The Spaces That Shape Us
Join us as we explore the profound impact of physical spaces on individuals' lives. Through interviews and expert panels, we unveil the secrets of designing spaces that shape emotions, boost productivity, and enhance overall well-being. Discover the latest trends, innovative designs, and strategies for creating inspiring work environments that foster collaboration, engagement, and work-life balance.
The Spaces That Shape Us
Cultivating Community: The Growing Impact of Community-Centric Culture
Are you ready to unlock the potential of community spaces with us? Joining our host today are community experts Emilie Lashmar and Jessica Samson along with our Head of Design, Lisa McLeod. Emilie, Producer of GCUC 2023 and Jess, General Manager of PLATF9RM lend their voices to the evolving scene of community spaces, emphasizing the significance of connectivity in an increasingly solitary world. We explore how well-designed workspaces can usher in greater productivity while fostering a sense of belonging.
Ever wondered how to spot the right community for you? We take you on a journey through the process of identifying the ideal community, maximizing your experience—be it digital or physical—and joining the community. And that's not all! We also delve into the power of co-working communities in nurturing connections and triggering growth.
What does the future hold for community spaces? We consider the potential of these spaces, the need for flexibility, and the shift in power dynamics due to COVID, which has raised the likelihood of offices morphing into connection points rather than mere workplaces. Together, we reflect on the authenticity these spaces require and the sustainability aspect of co-living. So, strap in and join us on this enlightening journey to fully grasp the evolving dynamics of community-focused spaces.
Emilie would like to offer our speakers a 10% off code for GCUC 2023, use code "AW10".
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If you're pondering how to optimize your team's performance and workspace, reach out to one of our workplace strategists at AW Spaces.
This episode is brought to you by Projects, your home for better business. Nestled in the heart of Brighton, with locations in the Lanes and just moments from the Beach, Projects is more than just a space – it's a community. They offer a blend of coworking spaces, dedicated desks, fully serviced offices, meeting areas, event spaces, cafes, bars, and even a gym. And yes, this includes our podcast suite! To experience this unique workspace blend, book a tour or arrange a free trial day via their website. Special Offer: Mention "The Spaces That Shape Us" during booking to avail 25% off on your first podcast suite booking!
Welcome back to the Spaces that Shape us. In our previous episode, we discussed all same space. We talked about why we're talking about this, why we're so interested in space. We looked at work spaces, educational spaces, what we do to design wonderful spaces for our clients. So today we're going to be talking all about community. We're going to be talking about how we design community, how we create it and how we experience it.
Speaker 1:So I'm very, very excited to introduce you to my guest for today. So we have Emily Lashman. She is a community expert and the producer of UC 2023. She's also a dear friend of mine, so I'm very excited to have you here. We have Lisa McLeod, our head of design at AW Spaces. We met her in our previous episode, so if you haven't listened to that one, go back and have a listen and you'll hear all about Lisa. And we also have Jessica Sampson, who's another dear friend of mine, another community expert, and also the general manager of Platform 9 in Brighton. Over to you, emily, it'd be great to hear a bit more about yourself, your role, your journey up until now.
Speaker 2:It's a big question, but firstly, thank you, holly, for having me here today.
Speaker 2:It's a pleasure.
Speaker 2:I think I was thinking about this when you previously sent over some questions around how I got into community and I really do think that it starts from much younger, when I was sort of a teenager and would put on gigs for local communities and bring people together and taking photos and kind of creating these memories with bigger groups of people.
Speaker 2:I think community is extremely important and so when the opportunity to work at Platform 9, which was one of the first co-working spaces or kind of co-working 2.0 to open in Brighton, I kind of jumped at the chance. I was there for six and a half years and was part of the opening team, so really kind of embedded in the culture and the community and worked with everybody that was there to kind of make it what it is today and really proud and absolutely loved doing that. After having my child, I then really wanted to stay into co-working and that kind of community that didn't necessarily want to work for another operator. And this opportunity to work at GCE, which stands for the Global Co-Working on Conference, came up and that is a conference with the entire co-working and flex industry and yeah, I'm really enjoying it so far and it's happening in very good number.
Speaker 1:So, in terms of your career so far, can you this might be a big question so you don't have to answer it but can you explain a lot of peak and a pit times that you felt so fulfilled and times when you found things a bit more founding?
Speaker 2:I think the peak it's probably similar for me and you, I think was at Platform 9, we had the opportunity to put on a big day conference called Kick-Ass Women. I think something like that is so incredibly empowering and wonderful to be a part of, because it's, you know, talking about so many different topics of what it means to be a woman or identifying as a woman, bringing everybody together and the kind of energy that you get on the day with something like that, getting to bring in incredible speakers and performers and just women doing incredible things. And that was definitely kind of a highlight of my career so far. I think that's probably where I got the conference buzz from and the kind of the stress that goes into the kind of planning of it. But then the excitement and the kind of feeling you get on the day and afterwards you just kind of want to rise that high and you want to do it again and again and again.
Speaker 2:What's the pit? Maybe it's not necessarily one moment in time. I think that when you really really love what you do and you really love community and it's so people focused, which is incredible, but I think I don't know it can become a little bit all consuming when you love what you do. So I think kind of a pit for me or a learning for me is to try and get some separation. But I also feel really fortunate that I love doing what I do and I am excited to get up and go to work because I think that's quite special, for sure, for sure.
Speaker 1:How would you define community? I?
Speaker 2:think a definition is. I think a definition of a community is being not thrown around, but it is definitely being used more and more.
Speaker 2:I think community for me, if I really think back, what it means is a gathering of people that rely on each other, that provide support, is it experience different things together and that goes way back to when we would all live in much closer quarters and down to churches or community spaces where you would celebrate together, you'd commiserate together, but it's all to do with people and it's the network and the connections between it. I think now, fast-forwarding to 2023, when we don't necessarily have instant communities to go to, people are kind of it's just evolved, hasn't it? And people kind of live in their own flats or houses and it's quite a solitude. So something like co-working, for example, is a really great way of feeling that community and feeling connected to your kind of world around you.
Speaker 2:I think community. You can have different types of communities and be part of different communities, which is all really helpful depending on what you're doing or what's important to you. I feel community in my local neighbourhood. You know, you walk down the street. You see the same people, the same dogs. You walk into the same shops. They're happy to see you. You kind of ask them what's going on in their life and it makes you feel part of something and it makes you feel kind of not important, just that you care about other people and they care about you.
Speaker 1:It's up there with food, isn't it? Hasn't there been some studies done on this that people do actually live longer if they're part of a solid community?
Speaker 2:Yes, the different isn't it that I'm not going to say it right now because I'll get it wrong but the glue zones of how people live together and kind of tribes and communes and the benefits that you get from that. I think there's such a loneliness epidemic happening right now and people are really seeking that community. I think community gets thrown around a lot in digital spaces and it should be confused with an audience. Just because you have a large social following, that's not necessarily your community, because you're broadcasting to a community. I think a community to me is really when you can remove yourself from that and it will carry on kind of evolving and going without you because it's all of the kind of interconnected things that are happening within it rather than just that kind of one way.
Speaker 1:We actually wrote about this recently and I think it said there was a study that said 48% of us feel lonely at work every day. That's really sad, that's mad, and in the last episode we talked quite a lot about the evolution of the workspace and what it's gone through from cubicle farms to open plan, but actually the focus has always been around profit and just getting as much work done out of people as possible. Now it's just quite different, particularly since the pandemic. We actually value people, we value wellness and we value community. Amazing Thanks, emily. Over to you. Jess Hi, welcome, welcome, welcome. Tell me about yourself, tell me about your role. We obviously your general manager at Platform 9, a wonderful co-working community in Bison. What got you to?
Speaker 3:this point. Yeah, my role as general manager at Platform 9 has been kind of journey in itself and I sort of oversee the entire operation, the revenue community member experience and anything else you can think of that goes on in the co-working space.
Speaker 3:I have been there for six years now and I started as a front of house and worked my way out of pretty much tried every area of the business other than the grounds, cafe, kitchen, and that is not my fault. But I guess, like, did I know I was going to be working in a co-working space? I don't think so. I studied graphic design at uni and which was the studio environment, something I completely loved, and I wasn't sure if I loved every part of my doing my degree, but being in that sort of space where there was multiple people doing different projects, I found that really inspiring and I loved, like that, being around other people creating, making and being interested in what other people were doing.
Speaker 3:When I left uni I really realised graphic design not for me and I knew I needed a job. I walked through the doors of Platform 9 and, as a front of house interview, I thought I was going to be there for a summer and then it all just made sense because for me, this amazing co-working space was kind of like a studio. There was people making sunglasses, there was doctors like studying for different papers, there was notaries, there was all of these amazing business people and I was just learning every day like a sponge. So I found that I felt like I found my home and I think, yeah, that's kind of how I have been sticking with it for the last six years. It's something that gets me through the doors every day, even if I don't want to work, seeing those communities develop and people's progress in what they're trying to achieve.
Speaker 1:So it's very important to you, really important to me. Yeah, amazing, a peek and a pit.
Speaker 3:I'm not sure if you can start with pits us Absolutely, because I don't think that one's the easiest one. I think the pit for me was the pandemic and I found that particularly critical. I remember the first day of it being that everybody has to be at home. I think I lasted all of that 45 minutes on a work call and Emily was on the call and I burst into tears. But Platform 9 co-working spaces their whole premise is that they're an in-person community. There are some wonderful online communities being formed and that works for a lot of people. But I think the people who need to be in co-working spaces it just doesn't work. They need that connection. They need to be in different spaces. I mean, it was for a long time in the office just me and the delivery guy and that's my one bit of contact and I still have those relationships with those delivery people now when they're dropping things off. So that was definitely a really difficult part for me. I spoke to every single member over those first three weeks on the phone because in my day-to-day I support them and we continue to be there on the phone. It wasn't natural, but I do think it led to a real development of the whole team that remained working there. We did a lot on our own where there would have been a team of 10. There was five people in total and we couldn't have found that. So, yeah, that was really challenging, but I think co-working came out stronger than a lot of other industries.
Speaker 3:After the pandemic A peak when I feel most fulfilled I think Emily touched on this with being like these things aren't necessarily one big moment I feel fulfilled pretty much every day and I think a lot of that comes from watching really amazing relationships that's been formed between people. I love seeing people collaborating. I love the teeny, tiny moments of building the community, particularly from people who have just started at co-working spaces and they've not been to it before, kind of watching their eyes sort of like light up. Imagine it kind of when you have a child and you see them seeing things for the first time. I really enjoyed that moment. That was the most I knew every day.
Speaker 1:Wonderful. And Lisa, what does community mean to you? I know this isn't necessarily your expertise, your area, but from a design perspective we are of your role at AOL as a necessary to build communities, but it's really important in a workplace and from a design perspective.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean we facilitate them to make it easy for people to gather in different spaces, and so the variety and the selection that they want to. You know, they do need to work on their own focus on something they have and if they want to go and collaborate with their peers or just work in a busy environment, yeah, that's so understanding that far, I guess, for us with a co-working space, if you're working in that sort of environment, you need to be there a lot and every day, otherwise what are you getting from it?
Speaker 4:It's a little bit of a pain to be there, but for my job I work quite solitary a few days a week, so I work better from home. So, yes, I would go for a place in platform 9 if I do want to focus, but I love the busy environment, the main space and just seeing all the different people chatting and seeing all the books and, you know, just doing a little bit of distraction in the day. I think that's community-ness, though, really, even if you're talking to people, just seeing people and seeing other people just successfully working on their own in a collaborative environment, having their little moments, when you're already in a coffee and finding out what other people do, and you know that's the start of a little relationship that you might be in the future.
Speaker 1:For sure, and how do you think it's a kind of concept of community influences design A lot.
Speaker 2:So I think when it's a strong business, a lot of the time they would just call it the company culture. They wouldn't think the community is kind of the connection with the outside and bringing that in. And I think a lot of businesses probably want to keep the culture. They want to set it in a certain way. They want to live it all by the same values, which we can probably we'll probably get onto that with community and values as well, and why you'd be attracted to a certain community and not especially in co-working spaces because you kind of curate it in a way. But I think, yeah, that's probably why it's not necessary. They're asking for community. They're asking for a place to gather, to connect, for everyone, to kind of get to know each other and improve that culture.
Speaker 3:I was thinking about this as well, because I was thinking that there's been a big shift in work places and the way that they, the way that they want their team and people to engage them. I also, like we live in Brighton and I think a lot of people here are somewhere else potentially it's not as across the borders, I think, but I think that shifted, knowing that these people that you work with are people that you spend the most time with, they connect and say they're compilants, they're cheerleaders, they're co-workers, they've changed the way that people work in their spaces to really lean into those places. I was like I'll only mention sort of what we called it, but you know this individual office spaces, cubical farms.
Speaker 3:Yeah, cubical farms, absolutely terrifying you can't connect with people via those cubical farms, but I think that that changed in the way people want to be at work. Encourage people to be at work, encourage people to be having a good time whilst they're there I think is pretty important.
Speaker 1:Yeah, which is again. It's interesting because cubical farms, that was all about productivity Back when we saw the productivity was just. If you arrive at nine, you sit in front of your screen for nine hours and then you leave, you will get as much work done as possible. How do you think community or creating more community-wide increases or impacts productivity?
Speaker 2:I think when it comes to productivity, a lot of people know how and where they work best. At least I mentioned that she worked better at home. I had a different experience, suggesting the pandemic, where actually I worked really well at home. I mean I'd sit at nine and then it would be, you know, 2pm lunch. I haven't moved. I mean that was not good for my physical and mental health. My eyes were hurting, you know all of those types of things because I can get really kind of obsessed with work. But I think that having these spaces where you do get distracted so after I left my employment at Platform 9, I took a little kind of beat, a little moment, just to get some separation I went to, I worked a lot from home and I felt like I felt down. You know it didn't feel good and I think when you don't feel good you're less productive.
Speaker 2:I also think what you're saying about cubical farms and that kind of nine and six productivity is almost like the work we're also doing is changing. So the kind of hype of work and I think to be creative and collaborative, to come up and innovate and come up with new ideas and to be productive in those ways, you need a different setup, because you can't work in isolation, because everything's kind of been done. You need to work together to create new solutions to new problems that we're having. It's almost like I'm not sure what I'm talking about AI chat, dvd, you know, those types of things is that a lot of those jobs can be done by different means and we need to continue to innovate and therefore we need these new spaces in which to do so.
Speaker 1:Do you think that varies?
Speaker 2:across industry. Yes, definitely. Yeah there's definitely some industries that have to do it differently. I think maybe, just to mention it a few times, we're in writing room, a little bubble. It's a very creative type kind of environment. So I do feel like we speak from that experience.
Speaker 3:Absolutely with people. People inspire people. I think just you don't know what you're going to get from that conversation getting a cup of coffee or meeting somebody's dog and I think it's really important to not sit behind the desk for nine hours straight. I think that's just psychologically like not good for people. I personally can't work solid for longer than like an hour and a half, but you lose me in a meeting at one hour and 31 minutes. I start looking around, I get my bit into me and so for me, like getting up, having a walk around, going outside, going downstairs, seeing some other faces Me too essential, and we talked about this again last time, a bit about kind of introvert, extravert and how that impacts your ability to work.
Speaker 1:I'm an extravert and I don't think that means that I'm loud, it just means I actually need other human beings around me, otherwise I'd go mad and start the walls. Yeah, I'm an extravert, yeah, I don't want it to. And I wonder if that impacts the care-working community. Do people who join as a member, are they often extraverted, or how do you cater for that? How do you make sure that the different types of people are looked after in those spaces?
Speaker 3:We were talking the other day about working at what the percentage of our coworkers are like lurking. They're in the community, they pay and then they come and work, but are they engaging in being part of the community? I think it's quite a split. I do think we have people who are there to work and they want to be productive. They want to just get their head down, but then we have people who are looking for that prefabricated buzz of friendship and coworkers to be around who throw themselves in head first. There are all of the events, all of the socials they're making conversation around any table they're at, and I do think they tend to gravitate towards each other both types of coworkers because they know what they're comfortable with or what they're wanting to achieve. You can't get the feel that somebody is there because they want to make that membership value back in the first month.
Speaker 1:So just to think outside of the workspace, rose Neck is very easy because we'll work in that area. It's not quite too much. But just community in general. This is to anyone what communities are you part of, or would you say you're part of, and what do you look for in a community?
Speaker 2:I just have an immediate one, and that's only because I had a 20 month old. So I think when you're going through a new phase of life, there's obviously I joined not NCT, it was something called Bumpin' Baby and there were 20 people, so 10 couples, and you're all in exactly the same situation. It's your first child, you don't know what to expect. You're all similar in your kind of journey and that, and you meet regularly every Tuesday for a certain amount of weeks and you're all learning together and doing activities and kind of feeling embarrassed, putting nappies on a towel, baby, which is what we had to do, and then after that you have a kind of big leaving thing. But and we obviously had a WhatsApp group. So I remember when Darcy was born, I then got invited into another WhatsApp and I was like there's another WhatsApp.
Speaker 3:There's the name WhatsApp, but there's another.
Speaker 2:WhatsApp and there was only all the women that had their babies and I was like, oh, I joined this club. I don't know about you.
Speaker 2:The bad, the good and the bad and the good and the yeah mainly the kind of 3AMs like yeah, I'm losing my mind what I'm gonna do and I think that community of feeling held by people that are going through exactly the same obviously not everyone's experience is different, but that stage in life was really important for me and we're still friends now. You know, almost two years later, my kids go to the same nursery and you help each other in those moments and you can lean on each other and yeah, that's been the most recent community. It's been really kind of beneficial.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I actually just thinking. I don't think I'm part of any of the community At the minute About 99, oh well in my time, and I'd say that is the community I'm part of. But when I'm growing up I guess I was part of clubs and pain.
Speaker 2:So are you a part of any online communities? Like I'm part of fan-flage, I'm not super active on it. And then Silicon Brighton have a Slack group and what else, like obviously, juicy, the guy with the co-working on conference, like there's a community there. So these pockets of digital communities where a lot of the time, I'm kind of reading what everybody wants oh, this person's looking for recommendations for this or they're looking for this, and I really love that kind of matchmaking, all that oh, I'll help you send you this, or how have you thought about this? And also you can look for other opportunities in terms of your work. So I really enjoy it in my communities. There's just a lot of them.
Speaker 3:I think there's a real space for all my communities. It's not for me necessarily. I said not come to Rosalind seeing the spaces that people are creating, but Rosalind yeah, rosalind, sherry, she's a community expert.
Speaker 2:She used to run the Penissier's testing. I think she's still in touch with me. She handles schools, her many children and she also is a community expert, so has a mailing list and is putting together all these resources on how to build communities show. Look at all these different kind of digital tools for communities.
Speaker 2:Look for digital jobs, digital community jobs but it's mainly the digital community space but I think there's so much to be learned because I was only having this conversation with a guy called Caleb yesterday Caleb Parker about how physical so real estate, so the typical offices they're building it for community but a lot of the time they find it really hard to bring that community in because they still have it in a kind of profit led.
Speaker 2:This is described, but we need to make this about money and that kind of community and how to prove it. It's almost like there's some resistance or they're finding it difficult, maybe based on the location of the people that are in that area. And I think there's so much that the physical space can learn from digital communities because it's so hard to build it online. But Laura Sheldrake, who has found in Flourish, is a community for women in business, and the fact that she has created such a strong, engaged like well-connected community that feels wonderful to be part of she had a physical space, that would be incredible. You know, it's almost like what can the physical learn from the digital and also what can the digital learn from the physical, because a lot of the time in digital you're trying to replicate things that you do in the physical world, but obviously gathering people it's not the same.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I feel like we've covered a lot of our community and it's actually really hard to define, I think is what we've kind of agreed it covers a lot.
Speaker 1:It covers a lot of grounds. It's hard to measure, you can't really touch it, it doesn't really have an ROI, sometimes it's completely wrong. Sometimes it's completely wrong and funny things like a hot water tap being broken actually potentially has created more of a community feeling than a working one. But I guess this question for all of you actually is what can leaders do, particularly in companies and like workforces less about co-working, I suppose to facilitate community? What's like your best piece of advice to create a community feel within a workplace?
Speaker 2:I think that the main thing that is really apparent for me is being kind of human-focused and human-centric. So asking the people in your team what's important to you, how do you work, where do you work best? What would you like to see? What activities do you want to do, like serving them, do some kind of in-depth research to find out what's important to the task, how to their social and you know like different parts of them, and then distilling that all into insights that would then, you know, work with the designers to make sure that you're delivering something that they are well by that they're like. Well, everything is easy and my needs here are met and they will want to spend more time in space. I think it's really a symbol of that. I don't think that you know the answer. Find out the answer from the people that matter.
Speaker 3:I agree, I hear something, sam. Is it like not forced fun, like you can't not talk to your team and then expect them to want to turn up to you around this game? You've decided to go on. I think I spent a lot of time actually over the last year focusing on my team's culture. I felt that there was a bit of disparity between what we were creating for people and the community that we were hosting and the actual team culture and I think Emily is spot on with saying talk to them, ask them the questions.
Speaker 3:We did a whole workshop, in fact two projects with Ron Radke, from each of their own, about the values of the company, because that in turn, was the values of the team, and we worked together as team and it's really bonding. You really get to understand people more on what they like and don't like, and I know some people won't want to go to the pub and I think there's been a shift as well where a lot of teams try and step away from that drinking culture and drinking obviously drink drinking is really connecting in a moment and Emily and I have actually had a lot of conversations around this value of drinking friends. They don't always come through as actual friends and I think with your colleagues as well, you can't expect the connections and they go for the points to survive if there's nothing more.
Speaker 1:Anyway, you're in a unique situation where you're managing two communities.
Speaker 3:Managing to communities and trying to really watch those lines. I think it's very blurred for co-working communities, for the people working them, even down to how those members who paid membership see the team. Are they friends, are they colleagues? Are they somebody that you pay an exception for? I think what's a big blind spot in co-op a gig is that you travel through all three in a conversation and so the expectations change constantly, and I think protecting the team from that is also really cool. I think, I've got my attention.
Speaker 2:No, that's so true though, Having all of those three things in one conversation and knowing where the line is that they're still a paying customer but, you as a part of the team that works there are still very much part of the community too. It's a very unique skill set, I think, for community managers or people that work in co-working spaces. It's a lot more difficult than you want it. The emotional intelligence that you need.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm just sorry in terms of the design of that. I think so in hotels or some fancy restaurants, that your concierge has a space to be. They have the front desk, or they have a podium or they have whatever. Whatever it's Co-op and space generally will have a front desk. Yes, I think that then makes that relationship really clear. But we also work amongst the members and I think that can also lead to a bit of that confusion. But I think it's really important that we do that, otherwise you're not connected to the community. So how do you? Yeah, that separation is physically unclear as well as being sort of intangible.
Speaker 4:Do your staff have a space that's just theirs, that they can go to?
Speaker 3:We don't have that at our home location but we do in Brighton. But again, that kind of goes back down to we also know how much storage that when we're building these spaces. The unimportant, no-permanent investment spaces are storage and a room. But I think there is a call for that. Like I'm looking at some other floor plates at the minute I'm very much the night. We need to make space for meditation rooms or prayer rooms or a quite maternity room.
Speaker 3:I'm not saying we should have rooms that don't make any money, but I think it's really crucial to be looking at those spaces that are not going to be a revenue line for me, but they are going to enhance people's day. I'll put storage and a room in there because I do think somewhere they can go. I'm putting out the building more than anything, but we even have Brighton is very community based anyway. Like I know a lot of my team will go down to the beach and they'll be dropped. People will come over to them and be like, oh you know, can you do this and how does this work, and I think they actually just need some boxes to put over their head.
Speaker 1:So yeah, and so the next bit is about the future, which is a tricky thing to talk about. It's none of us really know, but thinking about the words that everyone talks about and remote working and this, you know, actually really individualist world we're really moving into. What are some of the challenges you foresee in community focus spaces in the future?
Speaker 2:I only found that in COVID that really kind of opened up the building and I think COVID everyone out there, windows and meeting people and having the neighbours was really nice. But I think it's down to not individuals but groups coming together. So I didn't know this one. I found them off at Square Facebook group because they're on Facebook and there's a community garden there and they put on events and they have a little library with little tote stalls like the kids can go to and it's like an honestly library.
Speaker 2:I don't think Brian's unique for that, but those types of spaces where people see that there's a need and then respond in kind of creative ways with each other and have a pot and kind of really kind of what's the word? Just kind of evolve it or just invest in their kind of their patch, their local patch. I think it's obviously a choice, isn't it? And that flexibility and choosing how and where you want and what you want to do with your time. I also think you know COVID put the power.
Speaker 2:I love that about COVID and it's weird to say that you loved something about COVID, but you know there's lots of learnings.
Speaker 2:Now that we can rub that back on it, I'm not going to think of it. But what I really love was that power shift from the employees or the leaders sort of dictating how, when, how long, how hard you have to work, and put the power back into the employee or to the individual, which is anything. When there's like a power imbalance or like a flip, I just get really excited, is excited by and I think that's what's sort of driving this whole kind of future of what we want to work. And there's a guy called Anthony Slumbers who talks quite a lot about the future of AI and how the office is actually. You know, a destination or a space where you will go together. You wouldn't necessarily even really have a desk, will do that kind of desktop work in an office. The office will be just a place where you meet and connect with others and collaborate, rather than this kind of hybrid or having to try and put everything into one space.
Speaker 3:I think the most important thing that community spaces can do is keep up with times and not try and sort of be like this is how we do it and so we'll always do it and how we've always done it. I am not a tech person per se, so in AI, for example, I've been intimidating, but I'm very aware that doesn't mean that it doesn't have a place in those communities. That's really important that we continue to grow and develop and answer people's needs and requirements, and no matter what they are.
Speaker 2:I remember the third one was the founder of platform 9, Drought COVID. You know when people were going, because that almost spelled like the end of the gallery in the code spaces but he was so adamant.
Speaker 2:You know, people will always want to gather and connect and be together, and I think that we will continue to do that throughout all time, no matter what happens in the future or how we're going to be living and working, with or without AI and robots. Humans will want to gather together, and so there will always be a space for a community space or some kind of office. Maybe it will have a new name, maybe it won't be called the office, but that has so many different kind of connotations to it, doesn't it? And you know, the lines between life and work are glaring. So, you know, maybe it's time to kind of move that along as well. I'm excited about the future of work.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they say it takes a village to raise child. It also takes a village to, you know, look after adults.
Speaker 1:And I think, because we're all just children, really, because children are wandering around, wandering beyond, and maybe it raises a question about authenticity, yeah, which, again going back to kind of what leaders can do for their work spaces. Authentic community is important, right, because you're a group of friends. There's nothing more authentic than that, as soon as you bring in a company and there's a leader and there's a hierarchy that gives you the egg.
Speaker 2:And then, you see it.
Speaker 2:So that's the difference, you know it's like, yeah, I think when there's co-living things though that is, I think you can kind of you could probably pick and choose and have kind of understanding of it, and what I do like about them a lot is the kind of sustainability aspect of it. Or you know how you're saying everyone lives in their own little flats or their own little bit, so they have to buy these appliances, so you're buying all of it. It's almost like the consumerism of the way that we have, the way the world has gotten this kind of separatism. And I think with co-working spaces or co-living, you're using a lot of shared kind of amenities.
Speaker 2:Or in countries like Sweden or Norway you might have a big block building but then you have your basement where everyone is sharing those kinds of appliances and you there are spaces like that where you will have natural community in a building with that, because you're crossing paths, those moments of serendipity you might be crying doing your washing one day and then your neighbour is like are you OK, in that form, to get a connection? We don't really have that because everyone is so in their own thing so long. But this thing with the sasswitz just less kind of purchasing, you're kind of all in the same space? I don't.
Speaker 1:So if we talk to them about Juicy, which is the global co-working on-conference which Emily is producing and putting together, we will put a link in the description for that, and she would like to offer a 10% discount to anyone that signs up with the link. The code is AW10, but we'll put that in the description as well. So next time we will be discussing creating supportive environments, so we'll be having an environmental psychologist who will come along and talk to us about how we design spaces that support wellbeing. So thank you very much everybody. You will be great.
Speaker 1:I love you Great Good Thanks very much, goodbye. This podcast is sponsored by Projects, the home for better business. With two beautiful buildings open in the heart of Brighton, one in the lanes and one moment from the beach, plus many more set open across the UK. Projects is proud to house a community of collaborative businesses. They change and operate inspiring spaces that make everyone feel included. Projects combines co-working areas, dedicated desks and fully serviced offices with meeting and event spaces, cafes, bars and a gym and this podcast suite. Find out more, book a tour and arrange a free trial via their website, wwwprojectsclubcouk. Plus, you can let them know that you've heard about them via the spaces that shape us to receive 25% off your first podcast suite booking.
