The fast-growing coworking industry has led to a group of American coworking space owners to form the first national association of shared spaces called COSHARE.
A collaboration of coworking space operators and owners announce COSHARE, an association for people who have shared spaces to share ideas. This is the first association in the United States to primarily focus on the coworking movement and includes anyone with a shared space, such as maker spaces, kitchen incubators, accelerators, executive suites and more.
A coworking industry online magazine, deskmag, reports 2,500 coworking spaces worldwide as of March 2013 and projects an expected 400% growth in 2014. The United States is the world’s biggest coworking country. Coworking spaces provide a community of collaborative people doing independent activities within a shared workspace. For entrepreneurs, freelancers, service providers and high-growth startups, coworking has become a common term and for many of them, a necessary resource in the success of their business growth. The increased demand for more shared spaces combined with repeated interest from space owners and operators, has led to the creation of COSHARE, the first national association of shared spaces.
Liz Elam of Link Coworking is one of the founding members of COSHARE believes this is an exploding market that needs a united entity. “We believe COSHARE can provide education, advocacy, community, support and collaboration. We are now uniquely positioned to support and promote the shared space industry and in some ways, protect it.”
COSHARE states their mission and purpose on their website: “to provide education, community and advocacy for our people-centric workspaces.” Additionally, they will provide assistance in producing the Global Coworking Unconference and Conference, resources and access to tools for emerging coworking spaces and support existing coworking resources such as the Coworking Google Group and Coworking Wiki Project. Advocacy topics include getting the official spelling of coworking in the AP style book and education Google on the needs of coworking spaces (i.e. how one business address can be claimed by 200 businesses on Google Places.)
The board of directors if made up of owners and operators of people-centric spaces:
- Craig Baute, Creative Density
- Jerome Chang, BLANKSPACES
- Benjamin Dyett, GRIND
- Liz Elam, Link Coworking
- Kailey Faber, The Skillery
- Bill Jacobson, Workbar
- Iris Kavanagh, NextSpace Coworking
- Jenny Poon, CO-HOOTS & Connect
- Sarah Snyder, Think Big Coworking
Membership with COSHARE costs $250 per year and includes discounts on workshops and events, a listing in the member directory, and access to COSHARE publications. Other expected benefits include discounts on industry vendors, access to one-on-one mentor sessions with coworking leaders, educational webinars and more.
America’s first coworking association, COSHARE is now accepting member applications from anyone with a shared workspace to share ideas. Please apply at coshare.co.
About COSHARE
COSHARE, LLC is an American association of spaces where people share workspaces to share ideas. Founded in September of 2013, the membership organization supports the coworking and shared space movement through education, community and advocacy. The association works with existing and new coworking movement resources and assists in producing the Global Coworking Unconference and Conference (GCUC.)