The Flexible Space Association ‘on Tour’

Last year the pandemic forced us to re-think how we hold our Roundtable Meetings, which bring together our members to share how things are going, ask for views or ideas on everything from dogs in offices to marketing channels, and hear what the Flexible Space Association is doing.

We used to hold the meetings in cities around the UK, aiming for 6 or 7 a year, and whilst it was great to meet face-to-face and visit flexible workspaces, holding the meetings online has meant that they can take place more frequently and involve people who wouldn’t be able to attend if it meant taking several hours away from their offices.  There have been a total of 37 virtual roundtables since summer 2020.

We’ve taken the approach of splitting the UK up into areas, and inviting people to attend the meeting covering their location.  This means that there are often common issues to discuss (particularly relevant when different parts of the UK experienced different Covid-rules imposed by different levels of government), and make connections with people that they’ll hopefully get to meet in person in the future.

This week we began our third ‘tour of the UK’ of 2021, and so far we’ve brought together people working at our member companies in Scotland, South West England, Northern Ireland and London.

Whilst it remains a mixed picture to some extent, overall the news being shared by flexible workspace operators painted a more positive picture than earlier in the year.  They are welcoming new customers (it was particularly good to hear in our Scotland Roundtable Meeting of a new client confirmation coming in during the meeting!), and meeting room bookings were reported to be on the up.  We’ve also discussed the importance of ‘know your customer’ procedures, emerging tech to measure CO2 in workspaces, and setting up meeting rooms for hybrid meetings

Next week we’re ‘in’ the Midlands, the North and South of England, and make a second ‘trip’ to London.  If you work for a flexible workspace operator which is a member of the Flexible Space Association, do join us!