Shaping the Future of Work
Once in a while you just gotta get out and conference. It’s easy to avoid learning new skills or soaking in fresh insights when you’re busy in the daily running of a flexible workspace. And like any deep work, you need to take yourself off site and take a minute to refocus on learning. That’s why Yule and I were so pleased to attend the recent Flexible Workspaces Australia Conference, looking to connect with smaller workspace owners and hoping to understand how our burgeoning category of flexible commercial spaces were developing locally and internationally. We were not disappointed, and came away glad for the experience and sensing that Good Axe was on the right track to continue serving our community and growing into new postcodes.
The first panel of the day was a banger, and I was pleased to fangirl over flexible workspace wunderkind Cat Johnson. She’s our kinda philosopher of coworking, with a community-first approach and a deep love for the microspace genre we look to grow further in. We were particularly intrigued by the discussions surrounding Australia's leading role in coworking development, especially in non-CBD areas.
If we took anything away from the conference, it was a quiet confidence in the ability for micro-spaces to a) make a big difference to businesses in their own communities and b) provide a level of personal care and on-the-ground knowledge that our bigger commercial peers are unable to.
Flexible workspaces are very much a two-speed economy, with a big ol’ gap in the middle. On one hand, you’ve got the big-brand coworking environments that are plushy-lux with opulent hospitality offerings and everything that opens and shuts. Those places are fabulous; we’ve worked in them and loved them for all they offer. There are few brands in this space because they are simply so costly to create and maintain, and necessarily are loss-leading businesses that are mostly privately funded. It’s a game that not many can play.
On the other hand, there are artist and creative spaces, or odd desks here and there in other people’s offices. They’re often suburban, but not always. These spaces are ideal for solo practitioners, and they can be a lot of rough-and-ready fun. They often have a vibrant community attached to them and they’re real hubs of connection. I grew my business, Ruby Assembly, in such spaces for most of my career. The drawback is that these are not often spaces you can invite a corporate client to, either feeling too ‘arts and crafts-y’ or not polished enough.
We created Good Axe as an in-between flexible workspace, which has the required elegance and polish of a more corporate space mixed with the heart and community of a micro space that’s outside of the CBD. Attending the FWA Conference ’24 really drove home for us that this is the zone where growth is possible and demand exists.
Something of interest was the shift towards more diverse lease structures, including percentage rent agreements and hybrid models. This flexibility is crucial as fitout costs rise and impact lease structures. Finding the right space to grow a flexible workspace is as much about the ‘deal’ you can strike with a landlord as it is about the location itself. If the fitout cost is too high and can’t be shared, nothing can happen. There’s an empty commercial space, and a community and economy who are the poorer for it. There is a significant gap in the understanding of commercial landlords, who may think collaboration means at most a rent-free period of a month or two. I feel the reason we see so many vacant commercial spaces is because landlords won’t invest in upgrading their old assets, or in helping to fit out their empty shells. Perhaps writing off the losses of an empty commercial shell is more appealing than attempting a business model they don’t understand, or don’t care to. That said, it is heartening to see a new professionalism of brokers specialising in bringing deals together between like-minded landlords and flexible workspace owners.
A significant trend emerging post-pandemic are on-demand tenant services. Members of coworking spaces are increasingly seeking flexibility in their commitments, which aligns with our approach at Good Axe in Preston. I was happy to learn that there’s a rise in demand for localised professional workspaces in community, catering to both specific professional niches and postcodes. One exciting concept discussed by the first panel of the day at FWA Conference ’24 were "fractional offices" - shared spaces leased between multiple businesses. This model offers a creative solution for businesses seeking flexibility without long-term commitments, and it could be a win for cashflow in the shared workspace environment. At Good Axe, we're exploring how to implement this concept to provide more value and opportunity to our tenants.
The conference also touched on the challenge faced by providers in better communicating their offering to prospective tenants. Rather than using images of vacant spaces to illustrate their service, flexible workspaces are better served with footage of tenants enjoying their assets. One of the challenges of coworking spaces is communicating how they work to an unfamiliar community who may be unsure how they’ll benefit from a shared working environment. Yule and I are both focused on the power of community activations in our micro-spaces, and seek to demonstrate the vibrant atmosphere at Good Axe across social platforms, in stakeholder collaborations, by eventing and with physical marketing.
The role of AI in coworking was another hot topic. Rather than replacing community managers, AI is best viewed as a tool to enhance their role, making their reach wider, and more engaging. This aligns with our vision of using technology to support, not supplant, the human touch that makes Good Axe special.
The Flexible Workspaces Australia Conference '24 reinforced our belief in the power of community-driven workspaces, as we continue to look for the right site in Melbourne’s north for a second Good Axe workspace. We’re proud of what we have achieved, and we’re excited to create spaces that not only meet the changing needs of our members but also foster a strong, supportive community. The future of work is flexible, and we're thrilled to be at the forefront of the microspace revolution.
