Today WorkBar took a noteworthy step in the broader world of coworking. We’ve joined hands with some other coworking spaces from around the country to form LEXC – the League of Extraordinary Coworking Spaces. It is a start to building a seamless network of unique coworking spaces. A network where our members combined have access to an extended set of league workspaces and communities. To be clear, this is only the start. As the coworking movement continues to thrive, undoubtedly the League will grow in concert.
Below are several reasons why WorkBar joined with other founding League members to create LEXC and why now is the time to do it!
1. Migratory Members.
To me, the basis of the coworking movement is that we no-longer have one ‘place of work’ but instead, ‘multiple centers of productivity’. This trend is driven by technology and the increasingly global nature of business. The result of this trend is a growing number of micro-coworking communities scattered around the world — WorkBar being one of them. However, many of our members don’t operate this way, they are rarely singularly-located and often travel to meet with team-members, associates, clients, investors and partners located across town, the country and the world.
Take for example, Traackr who has bi-coastal offices based at WorkBar in Boston and The Hub in San Francisco. A bi-coastal presence gives them easy access to multiple markets and a leg up on tech talent recruiting. Pretty good strategy for a start-up. An affiliation, such as LEXC, across these various coworking centers would aid these bi-coastal patterns. LEXC provides local coworking flare with an underlining base of familiarity. Take another example, SnapKnot, a member company with its base at WorkBar and a co-founder living in California. As Snapknot grows, a west coast base is inevitable and a search for a similar workplace and community will ensue. Again, LEXC – a starting point for SnapKnot to find a suitable west coast base and a natural way to grow their operations.
2. Strength in Numbers.
A core tenet of coworking at WorkBar is collaboration. We know that there are lots of places that people can go to find a desk and wifi, but few places where they can connect with like-minded people, hone their skills and share business opportunities. For me, LEXC is the start of an eat your own dog food approach to expanding the coworking movement.
Over the past couple of years, the founding members of LEXC got to know each other as friends, we shared experiences to hone our skills as coworking centers across the country and now LEXC will enable us to begin providing additional benefits to our communities as a whole. As this kernel of center collaboration gains ground, it will surely grow in the same fashion as our individual centers have grown.
3. Experimentation, iteration, feedback.
We built WorkBar on experimentation, iteration and feedback. We experimented with space setup, we iterated with membership types, and have continually gotten feedback on events to host. LEXC has the same core. It is starting out with a manageable group of founding members committed to seeing what works, and what doesn’t. We’ll experiment with ways to ensure seamless integration for both members and workplaces, iterate on elements of the LEXC pass and continually collect feedback. This will all play a part in growing LEXC to a more encompassing network of connected coworking spaces and be an exciting new chapter for WorkBar and its members.
