Meet Marc Navarro, Content Director of the Coworking Spain Conference

RemoteOfficeFM

[00.48] Marc Navarro background. The idea why he ends up in coworking industry

I studied in industrial design and working as a freelancer. At the end of the day, I was tired and decided to quit. I went to work in community center back in 2011. The company that running community center asking their employees about the future opportunities. One of the plans is coworking space. I am with seven people, if I'm not wrong, started to think about the target of our coworking space. It was December 2011 then CREC born. Technically, I'm the only one of that group that can participate in the coworking spaces. That's my story how I end up in the coworking world. We opened in January 2013.

I met a lot of people in Coworking Spain Conference, Coworking Europe Conference and last year I went to Cowork Buzz which is Portuguese Coworking Conference which is really awesome. I help Manuel Zea creating content for Coworking Spain Conference.

[04.18] The Interior Design that suit Coworking Spaces

I think it depends on terms of availability in your space but at the end, the percentage of open space will decrease. When we design our space CREC, we mix. We created some closed offices and the most part of the space is open space. I think the future spaces not just in CREC but in Barcelona which going to be developed mostly are closed offices.

Depending on the kind of business, depending on the size of the team. It's about the privacy issue. In CREC, we manage to create a culture inside the space which people is very respectful and people is really surprised when they reach our space but the volume of sound, the voice it's really tiny for such a big space.

I think the challenge for the owners of business centers is to create a new design which looks less formal and manage the community. They need to create new spaces and invest money also give the member the intangible value which is connecting people. So, they can increase the rates in the future.

We are working in a real estate environment. Real estate going higher and higher. So, we need to keep raising our rate. It's a nice challenge and I think it's the funniest interesting moment in the coworking history since I'm part of it.

[10.15] Coworking Hybrid

There was a way to create public coworking, paid with public funds in private spaces and I call that a coworking hybrid. I proposed a system which the government each year make a selection of people with a list of requisites that they need to fulfill so you must have these characteristics and then they give the coworking leader the list of coworking who participated in that project so they can go there.

Coworkers can choose which coworking they want to attend. Coworking spaces will benefit from people who are getting started their business. Coworking consultant also can do their job better because there are professionals in their business and can help people. Everyone wins.

When government invests a certain amount of money because they are paying for that membership that fixed amount. On the other hand, the coworking space is getting that money so they secure the membership for one year but they are obligated to be part of the project to during six months give a discount of the final rate. The magic happens because they invested one money in the citizen and getting the money plus the discount for six months.

The buildings which are currently being dedicated for coworking can be used to another goal or rent it to private companies. And make more money for public use. It's should be controlled by someone from the government or digitally controlled using beacons or other tools.

[16.15] Corporate Coworking

There's a trend in big companies they are really concerned about how to keep talent inside and how to attract talent. Back in late 2015, I get the information that Endessa companies looking for someone to help them to create a coworking space in their headquarters. They have been working with someone specializes in working with companies to develop their projects and they need an actual coworking expert.

I think when you work in such a huge environment with a lot of people. In terms of new ways of work, they have huge structures, they need to be really structured very ordered, there are a lot of silos. I mean it's like a huge amount of people so you need to have rules and help them to get the improvement.

I'm really open to someone who approaches me to help them create a coworking space inside their company to change the way their company works in terms of space, in terms of relationship. And take those strategies, those tricks, those philosophies from coworking which make them in increasing their value in terms of personal value also to improve how the company works. I mean to make people better. The company also make more money or spend less too. There are a lot of things which have been tested in coworking since coworking started and now can be can be implemented in in companies.

Twitter | Website | Coworking Spain Conference | Cowork Buzz

The song is by Anitek - Durban under CC license.