Coworking London Conference 2018: Looking Back at Last’s Year’s Conference.

The Coworking London Conference 2018 is a couple of days away and we thought to share our review of the last edition of our conference.
 

 
eOffice and Coworking London were delighted to host its fourth consecutive Coworking Conference in London 2017.  The 2-day interactive event was organised across 8 of London’s most inspiring coworking spaces including FORA, Be Offices, US&Co, Eight Members Club, The Clubhouse, eOffice, The Collective, Work.Life and Interchange. Attendees and speakers from 20 different countries including South Africa, Sweden, Belgium, Germany, Bulgaria, Spain, Portugal, Italy, UAE, India, USA, Nigeria, Iran, Russia and Costa Rica shared inspiring insights into the future of work, new trends in workplace technology, design, and proptech.
The event was split into five sessions and eight workplace tours over two days. Day 1 started at FORA, a recently launched flexible workspace in Clerkenwell, where we welcomed our attendees with a networking lunch followed by a tour and presentations from workplace and tech specialists including key figures from CBRE, Coworker, The Instant Group, VEGA Europe and Oktra.
 

The programme carried on with workplace visits, a startup pitch and networking sessions. Our next stop was the heart of the City, where we visited BE Offices, a business centre set in a former bank that still preserves the original vault from the late 1880s. The building has been completely refurbished creating a contemporary and fresh office environment. We were welcomed in with delicious canapés, drinks and pastries offered by the BE Offices team and their delightful Marketing Director, Andrew Issot. Our last workplace visit and session of the day was hosted at US&Co, a new coworking space in the City occupying the entire building with stunning views of London and the Thames River. The atmosphere was relaxed and joyful while we introduced five amazing new talents from the PropTech industry: Bold Tech Ventures, Wizme, Share Dining, Spacehaven and Yndica who pitched their innovative ideas showing us how the flexible workplace is creatively expanding into different sectors and the impact of technology on our working habits. The session ended with drinks and nibbles providing further opportunities to network. We wrapped up the day with a private event at Eight Member’s Club, where attendees had the chance to relax, network some more, enjoy a delicious dinner, and exchange ideas and impressions of the topics covered and the spaces visited throughout the day.
 
Day 2 of our dynamic conference began at The Clubhouse Mayfair in Saint James’s Square. We were thrilled to witness a unique moment in Coworking history as CEOs and Founders of some of London’s and Europe’s top independent coworking spaces got together in the spirit of collaboration to exchange their views on today’s flexible workplace industry. The programme started with a social networking breakfast, followed by vibrant presentations on The Emergence of New Brands, Concepts and Operators in the Coworking Sector, a tour of the inspiring workspace, and a session on Coworking and The New Age of Property Companies Offering Flexibility to Occupiers. Each session was followed by a lively panel discussion moderated by eOffice Founder, Pier Paolo Mucelli. Speakers included The Clubhouse Co-Founder and CEO, Adam Blaskey; Work.Life’s Co-Founder David Kosky, Huckletree’s Founder and CEO, Gabriela Hersham; Headspace Group’s Managing Director, Jonny Rosenblatt; The Office Group’s Senior Community Manager, Alessa McNally; Avila Spaces’ CEO and eOffice Portuguese Ambassador, Carlos Gonçalves; FORA’s Co-Founder and Head of Experience, Katrina Larkin; United Spaces’ CEO and eOffice Swedish Ambassador, Göran Garberg; Interchange’s Operations Manager, Jack Martin and Mark Breen, Artesian Property Partnership’s Chairman and Us&Co’s Founder.
 

After the morning sessions at The Clubhouse, we visited our eOffice headquarters in Soho where we enjoyed a delicious healthy lunch, nutritionally designed to make our attendees feel energised, engaged and prepared for the following workplace visits. The afternoon continued with three stimulating tours starting a few blocks down our headquarters in Fitzrovia, where we snuck in for a tour at The Collective, a beautiful refurbished Georgian townhouse converted into an innovative coworking space for the creative and ambitious. Our two final workplace visits took place in London’s hip and iconic neighbourhood Camden, where we visited Work.Life,  a cosy coworking space with a welcoming and tight-knit community of freelancers, startups, and innovative businesses. Our final destination was Interchange, a beautiful workspace spread over three fabulous buildings and 84,000 sqft. in the heart of Camden Market designed for creative entrepreneurs, start-ups and scale-ups. Following this inspirational workplace tour, we enjoyed a presentation on workplace well-being and Biophilic Design by Meristem Design’s Director, Habib Khan.
 
We are excited for the upcoming Coworking London Conference 2018 and we look forward to welcoming all our guest. Follow the conference on eOffice’s Instagram and Twitter profiles.
 

Photo credits: eOffice