In 2014, when most shared office spaces were going big, sleek and downtown, Nicole Vasquez quietly created a small coworking space in the Uptown neighborhood in Chicago. The result of her efforts is a neighborhood community -and space- focused on supporting, promoting and connecting each other. I will talk with Nicole about building a small community in a big city, impacting members and sustaining herself and her business while providing a valuable community resource.

Stephanie Bermudez is training the new work force. With a background in developing youth entrepreneurs and creating internship programs, Stephanie has spearheaded COSHARE's Coworking Internship pilot program. I'll talk with Stephanie about how coworking spaces can create internship programs that enrich the intern and the community. We will also address best practices for working with Millennials (hint, she is one!)

Iris talks with Cat Johnson, writer and content strategist. Cat helps collaborative spaces create DIY content that tells the stories of their communities and individual members We will cover the top 3 tips to writing content that will take your blog from generating internal interest to reaching your larger community and the media. You're changing the lives of your members every day, now you just need to craft your content to get the word out. Cat will show us how to tell your story and get noticed.

Drew Jones lives the intersection between corporate culture and coworking. As co-founder of Austin, Texas's first coworking space, and a management professor at Texas State, Drew is constantly focused on how to apply Design Thinking to help create more human-centered and innovative organizations. We will chat about Drew's latest project: to bring the coworking ethos into the world's largest corporations, in an effort to bring more agility, connection and collaboration to the companies solving world problems.

There are many ways to go about finding a location to open a coworking space. For companies looking to expand to new markets, determining viability can be daunting. Enter Doug Maschoff and his market analysis tool. Doug fell in love with coworking when he joined a community after selling his property management company. Combining his understanding of the real estate marketplace, working with landlords and tenants and his understanding of the needs of the mobile workforce, Doug created a comprehensive check list detailing how to determine market viability for coworking. This is super technical stuff and we will dive in with gusto. I'll ask Doug to break it down in terms we all can understand and give us the scoop on how to apply his techniques to help expanding companies find the right fit for their brands of coworking.

Just in time for Global Coworking Week, I'm chatting with Liz Elam, founder of Link Coworking in Austin and founder and Executive Producer of the Global Coworking Unconference Conference. Liz and I will chat about her travels around the globe, how she's seen the movement change over the years, coworking trends in different geographies and the current state of our movement.

Coworking is not just big shiny offices in urban cores. It's about meeting the diverse needs of people, ie: community, workplace, accessibility, tools, infrastructure. In my ongoing series on neighborhood coworking spaces I'll talk with Mara Hauser, founder of 25North Coworking. Mara is creating an experience that is focused on meeting the needs of her community, a suburban town outside of Chicago. I'll ask Mara to share her journey in creating a coworking space in her neighborhood.

Iris chats with Rebecca Brian Pan, serial enreprenuer, new mother and CEO of Covo, a lifestyle workspace just opened in downtown San Francisco. Covo has a full Cafe, taproom, large classroom space, public coworking and will provide resources to Architecture, Engineering and Construction workers through a partnership with Good Design.

Hector Kolonas is building Included.co as a platform for coworking and shared workspaces to access service offerings at a discount to their members. Offering services geared towards coworking spaces and their members, Hector's goal is to help small businesses grow. ONe way he is doing so is by bringing independent coworking operators and the small businesses that fill out their spaces the kind of group buying power traditionally confined to large corporations. We will find out what's involved in joining the Included.co network, who's in the network and the types of offerings available to operators and members.