Tagged as: .
There is an emerging trend of ‘free coworking’ spots for freelancers, entrepreneurs, consultants and others who find themselves part of the remote workforce. As workers move around - jaunting from one meeting to the next - finding a suitable, inspiring place to work can be a challenge. DesksNear.Me was created just for this purpose - to make finding and booking creative workspaces straightforward and easy.While traditional coworking spaces have increased in numbers by 83% in the last year alone according to Inc. Magazine, new forms of coworking have started cropping up all over the place. And one type that’s seen a recent spike in media and momentum is **free coworking**.
Free coworking is fantastic for those who want to get their feet wet to see what all of the hype about collaborative workspaces is about.
Someone pays for the free lunch (ahem, coworking)
Since all work space costs money, someone (or many someone’s) foot the bill, and these free coworking spaces offer up a different type of value exchange.
There seem to be four distinct reasons free coworking works, including spaces setup to promote: branding, community building, a skills exchange, and/or networking.
Free coworking for branding
Some free coworking spaces are built and offered to promote build a brand and to generate community around a product like Wix SF and Wix NYC or Google Campus (while it lasted) in London. These spaces are offered freely to the public, but have a clear purpose to the promote brand - Google wants to mindshare, while Wix is looking to get people using their platform for building websites.
Free coworking for community
Other venues are multi-purpose hacker spaces created and supported by their members such as Noisebridge in San Francisco and Sudo Room in Oakland - these spaces are paid for by member donations, but are generally free for people to drop in at. The Happiness Institute in San Francisco is another example, though, they are supported by a foundation and only open on certain days of the week for coworking.
Free coworking for skills exchange
There is also free coworking that involves a time and skills exchange with other coworkers; the footprint of Seats to Meet, for example, is paid for by the long-term anchor tenants. Seats to Meet, primarily located in the Netherlands, has had 15,000 bookings in the last year in over 61 locations (not bad!).
Free coworking for networking
And finally, there are free coworking spaces that are offered for the sake of networking. Sometimes, startups have extra space and would love to have a specific type of person (designer, developer, writer, marketer, lawyer) work out of their space. They often do this to help stimulate the team and to source new talent. Startups love seeing how a potential contractor or employee fits in with their team.
List your startup on Desks Near Me
A less common type of networking driven space is the home office. Just like Airbnb utilizes bedrooms, couches and backyards for accommodation, entrepreneurs can rent out their empty space to people that might want to meet or collaborate with. And if they want, they can list their space for $0, encouraging the types of people they want to meet to work out of their office.
List your home office on Desks Near Me
For those who work from home, there is also the option of renting out extra desk space by the day, week or month - even if that space is in your house! Depending on what you’re looking for, you can choose to list the space at any dollar amount you choose, including free of charge. And you always get the opportunity to decline a booking - you choose who you work next to.
As you can see, there are a many ways that free coworking space works. While there is no such thing as free lunch, there is a burgeoning mix of free coworking spaces to choose from as well as ways meet and collaborate with other remote workers by offering up your space.
Have you used free coworking? If so, did you have a productive work day? What did you get out of the experience?
----
If you’re an entrepreneur and like to cowork - chances are, you might be interested in our newest offering, Near Me, which is a white label solution allowing anyone to build their own sharing platform.