The Spirit of Freedom comes to Coworkings

Spaces for collaboration: from origins to current state

How it all started

In the era of the 90s, when the whole world was changing every second, and economic relations were taking on a new form, workspaces for unusual workforce started to appear in Europe.These were entrepreneurs who could not afford expensive office spaces, as well as freelancers who comfortable working outside their home. Such spaces were called “coworking”, which fully matched their nature. They tuned people to work: one could make new acquaintances or just create and plunge into a comfortable atmosphere around. Coworking spaces became havens from which individual entrepreneurs and startups came out. The demand was increasing, since more and more people were inspired to work in a comfortable environment.

The evolution of coworking

Coworking spaces were gaining popularity. To maintain the level of competitiveness, coworking have begun to diversify. Some of them started to focus on developers, providing them with specific working conditions, while others tried to please everyone.
Currently, all coworking spaces are divided into three large groups. The first group includes spaces where workplaces are rented out, you can purchase a subscription or pay by the hour. The second group includes coworking spaces which have been transformed into creative workshops, where master classes are held and handmade products are sold. The third, the so-called “chill” group, relates to “anti-cafe”, where people can just relax or hold talks in informal environment.

What is coworking today?

Good coworking is primarily an activity point. Each successful coworking has earned its fame not only with delicious coffee, but also with educational projects and exciting events. A coworking space is basically a modern office like the one of Google or Microsoft, to where anyone can get access.
Bean bag chairs, tables for playing table football and game consoles help to achieve the goal of creating an informal environment, which drives work and make it more effective.

For startups, they even can register the legal entity in a coworking location.

Why do people go there?

Most people come to coworking for getting a working space and an environment. Visiting a coworking space sets up a working mood. You no longer want to watch your favorite TV series and shows, and it seems people around are all busy with running their own business.

Additionally, you can make new business contacts there. It might happen that your future startup co-founder is standing at the coffee machine.

Coworking is becoming a boiling point where people voluntarily work and, most importantly, they want to do it. They can cooperate, create new wonderful projects, or can build their own case as independent specialists. One thing is important — they all prefer the spirit that prevails in coworking, the spirit of freedom and innovation.

COVID-19 and its consequences

Both coworking spaces and offices were challenged when the global pandemic began. Companies began to send employees to a distant work format, which could contribute to the growth in popularity of coworking spaces, but they, too, were not immune from the pandemic.

At present, every place where a lot of people gather becomes dangerous. Thus, the co-working network WeWork, so popular in the US, was on the verge of bankruptcy in the midst of chaos, when each client became potentially dangerous for another visitor.

However, in the meantime, most of the people sent to home office were inspired by the idea of “remote work”, but many of them still do not like working from home, because there are so many distractions, and not everyone can create a suitable atmosphere for work.

About the future

When the world “recovers” from the pandemic, the coworking environment will undoubtedly grow rapidly, and the popularity of the boxes of business centers will decline drastically. The ability to work in a flexible format is better suited to the format of gig economy, which connects people via chains of transactions, but does not bind them to a specific location.

Now there are a large number of people who do not stand still, but persistently move into the future, and their number is constantly increasing. Due to the growing community of proactive people, point-based and network coworking spaces are getting a wider scope for creativity and implementation of functionality.

Coworking spaces can also start collaborating with freelance platforms. They can provide users of digital conference rooms with real spaces, comfortable furniture and delicious coffee. By setting up a meeting in a task tracker, freelancers and their clients can agree to hold the meeting in a live face-to-face format in a coworking space.

The TPT team believes that the futures of coworking and freelance platforms are tightly interlinked in the world of companies without offices and offices without companies.