In the co-working world, August 9th marks a special day – it’s International Co-working Day. This day allows us an opportunity to reflect on the importance of co-working and flexible workspaces, and it was initially started to help raise awareness of co-working, back when the concept wasn’t so widely understood.
At Avenue HQ, we didn’t want to just tell you ourselves why we love co-working so much; we could talk for hours. Instead, we chatted to some of the businesses in our space, who made the leap from traditional workspaces into co-working – and asked them how they’ve embraced the culture of co-working, and opened themselves up to collaboration.
Awareness about and perceptions of co-working as a concept have improved over the last number of years; businesses are realising that co-working spaces are not just for ‘uber-creative startups’, or a place where no work gets done – they are serious opportunities for businesses of all kinds to work more flexibly and innovatively.
Within our Liverpool space, a majority of businesses had not worked in a flexible workspace before – so their move to Avenue HQ was their first taste of a co-working life. Our Liverpool Community Manager, Abigail Inglis, emphasises that it ‘can take bravery for someone to step away from a traditional workspace into somewhere more flexible – but that businesses in our space have not regretted it one bit. All of our members talk so highly about our great community, and how happy they are to be a part of it.’
The community aspect of co-working cannot be overstated – it is a vital component which can turn a good co-working space into a brilliant one. Members want to feel welcomed and know that they are surrounded by like-minded individuals. In a recent survey to our members, 80% stated that they joined us because of our ‘working culture and environment’ – showing how vital this is for businesses thinking of making the transition.
Ben Garner from Kode, a web design and development agency working in AHQ Liverpool, says that ‘the days of 9-5 workplaces are over; co-working is the future. Everyone gets on at Avenue HQ – it’s like no other place in Liverpool, and we’re really happy to work here.’
International Co-working Day allows us to celebrate the community which makes our space so unique – every business, member and more that shapes the environment we work in every day.
Within our unique community, we find collaboration taking place naturally between members. All co-working spaces host networking, social and business events with the aim of enabling collaboration – but collaboration happens every day, when members get to know each other, chat about ideas, and as often happens within Avenue HQ, use other members’ services.
John Gibbons, from The Anfield Wrap, talks about ‘the inspiration of everyone you meet’, saying that joining ‘has been really good, helping us to meet other businesses that we now work with’. Joe Campbell, of Culture City, similarly describes how ‘co-working has introduced us to some brilliant people that we wouldn’t have met otherwise’.
The Anfield Wrap use our members Culture City for ‘videography for when we need to out-source other projects that are bigger than we can deal with’, as well as Velstar, ‘who we’ve now out-sourced the merchandise side of our business completely to them, and we would never have met them really. And just knowing their expertise and what they are able to do and offer us is fantastic. Having them just next door as almost part of our company, we are able to build that relationship and have them as friends as well as co-workers.’ Compared to traditional workspaces, where businesses won’t work in a community with other businesses, co-working enables rich and fruitful business and personal relationships to grow.
International Co-working Day is a chance to acknowledge and celebrate the collaboration and friendship of our community – a collaboration which happens every day, all year round.
We hope you can see exactly why International Co-working Day means a lot to us – and why we intend to celebrate! Our members have embraced a new way of working – a work-life where they instantly join a dynamic community of businesses and members, a hub for social and business events, and a chance to collaborate with many exciting, growing businesses and brilliant people. Today we say cheers to the members who make our spaces so great, all year round! If you wanted to see our space for yourself, just get in touch or book a tour here.