Coworking space events reveal great opportunities for building a community. It’s a well-known fact that members come for space but stay for people. So, being a far-sighted coworking brand operator you are probably concerned about a positive brand image, its emotional component, creation of an atmosphere of collaboration and support, as this is the only efficient way to grow your business.
Sometimes it’s really challenging to engage community members in networking events carried out at the coworking space. Some people are too shy by nature, some are busy or maybe not interested in the things you offer.
We are here to help you change the situation. Continue reading and learn 3 types of coworking space events, get inspired with plenty of coworking event ideas, and take an interactive quiz that will identify which workspace events resonate with the interests of your unique community the most.
3 Types of Coworking Events
For your convenience, we can break events at coworking spaces by type. Looking at those types it will be easier for you to pick out the ones that match you the most at a given moment.
- Coworking space community events for current members. These events are carried out to retain residents and boost their experience. Examples: happy hours, lunch-and-learns, day trips, purposeful networking & breaks, family events, member wall, invited speaker, book club, bike to work.
- Coworking space events for prospective new members. These events are carried out with lead generation in mind, so they are aimed at attracting new people. Examples: shadowing, free pass days, meetups, conferences, concerts, game nights, tech talks.
- Coworking community mission events. These events are carried out to let members perform their social mission and change something for the better. Examples: networking with other spaces, gift exchange, sharing ideas for workplace improvement, blood drive & charity events,
23 Hot Ideas for Coworking Space Events
Are you willing to build community at your coworking space but lack creative ideas? Take a look at the list below, I am sure there are enough items to fill your calendar for the year. Please note that almost every coworking community event featured below can be carried out in an online, hybrid, and physical environment.
- Hackathon/hack day/hackfest/codefest — a trendy activity for geek communities. Gather your programmers, graphic designers, interface designers, project managers, and domain experts and let them collaborate on fun software projects.
- Music band/chorus — for many businessmen music is a perfect antistress. Be it a rock band or jazz band, the main thing is that the musicians will work together to perform music.
- Mentors catalog — a reference guide for regular experts at your coworking space is an elegant way to add prestige to your space. Add all mentors' achievement certificates to interest members in attending classes given by mentors and coaches even more.
- Cooking workshop — members will appreciate your contribution to their healthy nutrition. Learning to cook together is a great way to discover new recipes and culinary concepts, eat delicious food, and share good moments.
- Thematic meals/weekly morning breakfasts/happy hours — a perfect time for relaxed talks, sharing stories, ideas, and projects. Invite members for a new member breakfast, beer Friday, or entrepreneur lunch.
- Demo days — meetings or calls to communicate changes or developments to members. Introduce a new workspace technology during the demo day, let startups showcase their businesses or engineers tell about the newly discovered libraries and tools. Whatever you demonstrate, it helps to know each other better.
- Afterwork activities — friendly conversations with a beer in hand, that's where collaborative projects arise. You can also offer body balance after work sessions, language, calligraphy lessons, boat cruises, or even kitesurfing if the location of your workspace is favorable for such activities.
- Wine & work — those who don't like beer and football will probably enjoy attending more serious events, like formal presentations, where they can have a glass of wine instead. Besides, a glass of wine once a week is good for heart health, especially if your members exercise regularly.
- Training & classes — educational events allow to acquire new knowledge and strengthen members' relationships. Turn some of your facilities into classrooms of the future where members can master new skills while developing a collaborative mindset.
- Nonprofit — invite a non-profit organization to tell about their project. Such initiatives usually result in collaborative synergies. Let your members participate in charity projects and acquire a higher mission.
- Associations with local business communities — the spaces that manage to make joint associations with their neighbors end up forging relationships that span entire neighborhoods.
- Guest speakers — hosting conferences and inviting niche influencers is an effective way to keep everyone up to date without even leaving your workspace.
- Fuck up nights — inviting entrepreneurs to share their failures let startups learn from other's mistakes, which is not so painful and expensive.
- Free days — open days and guided tours for new coworkers, prospectives, or suppliers. Grow your community and increase noob engagement with the activity.
- PechaKucha night — a fun and informal gathering where speakers are sharing 20 images, and given 20 seconds to present each slide. As audiences get a large number of inspiring ideas in a very short amount of time, your coworking space will be the first stop for people who would like to discover new ideas and innovations.
- Pitch practice — an awesome meetup to help entrepreneurs practice their short pitches and diminish the fear of public failure.
- Launch parties — throw a launch party when your members launch new products, which is a good chance for members to celebrate one another’s success and increase their exposure in the local community.
- Group runs/workout sessions/yoga — invite a coach to organize weekly sports activities for members. Exercising together facilitates networking and breaks the ice between members.
- Game nights — invite workspace members with families and friends for a board game night, say once a month. Coworkers will get a good chance to know one another better, and you will earn some money collecting small fees from non-members and attract some prospects.
- Fun breaks — every coworking space has fun zones where members can play ping pong, Foosball, and video games. They gather crowds as a rule. You can arrange tournaments to make members' breaks even more exciting. You can also organize fun challenges like unscrambling words or playing fun interactive games like Hearts.
- Day trips — a flexible workspace offers much more comfort and variety to members than a traditional office. Nevertheless, businessmen still need a change of scenery. Arrange a day trip at group rates for your members. Plan lots of activities that will make people interact with one another.
- Speed business dating — just like with romantic speed dating, members have only a few minutes to exchange business details. This is a great opportunity to network with multiple coworkers at a limited time. Besides, you can make the event open and attract prospective customers to your workspace.
- DIY workshops — doing something with your own hands can be very relaxing, especially if we are talking about skills that are new to members. It's much easier to start a conversation when there is no pressure, and you are here just for fun, not to network or socialize.
How to Make Members Attend Your Events
Well, lack of cool event ideas is not the only problem community managers face. Low events popularity is another big issue they have to deal with.
To make members visit your events, make sure that your activities are:
- interesting for residents,
- residents are informed about all upcoming affairs.
Every community manager knows their members and their preferences, so we won't stop here for long. As to keeping your residents informed, it's not the best way to rely on social media as many coworking spaces do. Too many distractions, plus members forget about your event as soon as they close their Facebook account.
The only surefire way to keep your members in the loop of all your community events is to announce them right inside your workspace app, which they use for booking desks, meeting rooms, and applying for other services you offer.
Here's how it happens with Spacebring coworking space software. You just use Events solution to add upcoming events into an appealing feed where members of all locations can easily discover and join them. There is no chance for a member to forget about the event as they will get push notification reminders every now and again.
As to administrators, they always know how many members are coming, so they can prepare for the event better. They don't spend time on promotion, just add the event once to be visible to everyone, create a Feed post to draw even more attention, and observe how the guest list is rapidly growing. Managers can even collect payments through the system if the event is paid.
Please note that you don't pay any extra money for events management functionality. It is included in your main coworking space platform.
Wind up
Being a coworking space professional, you surely constantly work on improving all the essential success metrics. By hosting a variety of live, online, and hybrid networking events at the shared workspace you will gradually enhance the community behind it.
Focus on members’ interests, keep a balance of coworking events targeted at the existing and prospective residents, use advanced events management tools, and you will observe the constant audience and business growth.
