The Technology and the Actors of Workspaces

This year, the prestigious magazine The Economist put on the cover the theme of how the technology is and will continue to revolutionize the offices and the workspaces in the years to come. On a cover brought to the 4 corners of the world one could see a hurricane literally sweeping away an office. The image reproduces well the quite present trend that no longer chooses the size of the company, nor the business sector. 

Increasingly more, the work space is the place where we are at each moment resulting from the larger mobility of workers and the use of technology that are transforming the office traditional concept. An IDC recent study - where the Portuguese case is analyzed - reveals that 50% of the employed population are mobile workers - they spend at least 25% of their time outside their workspace. The American company Intuit also revealed in a study a few years ago that, in 2020, 40% of the USA active population will be made of freelancers.

The technology and innovation we are watching has been accelerating even more this mutation which is also causing changes in sectors such as the airports and hotels that are already preparing or providing solutions and alternatives that come to answer to this new paradigm and the needs of mobile workers.

From the proliferation of more and segmented coworking spaces to airports where small modern modules are tested, totally equipped and with privacy to allow an occupation on demand and with high flexibility, followed by the recent case of Liquidspace application and it respective case study presented at the annual conference of the Global Workspace Association in the United States, there are numerous examples and success cases that enhance this all new world.

In the case of Liquidspace, it is an application that allows to choose and rent a work space or meeting rooms among thousands available and that can simply be used by one hour, one day or longer and easily booked through your mobile with the application. The bigger news is that the Marriot hotel chain has joined being one of the partners.

To the typically big and cold hotel meeting rooms rented to events and meetings joins now small and personalized work spaces with total flexibility. The hotels are also in an adaptation and adjustment process to the new world, to its needs and trends.

All this kind of revolution more or less silent completed by technology and innovative solutions is creating new opportunities and a whole new ecosystem that feeds itself of a new paradigm and where entrepreneurs, technology companies going through traditional actors and even agents, move along, although some of them not being in the sector consider to have some value to offer to companies, businessmen, workers and entrepreneurs looking for flexible and efficient. 

Besides the office be increasingly more the place where we are at each moment is more and more consensual we do not need only a space to work but a place where we feel good doing so.

Carlos Gonçalves

Avila Business Center and Avila Coworking's CEO