Marcel van Marrewijk's Blog, page 151

Coworking in numbers

So you are still skeptic about the coworking movement? Well, smallbizlabs.com just released the numbers of their 2016 coworking forecast and is astonishing. The research presents that by 2020 there will be 26.000 coworking spaces and 3.8 million coworkers worldwide. This means a 23.8% annual rate of growth for spaces and 41% for coworkers. Please notice that I said ANNUAL. Yes, that means per year.

Now another interesting thing to notice is that this is a prediction according with how the numbers have been going so far. But if you check the forecasts even the prediction has been growing. That could mean that the growth will be even higher, unless a big recession or crisis happen. Which doesn’t necessarily means a big recession for coworking, as it grows the more people leave the traditional way of working.

Another potential for the growth of the coworking market is that it is still small. According to the forecast in the US alone there are 22 million people who could work in coworking spaces. The forecast predicts 3.8 million people using it worldwide until 2020. As some see that this means a small penetration rate (only 4%) others see it as a huge opportunity. That means that there still a lot of people to discover the benefits of sharing a workspace.

For more information take a look at the graphics and access smallbizlabs.com

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10 documentaries to understand the hows and the whys of change

Ok, ok, the world is changing fast, we are tired of hearing that. But how to understand it better? Well, there are books, movies, shows, all kind of things you can consume to understand it. Here are the 10 documentaries (I love documentaries) to understand what we are going through.

I am

It’s even boring talking to about documentaries sometimes. The first one that I ALWAYS tell to people to watch is this one, I am. Directed by Tom Shadyac (the same director of Ace Ventura) after he suffered an accident. He travelled the world asking experts and thinkers this 2 questions: What is wrong with the world? What can we do to change it? As simple and genius as that. Watch it!

2. What the Bleep do we know!?

I love the name of this one – and the content as well, obviously. It talks about ourselves as human race and the powers that we have but don’t know yet. More and more we are going on a way of self discover and improvement. More people are doing yoga, meditation, reflecting on their own role. This documentary helps a little bit with that.

3. The True Cost

An eye opening film about the fashion industry and the damage that it does. To be more precise the damage that low cost clothing does. This one is not one to understand the revolution, but WHY it has to happen, which is pretty important as well.

4. Living on one dólar

4 friends decide to know what it is like to live with only one dollar a day – which is like 1.1 billion of people lives like. Yes, consider yourself VERY lucky.

5. Food matters

This one is more focused, but also teaches us the price of low cost food from big chains and the facilities we have (as a supermarket in every corner).

6. Particle Fever

The more scientific discoveries we have the more possibilities. A few years ago the god particle was discovered, understand what it could impact in our society.

7. Aluna

Knowledge doesn’t come only from the high educated people, it can be in the simplest of people. A tribe in south america sees all the signs of nature changing that only people who are truly connected to it could see.

8. Print the legend

Again, new discoveries may cause big revolution. This is about the invention of the 3D printer and how it can impact the whole supply chain as we know it and the people working to achieve that.

9. Capital C

Documentary about crowdfunding. It shows different cases and how, nowadays, what we need are good ideas. Executives aren’t the ones who will decide which products are available to us. We are the ones who chose, and finance those products.

10. Startup.com

During the .com bubble a guy raises millions to launch his product, didn’t really work out. He tells the lessons that he learns and how to succeed learning from failures.

Bonus

++she

It’s a bonus because it’s only 12 minutes. It’s about girl in tech. Enjoy it!

If you have another suggestion share it with us!

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What we can learn from the Olympics

Although the Olympics is a very much commercial event, is not only about advertisement and licensing. The Olympics is about a lot of athletes and professionals who worked very hard for years to impress the world and be the best in their field. Tomorrow the games will start in the beautiful city of Rio de Janeiro and here is what we can learn from one of the biggest events on earth.

The world comes together

Ok, I know it is a competition, but both in the beginning and in the end all athletes come together and make a big party. The whole world should be like this everyday! Just my opinion.

2. People volunteer to make it happen

Yes, there are a lot of people that are being paid to organize the event. But those people are smart. They ask for help of the community. Yes! That obvious. They ask for help of the people who can and want to help. In the end they do tasks that doesn’t require a lot of training, which are the tasks that usually require more people. At the same time those people can put it in their resumeé, ending up an advantage for them as well. Smart isn’t it?

3. You are more than your career

Due the unfortunate fact that the athletes that compete in the olympics don’t get much money from it, a lot of them end up having different jobs. They train a LOT and have jobs aside to make money. In the end of the day they are remembered for being athletes that competed in the olympics. Not for being a teacher, a lawyer or whatever job they do.

4. A lot of connection

During the olympics professionals from all over the world come together to not only watch, but also work. They are journalists, event managers, photographers, bloggers, doctors, all kinds of them. When you are working in the olympics is not like you are isolated from all of that people. They all make connections and help each other to make their very best.

5. No geographic boundaries

I love this about the olympics. Is not about one country, is about all of them. Every four years it takes place in a different city. Although the in the last century none of them took place in Africa there is a big variety. The one of this year will be the first one to be hold in South America.

6. It defies the definition of limits

Every olympics records are broken. Athletes give their best to be the best not only in the competition, but of time. We change our standards every time one of the events takes place and the evolution is visible. How are you evolving?

 

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The Agile working concept at its 5 essentials

Do you know what agile working is? It is a concept created by Spectrum Work Places to get the office design into the information era. The way we work has evolved, the work spaces not so much. Spectrum designs for all different kind of tasks. They believe in 5 different elements that every work space should have so people can work at their best.

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Who are the S2M ambassadors and what they can do?

One year ago Seats2meet went officially international and updated its software to be use anywhere where people in gather. In that time seats2meet began being using in schools, libraries, coffee places, corporate offices and even supermarkets in 22 countries.

During this year we had help from a lot of people who are fans and enthusiasts of the S2M concept. We call them the ambassador. They are an essential part of the team and for the growth of seats2meet and help in countless ways. Here are some of them.

Sharing 

Social media is a huge way of connecting, especially when we are talking about worldwide levels. Just by sharing our concept on social media we get a lot of traction and more people getting to know and engage in our concept. Just one click can be very relevant! So be sure to share what you thing is interesting and what made YOU be a fan of the Seats2meet concept.

Writing about it

What is the next step on sharing our content? Creating your own! In that way your friends have a more personal view on why you like the seats2meet concept and how they can use it. In different cultures we work in different ways, consequently what we experience in the Netherlands will be different in other countries. This is the reason why we want to know and you to write about how you think the S2M concept fits and helps your own country. If you do, let us know and we will share it in our social media as well.

Trend alert: Corporates and the coworking movement

And there they are, the corporates. And you know that if corporate organizations are willing to connect to something, that something is bigger then we might knew. In this case we see the trend that traditional corporate offices like insurance companies, energy companies, banks, retail chains, etc. connect themselves to the coworking movement.

I think this trend is good from the higher perspective, to create with each other that new society I was talking about in my other blogpost (Coworking the movement). But for coworking centers with membership it might be a threat. Actually no. Let’s see it as a challenge instead of a threat. I believe they’re still very important for this movement, but they have to find another business model to stay relevant, and to connect to those corporate organisations to collaborate.

So corporate organizations acknowledge the fact of the coworking movement and are finding their way to connect to it. And they have to, if they want to stay in the game. With the crisis still going on, organizations have to get rid of people to spare costs. With getting rid of people they also get rid of knowledge. Their organizations become smaller and the chance of innovative ideas becomes equally smaller with less of the knowledge. At the same time the world around them is changing rapidly. If they’re not connecting to that new world and that knowledge and expertise they will be soon out of game.

The only thing they have to do is to open their doors share the abundance of space and invite coworkers to sit, work, meet, connect in their offices and being part of it.

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Incogo, putting social back into social media

I discovered Incogo last year, when the platform was still in its infancy. The concept of creating and posting on different journeys appealed to me back then but the platform was lacking some functionality like cross posting and long posts back then. So, after experimenting with it a bit I forgot about it again. Until a couple of months ago when I decided to check it out again. The fact that I hadn’t deleted the app on my phone had actually worked as a reminder to do this.

By now I’m an avid user of the platform and the fact that I can cross post to Facebook, which is still my main social media platform, helps a lot with this.

So, why use Incogo? Why spend time on a, for the moment, small social media platform with just over 7500 users? The answer is easy, because the concept is radically different from the other platforms out there. It’s geared towards mutual support.

When you create an account on Incogo you are not presented with topics to follow but with people’s journeys you want to support. These journeys are categorized so you can pick them more easily. I do sometimes wonder why people put their journey in the category they put it in but then again, who am I to judge?

Your timeline consists only of posts made on the journeys you support. That means no algorithms to decide for you what you want to see and, most importantly, no advertisements! I really hope they can keep it that way.

And then it’s your turn to create your own journey. And this is fun! It’s like a mini blog which people actually react to. You are invited to set a title for your journey that is action oriented. Like ‘Writing a book’ or ‘Learning to play the guitar’ or ‘Dissecting politics’. Anything goes. The mere fact that you are consciously creating a journey sets the tone for your posts. It really feels you are working towards something, even if you don’t know where you’ll end up.

I’ve created 4 journeys myself. The key to gathering support lies in adding a picture to it. After only a couple of months one of my journeys now has 140 supporters and that number grows with each post I make. Not something I can say about my posts on my own blog site.

On top of all this the staff at Incogo is supportive. Every time I post something in the ‘Growing Incogo’ journey, which functions as the support forum. I usually have a reply within a couple of hours. They are open to suggestions, are very helpful when you encounter a problem and are very dedicated to making the user experience a great one.

Incogo is social media for real people on real journeys. This includes sharing the struggles and hardships along the way and knowing that you are not alone. There is definitely still room to grow in functionality but I’m happy to be on board for the trip. It’s an exciting one!

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20 Reasons why Central Perk would be a great S2M location

No, I didn’t misspell Central Park, I am referring to the iconic coffee shop where the characters from the sitcom Friends went to. Now here are the 20 reasons why it would be a great S2M location!

Awesome people go there to meet

2. It has great coffee – at least that is what the show makes us think.

3. And food as well!

4. It gives the stage to the people – in that case, Phoebe.

5. People can stay as long as they want

6. A place with a lot of business opportunities

7. A lot of serendipity happening

8. It’s a very friendly place

9. Everyone is welcome

10. It is a very ~friendly~ place

11. There is a lot of support going on

12. You always find help

13. There is always something new

14. It is a space with a lot of knowledge

15. You can be yourself

16. But do expect some constructive criticism as well. It’s only for your growth!

17. They have nice furniture

18. It’s a place to have the most brilliant ideas

19. It’s a place for innovation

20. It’s awesome!

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Keukenfunctie tijdens kantooruren voor initiatiefrijke foodlover met horeca-ervaring

Seats2meet.com Utrecht CS zoekt nieuwe  Kook professional – Foodlover

(tijdens kantoor uren)

om nóg meer gasten te verwennen met lekker en gezond eten!

Ben jij iemand met veel ervaring in de keuken, die expertise heeft met koken voor grote groepen en liefde heeft voor gezond eten met lekkere smaken?  Je kunt direct aan de slag met de verdere implementatie van een duurzaam F&B traject wat we afgelopen jaar hebben gestart. Het verder structureren van keukenprocessen en vertellen van verhalen over goede voeding staat centraal.  Dagelijks gebruiken veel professionals onze workspaces, meetingspaces en eventspaces. Daar hoort bij dat we hen graag verwennen met energiegevende voeding. Wij bieden je graag de kans om tijdens kantooruren te werken met veel eigen initiatief.

Dit is wat je wilt:

Je houdt van aanpakken en van mensen verrassen door iets lekkers te maken. Het hoeft niet hoogdravend, maar het oogt altijd vers en er zijn veel groentes in je gerechten te vinden.
Je vindt het leuk om een team aan te sturen van jonge mensen die graag iets willen leren over keukenwerkzaamheden.
Je bent ondernemer en wil graag je eigen dingen blijven doen, maar vindt een basisinkomen en samenwerking binnen een groter geheel ook heel fijn.
Je wilt goede voeding bij zoveel mogelijk mensen onder de aandacht brengen. Je hart ligt bij puur koken en verhalen vertellen over wat je maakt en waarom dit voedend is.
Je neemt graag initiatieven, creëert nieuwe dingen en kleurt soms buiten de lijntjes.
Je wilt door de week werken tijdens kantooruren. Een enkele keer in het weekend of een avond kan ook voorkomen. Je bent 3-4 dagen per week beschikbaar, maar wilt ook tijd hebben voor je eigen activiteiten en onderneming naast dit werk bij Seats2meet.

Dit is wie jij bent:

Je bent een praktische doener die geen culinaire hoogstandjes wilt neerzetten, maar wel professioneel met voeding bezig wilt zijn.
Je hoeft geen diploma’s als kok te hebben, maar je hebt wel veel horeca-/ keukenervaring met inkoop- en bestelprocedures, HACCP en kostprijsberekeningen.
Je kunt een team inspireren met een learning by doing houding. Je houdt de sfeer luchtig en gezellig, maar kunt ook doorknallen.
Communicatief sta je sterk en ook heb je graag contact met gasten. Je bent geïnteresseerd in het Seats2meet concept en deelt graag je kennis.
Je bent een strakke organisator, slagvaardig en handelt vanuit zelfvertrouwen zonder de keuken ‘top-down’ te leiden.

Dit zijn wij:

Wij zijn Seats2meet.com Utrecht CS. Een innovatieve ontmoetingslocatie waar veel ondernemers samen komen om kennis te delen. We lopen voorop in de sharing economy en geven graag mensen een podium om te tonen wat ze kunnen. Seats2meet is een concept dat meer uitleg nodig heeft dan een paar zinnen. Eigenlijk moet je het zelf ervaren. Kom dus een keer langs op Hoog Catharijne (5 min lopen vanaf Utrecht CS). Daarnaast is het handig om onze website en ons digitale magazine te bekijken.

https://www.seats2meet.com/nl + https://magazine.seats2meet.com/

LET OP: Seats2meet neemt mensen niet in vaste dienst. We werken alleen met ZP’ers (Zelfstandig Professionals) die we inhuren tegen een vast uurtarief. Het voordeel van deze constructie is dat je de ruimte krijgt om je eigen bedrijf ernaast te draaien en ook kansen creëert om te groeien als ondernemer. Omdat de werkuren meestal van 08.30-15.30 uur zijn op doordeweekse dagen, heb je tijd om ook nog je eigen Foodconcept, cateringbedrijf of waar je bedrijf zich ook op richt, te exploiteren.

Spreekt dit je aan?

Kom in actie als je vragen hebt of wilt solliciteren!

Graag uiterlijk 31 augustus je CV en motivatie mailen naar: contact@s2mutrechtcs.com T.A.V. Nynke Visser. Voor vragen: bel naar Nynke 06-47448897 (tot 18 augustus).

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5 reasons why your place should welcome people to work

So you own a location like a coffee place, a restaurant, a bar, a hotel or even a supermarket. You have good wifi, a place to seat and good coffee. People start realising that and come over to seat, work and meet. There are a lot of people who wouldn’t see an opportunity in that, but a threat. Those people stay a lot of time there and might not consume up to the time they spend there. Let me give you some reasons why this is an opportunity.

They create movement

If you own a location you know that having an empty space is the death of any place. Workers create movement and come frequently, consequently you will usually have a full place, which attracts more people and clients into your space. Also, they bring their own network when they are not working or when they have a meeting, causing more people to get to know your location.

2. They want to help

Being a coworker is not only about seating and working, you meet other people and you are grateful if you find that one place where you can work without worries. As a result you are willing to help. In the seats2meet location in Utrecht we have a great example. Once in a year the owners shut down the location for cleaning, instead of hiring a company they ask volunteers among the coworkers in the location, the result? People have been helping for years and even meet and create business that way. This is how Jurjen and Samir from the Permanent Future Lab met. What help could you ask for the coworkers in your location?

3. They bring relevancy

If you have a coffee place where people only drink coffee then you are nothing more than a coffee place. That sounds obvious, I know. But when you add a new functionality, as a place where people can work, you immediately turn into something else. Let’s take Starbucks as an example, they became a worldwide company not because people think their coffee is great – although that helps. Most of all people all over the world that want a place to work pass in front of a starbucks and know that if they go in and buy a cup of coffee they will also have access to great wifi and a good environment and even have meetings. In the end that is what brings lots of clients in.

4. They bring innovation

Entrepreneurs are usually creative and innovative people. Make them your allies and you will receive a free consultancy on what you can do to make your place even better than what it already is in a creative way that no other places have thought yet. After all, that’s what entrepreneurs do.

5. Build up a community

Remember Central Perk from friends? Now that was THE place to be in the 90s. Ok, it’s easier when it is a fictional place where the most famous friends meet and you are in TV. But truth is that all group of friends want to find that one place where they can always meet. When you have a place where that happens by welcoming everyone and encouraging them to meet other people you build something special where your place is part of that community, just like central perk was the 7th friend of the series Friends.

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