Good right now. I mean, I'm glad, I'm glad that spaces are doing that. Um, you know, and, and, you know, speaking of cleaning, um, yeah, it's, it's just the ways that spaces can get out in front of this market.

00:14:17 This more, again, we'll talk about this in a minute, but it's just so important to establishing trust and getting customers back into your space. Um, Meeting room revenue, sounds like we need to plan that that's going to come back slowly and may take some time, any thoughts or insights from conversations you're having around, you know, what can we do to kind of rebuild that revenue you mentioned by the way,

00:14:42 a 20% overall sort of down for March, which is not terrible. You know, some folks have probably suffered more than others, so there's probably a range there. So we need to stay creative to stay, stay profitable and try to hang in there until that wave of demand comes. What are some of your thoughts on that? Yeah, I mean,

00:15:03 right now the most immediate thing we're seeing is operators turn their meeting rooms into private offices. And whether that's a, I've seen some people do bookable day offices, that's essentially, they kept their meeting room and just said he doesn't book bill hourly anymore. You just book it a day at a time. Um, that is one route I've seen people go and also just taking out the conference room table,

00:15:25 putting desks in there, because if you can get, you know, reliable one, $2,000 a month for that space, as opposed to two $50 meeting room bookings, um, obviously that's going to be, um, ideal and with the amount of meeting room bookings that it just dropped, there's going to be less of a demand in the coming months for those meeting rooms in the first place.

00:15:44 So, um, you know, I know it's not ideal. Some spaces are really focused on meeting rooms and have such incredible spaces. Um, so definitely don't get rid of all your meeting rooms or even most of them, but turning one or two or three of them into bookable by day or bookable by month entities really, you know, could help more in the immediate term alleviate some of those,

00:16:04 uh, revenue. Yep. And the, you know, the short term bookable lets you transition it back when you need to Excel gives you, gives you that flexibility when you're ready to do that. I suspect also, right, right. Totally. You can just flip it as long as you can figure out where to put your conference room table. Mine was attached to the wall,

00:16:23 so you have to get creative. But um, I think there will also be some appetite, you know, sometimes we don't offer those more flexible options because you know, we want the known revenue, but I think with, you know, all the parents at home and you know, people trying to figure out how to be productive and get a little time away from home the day office could start to see some more demand.

00:16:46 I know, just kind of, you know, qualitatively, I've heard a lot of folks say their tours are really returning on the private offices. And so, you know, that that's positive and certainly an indicator that there's demand for the private spaces, if not, you know, sort of shared meeting rooms and, and hot desks. And that's, that's what I'm hearing from a lot of operators that I'm talking to now,

00:17:06 um, is that, um, yeah, people feel, you know, people feel safe going into a private office that has their team in it or people that they know or they're closed off in that private office. They feel, they feel good about that. Um, it's just going into meeting rooms or in some cases, public open spaces with strangers they don't know is where the there's some fear and distrust.

00:17:27 So, uh, it's really, you know, uh, promoting private, clean private offices right now. We're really seeing a big trend for that, uh, in the industry. Um, even more so than before. And Jamie, you and I have talked about it before, but the micro offices, one person, small dedicated offices, like those are looking more like a perfect idea,

00:17:46 more and more now than ever before. Great. So, you know, with that, um, a lot of times people ask, you know, how are you seeing, um, people you just start charging for alternate revenue streams, what are some other revenue streams as a coworking owner that, that you can consider? Um, and I've started to see a lot of spaces start creating virtual memberships.

00:18:10 Um, now this virtual membership gives you kind of, I want to say limited physical access to the community. It might give you credit hours to the meeting rooms or mailboxes, but more importantly, their memberships that are designed to kind of keep the community connected to the space, um, and keep them supported. Um, even when they're not physically there,

00:18:29 they're also a way to generate revenue. Um, someone that has done an incredible job of this is common desk based out of Texas. They're an amazing brand. And they've created a really interesting work from home membership for their members. And what's very cool about it is it has a, you pay what you want model. Now I'm not suggesting everyone, you know,

00:18:48 add that model in, but it really shows how much they care about their community. And they're trying to obviously create revenue from this, but at the same time they understand what everyone's going through and it's super important that the community stays connected. So, um, I, you know, that's a standout way. I think people have been doing it, but I've seen virtual memberships more and more in the absence of the physical space.

00:19:10 I think it's a really interesting potential Mindset shift. I think a lot of operators have tried that like light membership, the 25 bucks a month get invited to events and some people gain some traction on that. And I think a lot of people don't because it's just not that meaningful. And I think this is really forced us to rethink. What does that look like?

00:19:33 What does that mean? Um, a couple of episodes ago, actually it's probably five or six episodes ago. Uh, Jessica Bommarito was on the podcast and Michael, I don't know if you heard that episode, but she and I have been working with a group of operators from us and France and the UK who are in that mindset of I'm going to make a meaningful virtual membership.

00:19:58 Like my community has been at home and my community has the mindset that it's not about space. It's about the things, you know, being on a journey together and the things, you know, we can help each other do better by being connected and, you know, just being really thoughtful about how to design that membership so that it's not just, you know,

00:20:18 a bunch of yoga sessions on zoom and happy hours and, you know, but some of the things you talk about here on the slides, which again, you can download, if you go to everything, coworking.com and look for episode one 55 training networking opportunities, and you can leverage your members who have expertise for some of these things as well. And I don't want to go on too long about this,

00:20:39 but I think we talked about it and Michael, it was probably late year time when this session came on. But, uh, Jonathan O'Byrne from, Oh gosh, collective works in Singapore, but he was dialing in from a hub Australia space, Eastern school it's super late, like yeah. Cause the DJ still up at that one, no. And the DJ with the done by then happy hour had,

00:21:07 had passed. So it was great to get the Australia contingency on live though. That was really fun because we don't often do things that time zones that are, you know, different for us, but he shared, you know, he really thinks that's going to be something that gets designed into the business model because it really can help, you know, um,

00:21:31 protect against, you know, unexpected times like this. And even just, you know, the typical sort of virtual office virtual mail component is something that even a lot of operators still don't leverage fully, but to kind of really even go a step further and add that second layer, which may not make sense for everyone. I think there are certain types of operators who really get into that.

00:21:53 Yeah. So, but I think it's exciting. It's sort of like a club membership in some ways, totally Virtual cloud and people are finding interesting ways to add value into this. And I think you'll continue to see more spaces, You know, I mean, imagine if you were a, you know, what I'm, I'm seeing more and more of these niche coworking spaces,

00:22:11 whether it's on therapy space. Imagine if it was a therapy space that offered like an hour of therapy a month with their virtual, right. Just an example. But yeah, this is going to be so important and it's going to tie in with the community and the technology of your space at all. So I love that because I think it has the potential to help the margin and help add opportunity on top of just the capacity of the physical space.

00:22:37 Um, so yeah, I mean, I I've repeated this multiple time, but it's just something I'll continue to say. I think that the coworking spaces and flex office in general, just because of the emphasis on the individual member, um, have such are just so much better equipped, I think to come back from this than traditional commercial office and commercial real estate,

00:22:57 um, between the trifecta of marketing technology and community, these things are going to help us Excel above some of the other, um, you know, uh, real estate operators to make people come to our spaces. And I really truly believe that, um, this is even going to accelerate, you know, um, Jamie, they always what's that JLL article that everyone talks about Totally the 30% by 2030,

00:23:20 yeah. 20, 30 Coworking and flex office will make up 30% of the total, you know, office market. This event, I think will only accelerate that will only more and more offices are going to start turning into flex offices and more and more people will just see demand for this, you know, a need for this working. So, um,

00:23:40 the next thing I want to talk about, um, you know, I mentioned earlier, but to get people feeling comfortable coming back to your conference rooms and having their trust, um, it really is going to require a mix of both high tech and low tech tools across your space. Um, and so I've seen a variety of these tools across the spaces that I I've talked to.

00:23:59 Um, and so I thought I'd kind of just run down the list of some of the things I'm seeing spaces use, um, that are helping, um, instill trust in their customers to come back. Um, so, um, yeah, and Jamie, I'll just go down the list and then if there's, you know, if you want to,

00:24:13 if there's one you want to dive into more, please, please stop me. Um, so first we're going to talk about, uh, high tech tools. These are tools that require some level of technology to set up. Um, the first one is going to be 24 seven controlled access to the space. Um, one thing I've seen after this pandemic is a lot of operators and spaces are currently,

00:24:35 uh, and maybe it's changing now, but over the past couple of weeks and months have not allowed public users into their space. Literally they, um, have some of them have even destocked their front desk and relied on, um, control access systems to manage access into the space. And when I say a controlled access system, I mean hooking up a system like some examples are Bravo Keasy Salto.

00:24:59 These are used by a lot of different people in the industry, but essentially they let you connect your door access to your coworking space technology. So as soon as someone becomes a member of your space, they get a key on their phone and they could then gain access to your space, um, automatically. And this extends the conference rooms, private offices of ride.

00:25:17 You have other resources, but in a time like this, where, you know, sanitation and space access is more important than ever these automated systems really make customers feel, Oh, everyone in here is a verified member. I trust this space. It's locked down. Yep. Even the conference room example, I used to be really in the camp of,

00:25:39 you probably don't need the digital door access on the conference room, unless you have a real use case for it. Like your conference rooms are, you know, down two hallways and three miles from the front desk. And, but this may be one of those times where it makes sense because to your point, you know, members know they're locked and they know there's the buffer zone.

00:26:00 And everybody feels comfortable about the process and people can't drop in and squat and, you know, staff doesn't know to clean. So it may make sense. And I think some of the pricing models are adjusting to support that. Cause it used to be just so cost prohibitive to put these, you know, on all the doors. Yeah. I completely agree.

00:26:20 I mean, even in the two or three years since I've installed them, I'm in my space. Yeah. The cost have come down and um, it's making more and more sense to install these on, uh, offices and meeting rooms. Um, but you don't need that as if you just have one at the front door that takes care of most of it.

00:26:37 And it will, you know, being able to tell your customers, Hey, you have access with your phone. Um, really is a cool selling and it just makes them feel safe and trust you even more. So, um, you know, regardless of if you have it for all your rooms or one or two, it just instills confidence in your customers.

00:26:52 Yeah. Um, so moving on from that more touchless, uh, or low touch devices, um, from hand sanitizers at your front desk that you can swipe your hand under two automated doors. Not, I'm not one that you use your phone to open, but you just, you know, wave your hand in front of, and they automatically open,

00:27:10 especially for bathroom doors. I think I was reading somewhere that like, again, I don't, I don't know the specifics of it, but there's just a lot of places where these doors can be retrofitted to kind of, um, also not only talking about doors, but talking about the kitchen, um, coffee, you know, think about how many people are touching your coffee machine.

00:27:29 You know, I don't want to think about it, not touch lie as coffee systems have been cost prohibitive. And so hope that after this pandemic, the, you know, prices will start to become more realistic. And because this is going to become the new normal people are going to want a food and beverage experience that is no one else is touching any of your staff and from,

00:27:49 you know, the very beginning of it to the end, uh, it needs to be thought out, um, digital signage, you know, definitely, uh, across your space, having ways to advertise all of these messages is super important. Um, and making sure that, you know, you're constantly putting out messages, talking about your cleanliness routine or sanitation.

00:28:10 Um, your members want to see that a need to see that, and it's gonna make them come back in, but digital signage, you know, sometimes people think it's not as important, but I'd argue now it's more important than ever because it's just a beacon of how clean you are if you do it. Right. Um, you know, um,

00:28:26 so I've always been a big digital signage advocate. Yeah. It's a time to over communicate for sure. And that, that can help. Yeah. You have to, um, you know, visitors sign and applications, you know, we were talking about some of those spaces that didn't have a community manager at the front desk during, you know, during the pandemic.

00:28:43 And so instead they relied on visitor check-in systems. Um, there's a variety of, uh, systems that do this, um, both third party, one and coworking softwares that have this built in directly. Um, next is booking systems, you know, any way that you can have people book rooms themselves without having to talk to your community manager in person,

00:29:03 um, is going to just reduce the risk of transmission of anything bad happening. So your members need to be able to book from their phones, from their computers very easily so that you don't have to get involved physically, um, until the cleaning aspect of it. Um, I'm, I'm seeing more people, uh, putting in, uh, HVAC systems are advertising their HVAC systems and putting in air purifiers or filters.

00:29:28 I mean, it's interesting, cause I've never imagined a coat, never seen a coworking space, advertise that before now, coming back from this, you're going to see that on the, you know, the one pager, you get a one pager when you go home and it says all of this, you know, safety and sanitary regulations on it. Yep.

00:29:46 Although I will say, you know, there's a lot of discussion about, you know, how to sort of fit this into the model. I mean, some of it replacing your HVAC system is not necessarily simple. And, uh, you know, Jerome, Chang I think was saying, you know, Mara has been issuing sort of the, the a plus,

00:30:04 you know, you get the, a plus grade first doing these things. And Jerome was like, I might be like a B plus, you know, I'm, I'm gonna do things that I can manage, but probably not replace the, the HVAC system unless your landlord is willing to do it with you. And I think over time, you know,

00:30:20 maybe we'll see more of that is that expectation becomes more common, but same thing with the automatic door openers, it's like, you know, if it's a common door, it's not going to make sense for you to pay for it, but maybe the landlord will do it. And that can, you know, bathroom on the common areas you can, Mara has shown like you can get,

00:30:41 Oh, you can get handles that go under the, under the door so that you can pull it open with your foot. So that could go on your, your low tech list. Yeah, no, I think that's a great idea and yeah, no, you're completely right by no means, am I advocating for every single one of these, this would be super expensive.

00:30:59 Yeah. These are just ideas I've pulled from the dozens and dozens of workspace I've been talking to that are all implementing the variations of the solution. So it definitely, you know, it's going to require a combination of these high tech, generally more expensive solutions and these low tech solutions, um, to really get the desired effect across to your, to your members.

00:31:17 It's just about over-communication. Um, and so now you're completely, right. It's just important that you have a couple of these are, or considering a couple of these, um, for your space. Um, I've heard some spaces talk about disinfected misting systems, um, which is very interesting. And also, um, I heard someone yesterday talking about how they wanted to create a voice activated conference room.

00:31:41 So literally a touchless conference room. So you walk in and say, you know, Alexa, turn on my, you know, whatnot internally. Well, we laugh at that now, but this pandemic is only going to accelerate. It's already accelerated video conferencing technology. You have to think about the other things that will be accelerated due to this. And yeah,

00:31:59 I mean, voice control in conference rooms sounds gimmicky now, but five to 10 years, I have to imagine that's where, where we're headed. Um, so those are some of the high tech tools I'm jumping down to more of the low tech tools, but just as equally as important, um, one providing slash requiring face mask. Now this is a debate,

00:32:20 you know, I know Jamie that is going on. I'm interested to hear your thoughts on this before I dive in. Oh boy. Yeah. I mean, I think that, yeah, I think that's important for this conversation. I mean, you know, Mike, you said a lot of these are sort of crowdsourced inputs on what operators are and not all of them are doing all of these things.

00:32:41 And I think there's just a tremendous variation around the world, um, in terms of what members expect and want. And I think, you know, part of the discussion is, you know, how do you sort of match, you know, how the owner wants to conduct business? And when that, when the members, you know, might not be on the same plane or you have members that,

00:33:05 you know, there's some variation, you know, it's, you know, some people think it's not helpful. I find it helpful to be in an area where the guidelines are just really clear, like someone else is telling us what to do again, for a political perspective that may not always be preferred, but I can say like, look, it's required.

00:33:24 You know? So it's easy. And in places where it's not required, that's a lot of the conversation, you know, for operators that I'm hearing, I'm sure you're hearing the same thing. It's like, well, what are the policies? How do you decide what the policies are? Where are the mass required, where they not required, it can come down to a really local individual decision.

00:33:42 And, you know, it's a challenging time to be in our role to have to kind of choose these, these guidelines. No, you're completely right. And it's going to vary based on where you are. Um, and I think the most important thing is having a rule that you decided on and, and having that, you know, that rule strict having that rule out in the open so everyone can see it and then policing it.

00:34:02 You know, you actually, if you implement that rule, you have to police it, which isn't always fun. But again, that's, what's going to build trust. I know I keep on saying trust, but if you have a rule that no, one's following who's to say people aren't following other rules within your space. And they're, you know,

00:34:16 so, um, I think some of the positive things, I, you know, I've heard a lot of operators say they've done extensive outreach to their members. And I think that's really helpful if you're in an area where it's unclear, what preferences are, you know, do your market research and talk to folks. And then that's also sending a signal that you care and that you're trying to do the best thing and keep them safe,

00:34:41 but also kind of respect, you know, some personal choice. So it's not easy, but I think making folks, you know, see that you're doing your best and you're trying to make a decision that works for most people. And I don't think it hurts to ha I know that they're not cheap, but I don't think it hurts to have some face mask on hand just in case there's scenarios where people don't have them or issues arrive,

00:35:04 you know, having a stock of 15 or 20 of those, I think for the next six months just is not depending on your space is not going to be bad idea. So, um, strict CIC rules for members and employees, this isn't something that's necessarily related to coworking. I think this is a cultural shift. I hopefully think we'll see across the U S and the world,

00:35:23 but, you know, I know in America, people are like, I'm sick, I'm going to work through it anyway, you know, you totally that have come into work and they're, they're sneezing. I like the martyr thing. It's like, I'm busy, I'm too much to do. My manager expects me to be in. Yeah, that's been me a million times.

00:35:39 I definitely understand. And respect circumstances where after you have to work and I'm not trying to downplay that, but I just know that, um, there's times when people come into work and they probably shut it. Um, and I think that after COVID, that's going to change. If you see anyone sneeze or cough in your office, the entire office is going to look at them.

00:35:56 Totally. Right. I will feel like it used to be, you had to be so sick that your manager would, there was no question. Yeah, exactly. There's no question. And now it'll be the opposite. Like you sneeze one time. You're only. Right. Right. So, um, you know, I say that with, uh,

00:36:18 it goes back to the, the, the rules and the, and the policing, you know, communicate to your members guys, if you are sick or you feel sick quarantine yourself for 14 days, um, you know, uh, same for your employees as well, they need to do the exact same thing. Um, and that's just what makes the most sense.

00:36:34 And you just gotta have those rules out there strict. So that's going to be an interesting culture change. We'll see, you know, in a year from now, if that's still sticking, but I kind of hope it does. Um, you know, w we'll see, um, in forcing conference room size limits, as people start getting back into conference rooms,

00:36:50 you're going to have to enforce, you know, limits on a 10 person room is now a four person room and stuff like that. Um, uh, that has to happen and you have to start socially distancing people more. Um, just so people feel safe and secure, um, hand sanitizer stations. Those are pretty self explanatory, um, stickers and direction of walking paths.

00:37:12 I'm actually seeing this more and more as a low tech solution. Um, you know, stairs might have arrows going up them in different rooms. Hopefully you're always going upstairs on the right side. But, um, um, you know, you're going to see these multi-directional arrows more often. You're I see them in most places, I go to the stick grocery store,

00:37:31 grocery store, so that those are not too expensive, but again, your customers see that and they say, Hey, this place is taking efforts. And, and they respect that. They care about that elevator capacity limits, something, some spaces are going to have to think hard about, and this is the whole building problem, not necessarily just a coworking space problem,

00:37:49 but, um, it's got to affect coworking spaces that aren't higher stories. That's just, you know, the, the fact of it, um, removing chairs and furniture, you know, in those open spaces, traditionally coworking spaces have crammed, a bunch of desks and cool furniture together. You need to think about, you know, self-contained units away from each other so that people can go to them and not get disturbed by other people.

00:38:13 Um, you don't have to throw away your furniture or buy new furniture. You just need to rearrange it so that people feel safe and comfortable with it. Put the tape. Some people don't have storage, put the tape on it, or the plant on it, or, you know, the reserve Good. It's like, it's not perfect, but look,

00:38:31 they're doing Exactly again, that those visual signals is, you know, a lot of what you're talking about so that people feel like, okay, this bright, this place is, um, is being intentional. Yup. Um, and then this last one, you know, this is somewhat controversial, but just be careful with your events, um, over the next quarter,

00:38:50 um, try if you have to have events, try to have virtual components so people can join in, but, um, just be cautious about having too many people in an enclosed area for obvious reasons. I think events, especially when there's a, when it's like a happy hour, a socially distance happy hour, that's has a downward spiral really quickly.

00:39:10 Yeah. Well, I can't drink without my mask on. And then you forget about the six feet and Yeah. Yeah. It's tough. Cause we love him. I mean, I was very disappointed to not, you know, uh, about the GWA this year, The eighties party, Like hugging people. Like I miss you, you miss seeing others.

00:39:33 And so, um, we're all looking forward to that, but just events in Q three is just something you should be cautious about. Um, I will say, um, and then, um, you know, to kind of kind of round that out, you know, people do not have to go back into a coworking space, the same way that someone has to go back into the corporate office.

00:39:52 Um, I was talking to my girlfriend, you know, just yesterday and she's like, man, in August, we're being forced, forced to go back to our own. Um, and again, that might change, but it's interesting because coworking spaces, no, one's forced to go into the motorway, right. It's a conscious decision that they make.

00:40:10 Um, and people will come back when the trust is established. Um, it's just, we have to work from the tour all the way to, you know, dating them for being a member in our space. We have to instill that trust in them and make sure that, you know, they feel more confident in us than ever before. Michael,

00:40:29 I'm wondering, I don't know if you're going to get to this or not, or if you've seen it, but we've had some conversations and in my groups about being a little more flexible than we have before, like it used to be, you know, no way are we letting people share a dedicated desk, like the whole childcare issue and you know,

00:40:49 part of the challenges like the pain point is often there, but parents are trying to figure out, well, how do I get out of the house when my kids here and there's no summer camp. And, um, have you seen, you know, folks, I can't, I don't know if you could tell on your system like new memberships that let people kind of share a desk,

00:41:05 but people, I suppose from the same family, if you want to manage the hygiene, but Yeah, unfortunately I don't have that specific data, but I definitely know people are now being more flexible ever than before in terms of, of those memberships. Um, and, uh, again, I mean, it's interesting, you know, we, we,

00:41:23 we joke about, you know, dogs barking in the background on calls, but that has become normal. And part of everyday life and people are having to make these concessions from the strict work we've known our whole lives until now this really this work w it's all, it's just a home balance. You know, it's a work life balance. It's just like a home,

00:41:42 you know, working. I feel like you work more when you work from home. I don't know what the worst. Yes. Um, and so people are making more concessions, you know, people's personal lives and verbally are coming more into the work world. And so coworking spaces are gonna have to be more cognizant of that. Um, and you know,

00:41:59 I think that's going to be somewhat permanent. Um, even as we go back to the office, more companies are just going to let people work from home. You know, it's like, uh, you know, Facebook is even saying, and a lot of tech companies are saying, Hey, if you want to work from home, you're allowed to going forward.

00:42:15 Obviously won't, you know, they'll have to readjust salaries based on where they live and stuff, but all those people are coworking. Um, candidates at home are gonna go find coworking spaces. So it's a win, win for our industry once we get over this initial shock. Yep, exactly. I think there's just a gap of all that settling out and then,

00:42:35 um, that'll come. Yup. Um, yeah, still, I mean, one of the last things that I briefly wanted to touch on, um, is one way that office R and D specifically kind of is addressing this. Um, and as I mentioned, there's a variety of coworking softwares that are all, hopefully making changes in response to COVID.

00:42:53 I know that we have been focused on this, but the way people interact with coworking spaces has fundamentally changed and people are now looking towards spaces that have the correct combination of technology, you know, sanitation to really feel confident in using them. Now, I'd say now more than ever, it's important that your space has some sort of mobile app so that someone could actually book a room from their phone without having to talk or interact with anybody else.

00:43:17 Um, so, you know, over the past couple months, uh, we've worked on a couple of key features, like push notifications to phones. So as an operator, you can very easily send a direct push notification, announcing new COVID regulations to everybody. And they're going to receive that, you know, on their phone as a message from your space.

00:43:37 That's something that we had a lot of requests for. We just implemented, um, to help supplement virtual services. We've, we've created something called video rooms. And essentially this is a way from within your members portal, you can actually hop on an impromptu video call. So if you want to have like a book club or a virtual meeting, Jamie,

00:43:55 have you seen this yet? No, I think it's brilliant. Yeah, but essentially, yeah, hop on to, instead of zoom hop onto a quick member portal call and it's just people, you know, they're part of that community, um, whether it's buying services from a digital shop, um, you know, and better access to billing details,

00:44:13 um, and messaging, um, we've really made an effort to try to create technology. That'll make people feel safe and coming back to the office. And, um, again, I think from us and for many other of the people, the partners in the prop tech space, a huge focus has, has shifted, you know, to communication and safety,

00:44:31 um, for your members. So they feel confident coming back. Um, I think one other aspect of the technology piece is, you know, again, eventually when this wave of folks that were, you know, in offices that didn't have a need for coworking spaces, but now do many of them will be used to technology like this? You know,

00:44:52 they've had access to super easy ways to, you know, book meeting rooms and the meeting rooms are nicely equipped with good technology. So I mean, some of them, you know, will come from small businesses that won't have all that stuff, but some of them will come from, you know, we'll have a bar. And so being ready with technology that kind of meets people,

00:45:12 you know, at the level that they've experienced, I think is also a good idea. It's interesting. You bring that up because over the past three months, we've actually been talking with a number of companies that are not traditional coworking companies that are other space companies that are looking to use our software to integrate their employees back into the workspace. But that makes sense,

00:45:33 booking hot desk, seeing availability of when offices are there. So they're not necessarily using the billing functions, just the space management, communication functions, people haven't traditionally had that in the workplace, but now for all workplaces, not just coworking that's, everyone's thinking about it. And so that's just going to be super important for all aspects of business. Uh,

00:45:54 over the next couple of years is tracking on, you know, keeping it safe. Um, and yeah, that, that was the, uh, the end of my slides. Um, but, uh, yeah, I mean, again, I know I've kept continuing to reiterate this, but, um, it's really just about instilling trust in your customers,

00:46:10 through your marketing, through your community and through the technology, your space, once that trust is instilled in your customers, they will return, um, your customers want to come to your coworking space. They just want to feel comfortable in their there, and they want to know that there'll be comfortable. And that's really what it's about is creating that comfort the variety of ways.

00:46:30 So they come back and forth. Yeah. And I also just think, you know, all these actions are things we can control. So, you know, I think my advice to people was like, get your marketing, your sales funnel, like firing on all cylinders, be ready for the demand, get all the things in place so that when that call comes in some of that we can't control.

00:46:51 We have to wait for people to put themselves into the funnel and, and be ready to come back, but we can be as prepared as possible to give them what they're looking for when they are ready to show up. For sure. Yeah. I mean, you have to imagine there is going to be so much pent up demand. People that have been working at home for the past,

00:47:09 uh, I've been working at home for the past four months. I'm starting to go a little crazy. And a lot of people across America are like that. And a lot of them are not going to return to their normal office in a normal way, you know? And so, yeah, I have to imagine that at some point, whether it's a little bit later,

00:47:23 a little bit later this year or early, there's just going to be a huge rush of new coworking Leads that might've never used a coworking space before. And he even crave that, that space. So I'm excited for that. I know I'm excited too. And I, and sometimes I feel bad saying I'm excited because I know there's a level of pain that everybody's experiencing right now and trying to manage through it.

00:47:46 So we do, we recognize that and Michael was an operator and I know I'm sure all, all the time you think, Oh my gosh, this is, you know, you, you empathize with how it would feel to be managing through this. So, but we're here to sort of help you look forward and think about what's next. And, and we both think,

00:48:04 you know, co coworking Koolaid, we think it's positive 3% by 2030. It's going to be exactly Michael, thank you for joining us today. And for anybody who kind of jumped in, in the middle, Michael walked through some slides, some good data and notes on it. Those you can download the video version with the slides, um, in our discussion,

00:48:26 uh, at everything coworking.com/episodes four slash one 55. Nice. Got it. Awesome. Thank you again, Michael and budget.

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