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Faye Stutts on LI

Vari

Faye has deep experience in the coworking industry, from sales roles at large operators to her new-ish role at Vari, an innovative furniture supplier for the coworking industry. At Vari, Faye is responsible for developing relationships with coworking spaces of all sizes around the world. In her role, she shares her firsthand experience and knowledge of the coworking industry with space owners and operators who are looking to furnish their coworking spaces with high-quality, accessible, modern furniture.

Faye is a renowned connector in the coworking community and is known for her commitment to helping operators be successful. She attends coworking conferences and events around the world to stay up-to-date on the latest trends and developments in the coworking industry.

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Connect with Charlie Morris on LinkedIn

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Robert Teed

Charlie Morris

Robert Teed: Helping Shape Our 'Next' as a Chief Coaching Officer, Strategic Advisor, Board Member, Recovering Corporate Real Estate Exec & Tagger of #𝘏𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘕𝘦𝘹𝘵.

In the past, commercial real estate has been all about space - finding the perfect location for your business and then outfitting it to suit your needs. However, this is no longer the case. As more and more businesses embrace hybrid work models, the need for traditional office space has declined. coworking and flexible office spaces have become increasingly popular, as they offer greater choice and flexibility when it comes to where and how people work. As a result, commercial real estate is no longer about the space - it's about the people. businesses are looking for places that will attract and retain talent, and that offer a variety of work options to suit different needs. That's why hybrid work models (yes, we hate the word hybrid too) are here to stay - and why commercial real estate will continue to evolve to meet the changing needs of businesses.

Robert shares his perspective on the shift from space to people, and what #harnessingnext means to him and the leaders he supports in his coaching business.

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Joe Brady

The Instant Group

Joe Brady, CEO Americas, The Instant Group, shares his vision for a frictionless, world-class workplace experience…and how Instant will help us get there.

The Instant Group is creating the world's largest independent marketplace for flexible workspace through its merger with the key digital assets from IWG plc including EasyOffices.com, Meetingo.com, Rovva and Worka.

Joe shares:

- The synergies of this merger, the plan to spin the combined group out as a separate entity within 12-18 months.

- Why independent operators should not be worried about Instant being so intimately connected with IWG

- How the Instant Group creates plug and play offices for enterprises like GSK

- His vision for a frictionless workplace experience

- Top talent that Instant is recruiting to drive its vision forward

- And more.

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Bill Bennett on LinkedIn

Expansive

Jamie and Gio have a jam session about some of the hot topics in flex this week.

We talk about:

- Due diligence on a market - for LLs and operators

- The Industrious/Nuveen hospitality play

- Knowing who you want to serve and delivering an experience that aligns with your ideal member

- Why we're skeptical about small, flex-only locations located in retail centers

- And more!

Andrea Pirrotti-Dranchak started her career in the flex industry with IWG/Regus in 1999. She is now the Global Enterprise Director at NewFlex which delivers managed flex solutions for building owners.

Andrea shares:

- Why the UK is ahead of the US in flex

- New Flex' unique model around brand-agnostic flex solutions for asset owners

- How flex will make office space as transactional as a hotel.

- What the world will look like when more than 1% of knowledge workers can make a decision about where they do their work

- Why Regus and Industrious don't need outbound enterprise sales teams

- The cultural differences between the UK and the US and how that plays out in flex.

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Andrea on LinkedIn

Newflex

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Bill Bennett on LinkedIn

Expansive

Bill Bennett is the founder and CEO of Expansive which powers the largest portfolio of owned and operated flexible workspace centers in the U.S.

The expansive portfolio consists of 35 locations in 47 cities.

Bill shares:

- His own "coworking story,"

- Why the Expansive business model is to own the asset, but to also flip the landlord model on its head to be client-centric

- The advantage of offering a broad range of product offerings,

- Creative ways they're approaching funding new locations

- What Bill's equity investors expect in return

- His perspective on IWG's investment in tech platforms

- Why venture capital doesn't belong in a real estate business

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Melissa on LinkedIn

JLL

Flex by JLL

Melissa Schilo started her career as a booking agent for a modeling agency. In 2006, he started her flex career with one of the first public companies in the serviced office industry - Servcorp, in Australia. That makes Melissa a true OG - and she's seen a lot.

She hung up her a shingle with Melissa Ainsley, and was then recruited by JLL to join their Flex team.

Melissa notes that it took a pandemic for real estate and asset owners and even brokers to see flex as a viable solution for optimizing an asset. She notes that it used to be looked at as the "poor cousin of traditional leases." Now asset owners realize they want 10 - 20% of their asset to be flexible and they want amenity spaces that serve as "cross functional spaces" for lease-holding tenants and flex tenants.

JLL Flex started with a focus on occupiers and providing a solution that occupiers were looking for a in a post-COVID work-anywhere world. Then the asset owners came looking for solutions to attract the occupiers. JLL's role has evolved to serve both sides. They'll make recommendations for an asset and delivery a turn-key solution, designed and run by JLL Flex. They've also partnered with asset owners by taking over underperforming flex for asset owners and used their design and hospitality expertise to re-invigorate the flex offer and ultimately make it a profitable member of the asset owner's portfolio.

Melissa's view is that JLL will be a leader in Flex because they're not just dabbling…they truly believe that Flex is the future and they're offering full-service, asset-specific solutions to commercial building owners - JLL brings to the table design, operations, leasing, hospitality, customer acquisition, branded solutions, white-labeled solutions, and increasingly,the technology to pull it all together.

JLL recently brought Jacob Bates on board as their head of flex and she refers to him as a great visionary in the industry who will continue to drive innovation.

And there's Scott Homa who famously predicted that flex will be 30% of commercial assets by 2030.

For Melissa, the high-powered team at JLL and collaborative culture makes the future of flex pretty bright.

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Mike Fransen on LI

Mike's newly released book The Legacy Business: Practical Insights to Assembling a Life Worth Passing on to Others

Mike Fransen was an early visionary in creating and operating workplace ecosystems. He was a pioneer in programming office buildings to be compelling destinations, and to include amenities like childcare. Today he is the Founder and CEO of Workng, LLC (and a newly published author!)

We talk with Mike about:

- How asset management is adapting to the needs/wants of today's end user

- Why it's important but hard to effectively program an office complex

- Why it's worth taking risks to get the right mix of tenants (such as childcare and fitness) into an office ecosystem project

- Bringing the first WeWork to Austin

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Mark Rose on LI

Mark's Blog posts on Davos

Avison Young

Mark Rose is the CEO of Avison Young whose perspective on the next phase of real estate consumption is grounded in decades of experience. He's passionate about using data, modeling and AI to drive real estate decisions that meet client needs.

We talk with Mark about:

- Using data to make real estate decisions.

- His experience at the 2022 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos.

-His perspective (driven by years of experience) that the pendulum of human behavior always swings back to the center…but it takes time.

- His commitment to flex and to keeping AY agnostic in their ability to advise clients on the best option.

- AY's long-term commitment to a positive culture even at scale. Mark noted that doing right and doing good didn't impact their ability to be profitable.

- Mark's belief that "Culture eats strategy for lunch."

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Sarah Travers thought she was going to be an attorney when she grew up…until she dropped out of law school in her first week, spent a year at X company, was laid off during the post 2001 recession…and then spent the next 15 years of her career at Regus.

Sarah is a shared workspace lifer.

In 2017, she joined Workbar as head of sales and then transitioned into the CEO role.

You can tell that Sarah has a CEO profile - she's a big picture thinker focused on delivering, in her words "the best day of work" for every Workbar member.

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Sarah Travers on LI

Workbar