• Who are CoWorkers?

Since the birth of the gig economy, coworking spaces have been in a state of constant evolution. Once predominantly dominated by entrepreneurs, freelancers, and digital nomads, these types of pay-for-what-you-use office rental models are now catering to individuals from all walks of life.

This phenomenon of sharing office space is also growing rapidly. This is evidenced by GCUC who expect global coworking spaces to grow from 14,411 in 2017 to just over 30,000 in 2022. This average annual growth of 24.2% can be attributed to the fact that the average coworking space has become bigger in terms of square footage.

So who works in these places?

If you’ve been to a coworking space in Dublin, you would have probably encountered any or all of these types of professionals:

• Creatives
• Entrepreneurs
• Freelancers
• Flexible corporate workers
• Professional mobile workers
• Techies

This creates an environment that’s bustling with all types of people from a wide variety of industries that have the potential to help and inspire each other going forward. While early-stage startups no longer make up the majority, the advantages of lower costs and enhanced flexibility will continue to attract them to the best coworking spaces.

• The Corporations Are Moving In

As every industry imaginable goes through a period of digital transformation, there is also a growing need for greater agility and flexibility in the corporate world. This has created a trend where more and more corporations are leveraging desk hire and office hire solutions to meet their evolving needs.

This trend will also probably increase as corporations look to reduce their exposure to long-term leases as more millennials enter the workforce. As this generation continues to demand more flexible options, the coworking model will be adopted by more mainstream enterprises.

This phenomenon will also be driven by corporations that hire overseas workers who continue to live and work in their home countries. Self-employed knowledge-base workers will also continue to be drawn to hot desk(ing) as it presents a great opportunity to have a broader range of daily interactions. As working from home significantly limits your ability to meet like-minded people and grow your professional network, coworking spaces present best opportunity to make human contact.

• CoWorkers in Dublin

When it comes to a Dublin office space, there’s a good chance that your coworkers hail from a technology background. This is because the city has grown to become the EU headquarters of technology giants like Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, and Twitter and is ranked 8th for being the most startup-friendly city in all of Europe.

As more venture capital funding and international talent come pouring in, Dublin is increasingly becoming the best place to conduct your business in Europe. As a result, you can expect coworking spaces to become more prominent and omnipresent to cater to this growing market in the years to come.

As different market niches evolve in the local startup scene, different spaces may also form around it. Sometimes different office spaces can also come together and compliment each other. When you look at it from the perspective of a new tech startup, coworking spaces might be the factor that dictates who succeeds who doesn’t. This is because getting into one of these highly collaborative spaces guarantees support on multiple levels.  

Coworking comes with a lot of benefits and research suggests that the future of coworking will be a thriving community of corporate innovation teams and early-stage startups. These small teams will flourish with multiple opportunities for collaboration with others working on similar innovative projects.

Last year, more than a million people went to work across 13,800 coworking spaces spread across the planet. This phenomenon was also supported by coworking memberships which have grown steadily over the years.

As technology evolves at an accelerated pace, coworking will probably change in the near future. What it might look like is not easy to predict, but with innovations like the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence coming into prominence in recent months, you can certainly expect it to have an impact how we work and how we collaborate.