As technology eliminates the boundaries in our lives, lines are also being blurred how we think of and use spaces. Now, a new breed of co-working spaces are on the rise, designed to empower a new generation of workers.
Through collaboration and community, these are spaces that give artists a sense of belonging and inspiration. Two individuals in the forefront of figuring out new, creative use of spaces took to the stage at WIT 2017.
Morris Sim, CMO, Next Story Group and Turochas Fuad, Managing Director, WeWork Southeast Asia; former CEO & Founder, Spacemob, discussed their companies and how they think the industry will change.
Sim, whose company is a combination of a hotel operator, a marketing agency, and a boutique design firm who want to reinvent the way hotels use and design spaces, said they look at spaces as a way to facilitate communities. 
“We start with the social network at the core instead of real estate. The way you think about spaces, when you consider that you want to facilitate special networks to grow, it is different from just leasing spaces,” he said. “I really think it’s back to innovation in customer experience and the way you use spaces. There are a lot of empty spaces in hotels that are under-used.”
For Fuad, who is currently spearheading WeWork’s expansion into Southeast Asia, which now has 150,000 members internationally: “It is all about the community that we build. How do we make sure that we add value to a member who is a freelancer, all the way to one who is at an MNC.”
WeWork’s community of MNC workers has grown from 10% of them members last year, to 30% now, he said.
WeWork’s valuation has also gone up quickly, worrying Sim who said: “That valuation worries me because you could suck the air out of the entire industry.”
Fuad, however, said it is not just about valuation, but about maintaining quality even as they scale up. “That keeps me awake at night. I’m expanding as fast as I can, hiring as many people as fast as I can, and making sure we maintain the same quality.”
To add quality, and because “millennials are looking for something different”, WeWork has even added gyms to some of their co-working spaces.
Sim said the key for smaller players like Next Story Group is to differentiate a lot. “I think that’s the rule here — the big players get bigger, small players have to differentiate and the middle players get crushed.”
To differentiate their products, both companies are thinking ahead. Fuad said he thinks the next big thing would be looking at how to change the retail landscape, while Sim said Next Story Group wants to see how they can build spaces to make interactions between guests even more special.
