#bisner

We have been extra busy lately here at Cobot. Our guess is that everyone was trying out new software solutions just before the summer break! But here in Berlin the sun is shining, so we have plenty of extra energy!

Photo by Georg Slickers

Cobot also hit a milestone! this week. All spaces are now officially using the new Cobot backend design! Next stop - reworking the individual sections.

Today we wanted to let you how we have been making Cobot better for you!

May System Improvements:

Adding custom Javascript

Notification Icons in Activity Feed

Added Adjusted Invoice to the Member Feed

Next Invoice Amount & Renewal Date Added to Member Profile

Rich Text Editing

Extended length of Events Sync

Limited Beta of our Bisner Integration

Adding custom Javascript

For several years, we have supported adding Custom Javascript onto your Cobot site. You would probably use this for tracking services like Google Analytics or Piwik.

Previously, you needed to email us to add it. But we have reached a critical mass of spaces requesting it - it is now embedded right in Cobot.

If you want more detailed tracking - just go to Customize > Javascript

Notification Icons in Activity Feed

As part of the admin re-design, we are rethinking the way we present almost everything in Cobot. The first item we have pushed live is icons to identify activity feed messages at a glance.

Smiley Face for New Members

Document for invoices

Bell for charges and payments

Calendar for Booking

Invoice Adjustments added to Activity Feed

You have probably already worked with our support team to troubleshoot exactly the problem occurred. And you probably know that most often it is user error! So we are always looking for ways to make the important activities more transparent. That is why we have now added Invoice Adjustments to the activity feed.

When an invoice is edited, that shows in the member’s feed along with the person who made the edit.

Next Invoice and Renewal Date

For the sake of transparency, we also two other items to the Member Profile. You will now see at a glance the renewal date and next invoice amount for each member.

We believe that making the right information available keeps your space running smoother. So consider this an appetizer for how we are approaching the entire ongoing redesign!

Rich Text Editing

This is a short one, but a big help for our not-quite-so tech savvy spaces.

Previously we had a couple different text input methods for the different text areas in Cobot (it used to be Markdown). As part of our standardization - the FAQ section is now Rich Text Editing like most other systems on the internet.

Extended Event Syncing

We added this just to let you know that we are always working where possible to extend Cobot to meet your needs!

One of our spaces is scheduling their events more than 3 months. So we adjusted our sync up to 6 months for them. We are always paying attention to your requests, and wherever possible, we will add them right into the platform.

Bisner Beta

You know by now that the Bisner Integration is right around the corner...

This month we will be beginning our limited beta with the spaces that have already expressed interest. Another big steps forward towards a public release!

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As always please enjoy this update on what’s new in Cobot. We will have another set of improvements ready for you in just 30 days. Until then, enjoy!

Happy Coworking,

2 weeks ago, we were in LA for the 2016 GCUC conference. It is always a wonderful chance to catch up with many of our Cobot spaces - and most importantly to keep a pulse on the coworking movement as a whole.

This year represented a distinct new viewpoint because it was the first time that GCUC partnered with Alliance Network. (It was called GCUCALL this year) This brought a different crowd and a different set of experience to the conference. This was the first conference in probably 6 years where we spent most of our time meeting new people!

Coworking facts and figures

As you have come to expect, Carsten from Deskmag gave his update for the status of Coworking in the US based on his annual survey.  If you aren’t already reading everything Carsten publishes, start. You can download the full presentation here.

But we wanted to take one slide to discuss our key take-away from the conference:

In 2015-2016, the percentage of full-time employees using Coworking spaces overtook the freelancers and entrepreneurs.

Why is this important?

Because it is finally happening - coworking is growing up.

We have noticed here at Cobot too! From our early days starting co-up.de and deciding to run Cobot, we now have 5 children between our Cobot team and are processing over $5M in invoicing for our spaces per month!

And coworking in total is doing the same. It is no longer just the designers and programmers that never want to have a 9-5, it is also the 9-5ers who realize that the way coworkers work is just much better!

It is a big turning point for the movement as a whole, because we are now an orientation point.

And that is because we have special sauce! Really two special sauces, Community and Flexibility.

These are the pieces that keep coworking at the forefront of the movement and why the spaces that are doing those two pieces well will continue to stand as the leaders.

Cobot and the Special Sauce

Flexibility: As you know we were built for flexibility from the beginning, we are the only software package there that was built specifically for coworking from the beginning (and you feel it in the user experience). And we will keep making your experience as flexible and seamless as possible.

Community: We primarily build our community at co.up with the Cobot Slack Addon and a healthy offering of events. But we know that a lot of you want a more robust solution which is why our partnership with Bisner is right around the corner. While there is no replacement for the hands-on work of building and being part of a community, we will continue to do our part to build digital tools to facilitate that process!

Coworking for Business?

As we mentioned, this GCUC conference included Alliance Network members, who are primarily running business centers. They see that we are starting to take their customers!

In the age of Google and Facebook, a full-time position looks a lot more like coworking then office space.  And this is exactly what we saw in the US coworking survey at the beginning of this post.

Because of this - business centers will continue to orient on coworking.  But an interesting undercurrent to the conference was that coworking will also orient more on business to help get profitable! We still see at least 25% of coworking spaces being unprofitable (much lower than the beginning of coworking but still much higher than the business centers). So there is a big opportunity for both sides to improve their business for the better. Those who are willing to learn.

Those who are willing to learn, will be those who lead!

Last Thoughts

We wanted to share one last slide from the presentation that we found especially important.

If you are wondering how to setup your space, or how to reevaluate your space for improvements - walk your way through this list!

Happy Coworking!

You know Cobot as the software that makes the management of your space seamless, so that you have more time to spend with your coworkers. We also have a series of tools to help you connect your community - our Coworkers Addon, our Slack Integration, our MailChimp emails.

This has been the core of Cobot’s commitment to community. And it works well, it is also how we run our space co.up. But we are increasingly asked by our spaces for a “Facebook in Cobot”. So in our last retreat, we decided that we wanted to recommit our efforts to our Cobot Manifesto where have 3 points that deal specifically with Community :

community over business

engagement over management

dialogue over reach

Partnerships Make it Possible!

This is why we are happy to formally announce our partnership with Bisner. We are actively working on our integration together and you can look forward to it coming into Cobot in the near future.

Bisner offers a perfect addition to Cobot. It is a place where your Community can Connect, Find Each other and Organize Themselves.

The integration will load into Cobot’s Members View and provide:

Member Profiles

Member Search (by word & tag)

Information Feed (From space and from other Members)

Groups

Member-to-Member Chat

Notifications

And coming in the second wave will be the addition of:

Support for connecting Multiple Spaces

Events

Community is the heart of coworking spaces.  It is the identity of the space and is the number one reason why people come back again and again.  Tools that support the building of community should be a core consideration of all spaces. And they should always enable the personal relationships and human moments that we all need to feel complete.

Thilo Utke, Co-Founder, Cobot

Why aren’t you programming it yourselves?

We considered building out our community functionality in Cobot - but we also came back to our Manifesto point 3

Excellence over Versatility

Working with Bisner allows us to keep our concentration on doing what we do best (managing your space) and allow them to do what they do best (connecting your community).

We see our role at Cobot like with our Wi-Fi integrations, Payment Integrations, Zapier Integration, etc. is to make the experience as smooth and bulletproof as possible.

How can I get started?

If you are interested in being a Beta Testing Space - then please get in contact with us.

Otherwise, just pay attention to our Blog and we will continue to give out more details as we approach the launch date.

Until next time - Happy Coworking