I spent a few days attending a coworking conference (or “unconference conference” as they called it) recently and was not expecting to learn what I did about co-working.
Ashley Proctor, the Executive Director of GCUC (Global Coworking Unconference Conference) Canada called upon City of Toronto Councilor Mike Layton to provide the official welcome. The event location was not even in his ward, but he is a supporter of the coworking concept and was asked to give the opening remarks.
Tony Bacigalupo of Indi Cities in New York City gave a eye-opening speech about the history of coworking. He explained that the term “coworking” was coined in 2005 by Brad Neuberg to describe a physical space which was intended as a collective work space for coders. The first coworking space was the San Francisco Coworking Space at Spiral Muse for two days a week. It took some time to get people into the space, but they slowly trickled in as people started to understand the concept.
After about a year, the Spiral Muse coworking space closed. Several months later a second space opened up with a larger space that could accommodate more people, called the Hat Factory. Since Brad Neuberg created the first coworking space, the number of coworking spaces and available seats has roughly doubled each year.
The first meet-ups with the topic of coworking at SxSW (South by Southwest) was an annual set of film, interactive media, music festivals and conferences that took place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. This is where the idea of the Coworking Visa program, a way for traveling coworkers to work at other coworking spaces, was born.
While the official use of the word “coworking” was used in 2005 by Brad Neuberg, Toronto’s Centre For Social Innovation (CSI) opened in 2004. As CSI’s Tonya Surman said, only 30% of what CSI does is coworking – its primary focus is on its members. SCI is a social enterprise with a mission to catalyze social innovation in Toronto and around the world.
The Centre for Social Innovation (CSI) has 4 locations – 3 in Toronto and one in New York City. Yes, New York City! It seems that a persistent NYC entrepreneur who loved the CSI concept was determined to make a connection between the Centre for Social Innovation and RXR Realty, a forward-thinking realty company in New York City. After some talks, it was clear that CSI New York would be a great fit to the CSI family of innovative coworking spaces.
Lets come back to what coworking and GCUC really is.
The idea of coworking is simple: independent professionals and those with workplace flexibility work better together than they do alone. Coworking spaces are about community-building and sustainability. The five core values of coworking are Collaboration, Openness, Community, Accessibility and Sustainability.
It is really important to note that coworking spaces do not see the people who work from them as tenants – they see them as members of their community. As Tonya Surman said…..“For the community by the community” when referring to the coworking concept. This is why coworking spaces do not have an office manager; they have community managers.
The Global Coworking Unconference Conferences are a great initiative to not only keep the collective of coworking centres going and working together, but they are a place to share coworking stories, ideas, tips and help new coworking centres to gain valuable insights into what coworking is truly about. In short, people call the Global Coworking Unconference Conference “GCUC” and pronounce it “juicy.” I did not know this until the second day of the conference and was confused thinking my ears were deceiving me when I thought I heard speakers say “juicy” when they talked about it.
One last note about unconferences, a term that was new to me. It seems the unconference part of the conference is where there is no planned themes for the discussion groups. Attendees were asked to put ideas of topics they wanted to explore on large sticky notes, then collectively all of the other attendees would look at the suggestions and vote on them. The best part was that no one knew whose ideas were who’s, so the selected breakout discussions were not biased in any way. More conferences of like-minded and similarly inspired people should try this “unconference” approach to get some really fascinating discussions initiated.
1. Jennifer Smith
General Manager
The Omni King Edward Hotel
37 King Street East
Toronto, ON
M5C 1E9
Tel: 416-863-9700
Website: www.omnihotels.com/hotels/toronto-king-edward
2. Mark Perry
General Manager
Executive Hotels and Resorts (Boutique)
8 Colborne Street
Toronto, ON
M5E 1E1
Tel: 416-350-2419
Website: www.spazen.ca or www.cosmotoronto.com
3. Emeline Boul
General Manager
Hotel Victoria (Boutique)
56 Yonge Street
Toronto, ON
M5E 1G5
Tel: 416-363-1666
Mobile: 647-574-5832
Website: www.hotelvictoriatoronto.com
4. Omkar Sawant
Reservations Manager
One King West Hotel
1 King Street West
Toronto, ON
M5H 1A1
Main: 416-548-8100
Reservations: 1-866-470-5464
Website: www.onekingwest.com
5. Van Nguyen
General Manager
Cambridge Suites Toronto
15 Richmond Street East
Toronto, ON
M5C 1N2
Direct: 416-601-3757
Hotel: 416-368-1990
Website: www.cambridgesuitestoronto.com
1. Michael Pagliaro
Carisma (Italian)
15 Toronto Street
Toronto, ON
M5C 2E3
Tel: 416-864-7373
Website: www.carismarestaurant.com
2. Patti Shaw
Terroni (Italian)
57 Adelaide Street East
Toronto, ON
M5C 1K6
Tel: 416-203-3093
Website: www.terroni.com
3. Declan
Restaurant 20 Victoria – Michelin guide approved
20 Victoria Street
Toronto, ON
M5C 2A1
Tel: 416-804-6066
Instagram for reservations: https://www.instagram.com/twentyvictoria/
4. Mana
Nami (Japanese)
55 Adelaide Street East
Toronto, ON
M5C 1K6
Tel: 416-362-7373
Website: www.namirestaurant.ca
5. Restaurant Lucie
100 Yonge Street
Toronto, ON
M5C 2W1
Tel: 416-788-9054
Website: www.restaurantlucie.com
6. Niam H
Cantina Mercatto
20 Wellington Street East
Toronto, ON
M5E 1C5
Tel: 416-304-0781
Website: www.cantinamercatto.ca
7. Siva Sathasivam
Uncle Tony’s
38 Wellington St E
Toronto, ON
M5E 1C7
Tel: 416-455-6650
Website: https://uncletonys.ca/
8. Pizzaiolo
104 Yonge Street
Toronto, ON
M5C 2Y6
Tel: 416-860-0700
Website: www.pizzaiolo.ca
9. Robin Singh
Woods Restaurant and Bar
45 Colborne Street
Toronto, ON
M5E 1E3
Tel: 416-214-9918
Website: www.woodsrestaurant.ca
1. Thom Tullo
Morpheus8 by Inmode
47 Colborne Street
Toronto, ON
M5E 1E3
Tel: 416-863-6564
Website: www.amanspa.ca
2. Altitude Athletic Training
56 Colborne Street
Toronto, ON
M5E 1E3
Tel: 416-366-3838
Website: www.altitudeathletictraining.com
3. Physioheath Studios
33 Victoria Street, #130
Toronto, ON
M5C 2A1
Tel: 416-368-2525
Website: www.physiohealth.com
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