Linking Coworking and Innovation

“Accelerated serendipity” is a term you hear often in the coworking community. It is a belief that coworking increases the generation of business ideas and productivity. The concept is when smart people from diverse backgrounds come together in a coworking community, good things happen – including business innovation.

Our interviews with coworking users confirms that “accelerated serendipity” is not just a marketing phrase – it is occurring. Coworking users tend to see strong business value in the idea generation, feedback and input they get from their coworking communities.

The Cube, a coworking facility in London, has an interesting essay on this topic. How Coworking Spaces Will Help Shape the New Economy focuses on the role of coworking in creating new ideas, businesses and industries. Key quote:

“Coworking spaces bring together people of different thought processes, experiences, and talents. The interaction between people of such diverse backgrounds makes our spaces a breeding ground for strong idea communities, which will then lead to the creation of new sectors and industries.”

Beyond bringing together a community, The Cube also offers a formalized innovation program. Their Idea Engineering Agency has created a process to make innovation leaner, faster, and effective for its members.”

The linkage between coworking and innovation is being made by others. Nextspace Coworking’s tagline is “coworking + innovation”, Parisoma is an “innovation loft” and The Hub describes themselves as creating:

…places that borrow from the best of a member’s club, an innovation agency, a serviced office and a think-tank to create a very different kind of innovation environment. Places with all the tools and trimmings needed to grow and develop new ventures.

We will have more on this topic as we get deeper into our coworking research.

Real Ways for Small Business

Your Small Business Advisor!