A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats – Regional Coworking Alliances, Collectives and Associations

The definition of an Alliance is a union or association formed for mutual benefit. The definition of a Collective is a cooperative enterprise. And the definition of an Association is a group of people organized for a joint purpose.

Picture this, you are one of the first coworking spaces in your city. You open your doors and people start to visit. They ask “do you have jobs?” thinking that you are a job placement center. They have never heard of coworking, they have no idea what it is. As an owner, operator or community manager, you have many responsibilities and one of those is educating the general public about the coworking concept. In some cities and regions, where coworking is newer or just beginning this can feel like an uphill battle. Of course, it’s gotten easier over the years but there is still work to do to raise awareness.

That’s where coworking collectives come in. Coworking was born from the thought that we all work better together and coworking alliances are no different. There is power in aligning together to spread the good word about what coworking is and how it can benefit more and more people. Multiple voices can amplify the message to more people faster.

There are several great examples of coworking associations across the globe. One of the first being Coworking Toronto. Banding together they were able to form COHIP, the Coworking Health Insurance Plan, a supplemental insurance plan offered to members of coworking spaces across Canada. Then there’s Denver Coworks, the Seattle Collaborative Space Alliance, the European Coworking Assembly, the Coworking Alliance of Asia-Pacific and many, many more who are all doing great things in their regions by working together. This year the Kansas City Coworking Alliance even set the Global Coworking Record for the most people coworking in one space at one time. Will your alliance be the one to break the record in 2018?

Alliances use the same five core coworking values: community, openness, collaboration, sustainability and accessibility. With the Kansas City Coworking Alliance, we’ve added a new core value specifically for our Alliance, coop-etition. We have seen first hand that it truly benefits us all if we cooperate rather than directly compete, we’re cooperatively competitive.

The Open Coworking Team would like to compile a list of all of the Global Coworking Alliances / Collectives / Associations so that coworking spaces in each region around the world will know who to connect to if they’d like to join their local alliance. Or if there isn’t one, then maybe they will take the initiative to create one of their own.

If you manage a Regional Coworking Alliance please fill out this form to be added to the Global Coworking Alliance list.

Thank you,

Melissa Saubers

President & Cofounder

Kansas City Coworking Alliance