Thanks for the post and the link to my survey - where clearly I was as troubled as you were/are, by the assumptive rhetoric on dispersed/centralised and that we wanted to find out more about people's preferences and options.
So like you, I have also been saying for some time, that the rescue of the high street, and community buildings and other locations can come in the shape of the 'third space' co-working hubs, offices, meetings space and workshops. Or as you call it the 'hotelification of workspaces'.
I live near to an Ibis Hotel that has no doubt been battered by fewer rooms being booked by travelling workers. It's certainly not a vacation spot. So why not rent out some of their space to people like me: Who need to escape the house for a bit and have a room for a day where I have total silence for delivering webinars and immersive learning labs? I'd buy their coffee, lunch, pay for premium wifi, and get out of my own converted 3rd bedroom for a change of scenery. And I'd get a 10-minute walk there and back with some home/work separation if I needed it.
Or, someone who has to drop the kids off at a day-care centre but RIGHT next door is an old retail unit that is now office space. You can even meet your kids over the lunch break and then collect them at the end of their day and head home together.
Or you support and use a local coffee house which has turned its top floor into workstation space with a shower, and it's a 20 minute run from your house.
Or if you work for a large insurer, you and some banking staff co-locate in a disused branch which is now a co-working office for other financial industry staff that is a 10-minute drive or 30-minute cycle from your house.
Train stations, realising there are 60% fewer commuters, create space in their adjacent buildings and have converted some of the disused car parks, for people to come and work who MIGHT need to hop on a train to get from their tiny station to a larger town or city one and work and meet colleagues who live in that larger town.
What appears to be evident in the current situation, is many people were in 'over commuting' mode to city-based offices and hubs; and now we want the choice to curtail that and even avoid it completely.
Let's see if the WeWorks and Regus's of this world are matched with other smart entrepreneurial thinking in the space area to cater and create more localisation and hotelification of knowledge work.
Great term and yep.. Totally with you
Thanks for the post and the link to my survey - where clearly I was as troubled as you were/are, by the assumptive rhetoric on dispersed/centralised and that we wanted to find out more about people's preferences and options.
So like you, I have also been saying for some time, that the rescue of the high street, and community buildings and other locations can come in the shape of the 'third space' co-working hubs, offices, meetings space and workshops. Or as you call it the 'hotelification of workspaces'.
I live near to an Ibis Hotel that has no doubt been battered by fewer rooms being booked by travelling workers. It's certainly not a vacation spot. So why not rent out some of their space to people like me: Who need to escape the house for a bit and have a room for a day where I have total silence for delivering webinars and immersive learning labs? I'd buy their coffee, lunch, pay for premium wifi, and get out of my own converted 3rd bedroom for a change of scenery. And I'd get a 10-minute walk there and back with some home/work separation if I needed it.
Or, someone who has to drop the kids off at a day-care centre but RIGHT next door is an old retail unit that is now office space. You can even meet your kids over the lunch break and then collect them at the end of their day and head home together.
Or you support and use a local coffee house which has turned its top floor into workstation space with a shower, and it's a 20 minute run from your house.
Or if you work for a large insurer, you and some banking staff co-locate in a disused branch which is now a co-working office for other financial industry staff that is a 10-minute drive or 30-minute cycle from your house.
Train stations, realising there are 60% fewer commuters, create space in their adjacent buildings and have converted some of the disused car parks, for people to come and work who MIGHT need to hop on a train to get from their tiny station to a larger town or city one and work and meet colleagues who live in that larger town.
What appears to be evident in the current situation, is many people were in 'over commuting' mode to city-based offices and hubs; and now we want the choice to curtail that and even avoid it completely.
Let's see if the WeWorks and Regus's of this world are matched with other smart entrepreneurial thinking in the space area to cater and create more localisation and hotelification of knowledge work.