“One of the attendees spoke about their local government saying that they could not show favour to specific business and therefore couldn’t collaborate with the coworking space. One of the panellists said, We’ll create a downtown alliance. They can work with an alliance.”

—Lauren Walker

Episode Summary

Lauren Walker is a storyteller who’s spent 25 years behind the scenes.

Reader’s Digest in the 1990s, where she learned direct marketing when things were still on paper. A couple of dot-com startups during the boom. Thirteen years at IBM, writing deep technical marketing before becoming the editor of IBM.com’s homepage.

She’s been working remotely since 2005. Twenty years of distributed work before it became the default.

Now she’s CMO at Coworks, a coworking space software company. And in February 2026, she helped organise the Coworking Operators Weekend in Raleigh—a small, focused gathering of 40 operators and managers at Raleigh Founded.

The event started in LA in 2025. Jerome Chang and Jackie Latragna created it with one principle: small, no bells and whistles, just operators talking. Sean Brown, CEO of Coworks, attended and loved it. Jerome asked if Coworks wanted to bring it to the East Coast. They said yes.

Lauren describes the energy simply: “It was folks recognising game. It was folks saying, I do what you do, you do what I do, but how do you do it?”

What made it work was what it wasn’t. No vendor presentations. No polished keynotes. Just operators sharing what they’d learned by doing the work.

There’s something else worth naming here, because Lauren shared it publicly after the event.

She has brain cancer. She’s in remission, but she lives with a tumour on her cerebellum. The radiation treatment left visible effects—her face is droopy, her eye doesn’t blink, she walks with an unusual gait.

She’d been hiding. Camera positioned to show her left side on calls. AI-generated headshot. Avoiding in-person events despite wanting to be there.

Her anxiety about the Operators Weekend wasn’t about the logistics or the agenda. It was about explaining her face.

But the people she told were warm and understanding. No one ran. She showed up anyway.

That matters. Not because it’s inspirational theatre, but because it shows what these events actually are: spaces where operators can be honest about what’s hard without performing strength they don’t feel.

Bernie and Lauren talk through the tactical lessons from the weekend—the downtown alliance hack, the circus metaphor for marketing, the AI panel’s three questions, and what FLOC is doing about career paths in coworking.

This episode is for operators who need their peers more than they need another conference.

Timeline Highlights

[01:27] Lauren on being a marketer: “I’m not really known for anything because I’m a marketer. I have to be behind the scenes. But that is what I’m known for. I’m a content marketer. I’m a storyteller.”

[02:55] On 20 years of remote work: “IBM... they kicked us out in 2005. They said, Work from home. I have been working remote for 20 years.”

[05:25] The origin of COW: “Let’s have a small event. Let’s not plan this. Let’s not have bells and whistles. Let’s just get together and talk.”

[06:42] Game recognising game: “These are the people doing the work. These are not the consultants. These are not the vendors.”

[08:25] On articulating value to cities: “It’s being able to discuss the economic impact that you are having on that local area.”

[09:41] The downtown alliance solution: “One of the panellists said, We’ll create a downtown alliance. They can work with an alliance.”

[10:39] Proctor’s tactical hack: “Just create a coworking day. Go to your government and say, This is going to be Raleigh coworking Day.”

[11:51] On impact reports: “What goes into what’s called an impact report, and then how do you quantify the value you bring to your city?”

[13:05] The 3-5 year drop-off: “She’s really identified this drop-off after the first 3-5 years... we’re missing a pipeline of growth.”

[14:26] Role title confusion: “Sometimes they’re hiring for a community manager, but what they really need is an operations coordinator.”

[16:45] Samantha Reel’s AI questions: “What are you spending the most time doing? What are you ignoring that’s high value? And what is messy and should be cleaned up?”

[17:35] Taylor Mason on training AI: “Everything that you put into it, you’ll get out of it. So if you don’t train your AI... you’re going to get something very generic.”

[20:04] The real AI fear: “There was a concern like, is this going to change the makeup of our membership?”

[23:26] The circus metaphor begins: “If you have a circus and you went looking for the right town to be in, that is market research.”

[25:24] Marketing advice: “What’s the goal? What do you want to achieve?... work backward from that.”

[26:19] Channel strategy: “Where is your audience? What channel do they use?... And go there”

The Downtown Alliance Hack

Here’s the problem operators keep hitting.

You want to work with your city. You want them to understand the economic value you’re creating—the businesses you’re launching, the foot traffic you’re bringing downtown, the parking revenue, the local spending.

But when you approach your local government, they say: “We can’t show favour to a specific business.”

Dead end.

One operator at the Coworking Operators Weekend raised exactly this. Their city wouldn’t collaborate because working with one coworking space would be preferential treatment.

A panellist solved it in one sentence: “We’ll create a downtown alliance. They can work with an alliance.”

Lauren explains what that means: “Work with the local coffee shop, work with the local printer, work with folks that are on this business corridor and create an alliance, and then your city can work with that alliance.”

It’s not a coworking space asking for support. It’s a coalition of local businesses presenting a unified economic case.

The city can’t work with you alone. But they can work with an entity that represents multiple stakeholders.

This is already happening in the US. Lauren mentions the Denver Alliance, the Atlanta Alliance. City-based alliances, interest-based alliances. The infrastructure exists.

For UK operators navigating the business rates crisis, this is the playbook. You’re not asking for relief for your space. You’re asking on behalf of a corridor, a district, a coalition of independents who are all absorbing the same systemic pressure.

That’s a political entity. That’s something a council can work with.

The Impact Report You’re Not Writing

Lauren talks about the “impact report” like it’s obvious, but most operators aren’t doing it.

“What goes into what’s called an impact report, and then how do you quantify the value you bring to your city? Collect this data, look at this data, and then present it.”

What data?

* The number of businesses you’re launching.

* The number of people coming downtown for lunch because your members are there.

* The number of people using the parking deck.

* The total local spend your members generate in the surrounding area.

This isn’t marketing fluff. This is economic evidence.

Cities care about footfall. They care about business formation. They care about parking revenue because that funds other services. They care about vitality in the city centre.

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