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SEATS2MEET.COM in 2013.
An organization that succeeds in getting a serendipity machine operational within its own Mesh will be able to valorize the infinite potential of a highly resilient source of value. It will be able to work with and in the interest of stakeholders to create products and services of great value. Sebastian Olma, The Serendipity Machine, 2012.
COWORKING, OR RATHER NEW VALUE CREATION, IS ON THE RISE. GLOBALLY! The annual survey on co-working worldwide by Deskmag shows an incredible growth of co-working locations of over 200% over the past 2 years. These numbers show that co-working is here to stay and although some may be skeptical of a future where 'not working in a dedicated office is the new standard for value creation', many of us realize that co-working has become a non reversible trend. The survey also shows that almost 80% of the co-working spaces/locations, like the Hub in Amsterdam and the Beta Haus in Berlin, still operate as a community with a fixed group of 'members' working there. This first group of users experience the 'closed network' as a strength of co-working, but we saw in 2012 that the traditional model of coworking, based on these monthly membership fees, doesnt grow in comparison with the S2M model. The US based booking office Loosecubes went out of business as the VC involved pulled the plug, due to the slow growth of members. We believe that it is fine to work closely together with people in networks, but a traditional membership is not the solution. Eventually co-working, or rather new value creation, can only really boom when these networks of co-workers are 'opening up' and seek the connection with the traditional organizations. Even stronger: As said before, we believe that co-workers are the key in connecting the 'old' and the 'new and this connection leads to a new way of value creation within the Interdependent economy of Society30. So our aim is to make every visit to a S2M location count: the unexpected relevance when meeting other people at a S2M location is our extreme, co-created added value. Serendipity. Therefore we need a lot of coworkers. Lots of them!
SEATS2MEET.COM in 2013.
Seats2meet.com International connects the physical locations through the web, thus creating a 3rd Space ecosystem with a layer of unique transactional-, social software and real time dashboards. This software system enables S2M to offer a serendipitous experience for its visitors: there is always an unexpected, but relevant meeting on the physical locations, which is the unique added value for any S2M location. The choice regarding the location to work or to meet at will no longer (only) be dependent on geographical preferences, but on the knowledge and skills available at a particular location. This Seats2meet.com Mesh we created, has an enormous new potential. Since we made it compulsory for Knowmads to book upfront and register, we dont only know who these people are, but we know their talents/knowledge, their social networks, as well as their mail addresses. From the corporate traditional bookers we know not only who they are, but also what the purpose of their meeting is. Around the physical meet up of all these people we see a range of new interactions between them, creating a demand for additional services: car sharing, team buying, book exchange, virtual meeting spaces, virtual classrooms, matching, dating, social dining, logistical services and social connections during events, couch surfing, skill sharing, lost & found services and more. So, for starters, we created in the Netherlands a fast growing group of people to whom in 2013 we can up-sell all kinds of new products and services, thus realizing the desired growth in turnover. This is our Mesh. Our future. The focus of our company is changing dramatically. We are moving from being a location operator to a combination of a conceptual software development exploring company and a web-department store, selling relevant products and services to knowledge workers. A real time, social business. 2013 we will exploit our potential with new products and services in the Dutch Mesh, where internationally the focus will be on the creation of a global Mesh. Our present activity as a location operator is no longer our core business. Our locations may be sold or run by another company in the near future. S2M International will pursue global growth as the concept-, software- and brand owner. 8
SEATS2MEET.COM in 2013.
THE S2M.com MESH IN THE NETHERLANDS. A survey of the Rotterdam School of Business in 2012 shows that our Knowmad network in the Netherlands is relatively young and fast growing: the majority of the visitors didnt know us 6 months ago. This survey will continue in 2013 making the serendipity factor of Seats2meet.com as a concept more visible, thus ensuring future growth.
Forecast 2013
S2M workspaces Mindz.com S2M meetingpsaces
60.000
25.000 75.000
125.000
153.000
185.000
185.000
The number of visits per Knowmad will go up from 4 times per year to 5 times per year, as we offer more services and connections. As the number of Knowmads rises to an estimate of 25.000, resulting in 25.000 X 5 = 125.000 workspaces booked. This creates over 400.000 touch points (booking confirmation, welcome message and review request), opportunities (points of sale) to communicate with the workspace bookers alone. Mindz will grow organically in the same pace it has been doing so far, and will gradually raise in 2013 to 60.000 profiles. That means we will have a potential Mesh (considering an overlap between Knowmads bookers and Mindz profiles of 30%) of 25.000 + 40.000 = 65.000 coworkers, complemented by 2k plus bookers, and 175.000 meeting participants. 9
S2M NETWORK. The Spoke & Hub Model. The business model of Seats2meet.com International for local operators is a freemium model. Participating as a location operator is initially free. Access to the software and knowledge is provided. Only when operators are making money on the seat and/or office rentals, they pay a (license) fee per seat, presently ranging 2 Euros per seat sold. Regionally various S2M Work-, Office and Meeting Space operators collaborate with each other and share the social network of Residents and corporate bookers.
REGION 1
REGION 2
REGION 3
Through the program www.myowns2m.com co-working and meeting centers are invited to join the physical network of locations. The process of coworking seats participation is done automatically by a self explanatory software wizard.
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NETWORK DEVELOPMENT.
The significance of weak ties is that they are far more likely to be bridges than are strong ties. It should follow, then, that the occupational groups making the greatest use of weak ties are those whose weak ties do connect to social circles different from one's own
(Mark Granovetter in his paper The strength of the weak ties, a network theory revised).
S2M aims to grow the network of S2M locations. Globally. Presently we have a large network in The Netherlands. Some locations are small, only offering workspaces. Others are big, with over 20 meeting rooms. Locations are presented to the market under their own name, with the addition of the words a Seats2meet.com location. In total we offer presently (Dec. 2012) daily over 2800 cowork spaces and over 200 meeting rooms. There are 30 meeting space locations and (30+52) 82 workspace locations, including pilot spaces at corporations like Cap Gemini, KPN and Arcadis. Abroad we are located in Cairo and will open up in February 2013 a location in Tokyo, Japan. THE NETHERLANDS 2013. The flagship store of Seats2meet.com is at Hoog Catharijne, one of the largest shopping malls in the Netherlands, situated at the Central Station in Utrecht. The mall is owned by Corio. This location is operated by S2M International. Also located, in an adjacent building, is Meeting Plaza Utrecht, a Seats2meet.com location. This property is also operated by Seats2meet.com International. In 2014 we aim together with Corio and the NGO Pax Christi to consolidate Pax Christis office and both our S2M locations in one World Peace Centre. The Corio mall development strategy is to create Life Style Centers, called A Favorite Meeting Place, in bigger cities as an answer to the changing consumers retails shopping behavior. The cooperation between Pax Christi and Seats2meet.com fits seamlessly into their plans. In spring 2013 we will start working with Pax Christi. In our location Meeting Plaza Utrecht they will rent permanent OfficeSpaces as well as WorkSpaces. A pilot project with VNU Exhibition will be a pop-up Seats2meet.com during the international fair Bouw-Beurs 2013. http://tinyurl.com/azcj34y . When this pilot project is successful it opens the door to a whole new range of international activities 11
THE WORLD 2013. In Japan we work together with League Ginza, a part of the UDS Company, a real estate developer, also active in China. http://www.uds-net.co.jp/about . This company is owned by KOKUYO FURNITURE Co., Ltd., one of the leading office supply companies in Japan. After opening 1 location, they are aiming the next years for 30 locations in Japan. In Egypt our partner is a local network group of people. http://www.district-egypt.com . More international locations should follow quickly, with potentiality at this moment in Surinam, Germany, the US and the UK. In the US, as a first step to the US market, we have made a sponsor deal with the San Francisco based platform Shareable www.shareable.net . That will generate web presence and publicity within the cowork communities of the United States for us. As Seats2meet.com International we will start an international network platform on coworking, new value creation and serendipity. Content for this new platform, to be launched in March 2013, will be provided by an international team of free lance journalists, where video content will be provided by the Dutch company Fast Moving Targets. www.fastmovingtargets.nl The first step towards global branding was the release of the English book The Serendipity Machine in December 2012. In summer 2013 a new and translated version of the book Society30 will be presented to the international market.
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SEATS2MEET.COM WORKSPACES. Working with the new value network around S2M locations, unique collaboration opportunities for the local operators arise. S2M business coworkspace model is based on the combination of social and traditional capital. Working in the central lounge, using wifi, beverages and on some occasions even lunch, is paid for by social capital: we ask our guests to identify their expertise when reserving a workspace. This allows us to match the total knowledge available in the network to those who are in need of this knowledge. This is how we bring the supply and demand of knowledge together. Serendipity, the unexpected relevance of meeting other people is realized that way. We also offer Premium Coworking: a seat, run of the house, in a quiet area. These seats are paid for in monetary capital (Euros). Our coworkers create buzz around the S2M locations, form a virtual helpdesk and act as ambassadors: we no longer spend money on sales, marketing, PR & reservation departmental activities. This cost saving effect is caused by the reciprocity of the community, as part of the social capital. Content creation to generate more buzz is also done by the workspace operator in cooperation with the location network by sponsoring roundtable meetings, book launches, network meet-ups, open coffees and more. This way S2M has a weekly average (2012) of almost 1.5 million Twitter impressions and a tweet reach on Twitter alone, of close to 284.000 people in the Netherlands.
MONDAY
TUESDAY
WEDNESDAY
THURSDAY
FRIDAY
SATURDAY
SUNDAY
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SEATS2MEET.COM RESIDENT SPACE. The network asked us to come up with a product/service where coworkers can show their connection to their favorite coworking location. We call this a Resident. Residents can: -Optimize his/her personal branding; promote his/her skills and talents to corporations & event organizers and has free access to the Freelance Market Place. -Get relevant knowledge: free access to the Cross Knowledge network and has exclusive access to the free seats for various events on S2M locations. -Search our community dashboards for serendipitous people & meetings. -Use his/her favorite Seats2meet.com location as your official office. Next to that a Resident will have free access to some fantastic tools making his/her professional life more safe and better: A free Meetin.gs PRO account. Meetin.gs is the worldwide leading company in virtual meetings. Organize meetings, use the date picker, share materials & agenda and connect network members before and after the meeting. A free ViruaLock PRO account. Laptops are an easy target for thieves but with VirtuaLock thieves have no chance. Nobody touches your laptop while you're having a coffee break. VirtuaLock is a Dutch startup. A free set of Lost&Found stickers. With the lost and found stickers you can easily mark al you important products. When they get lost the honest finder can contact you immediately. His/her own free MiniMercado online webshop. Residents pay a monthly fee of 49,- per month to S2M Int.
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SEATS2MEET.COM DESK SPACES. We see a growing demand for temporary offices. Temporary, for periods of 3 to 6 months for parties like startups and business accelerators. Project groups may even want to rent an office for a couple of weeks.. Some people may want to share an office, but still want a dedicated desk, others may want a dedicated office space, with some desks: Shared office and Dedicated office space we call that. These office spaces are offered at a periodical fee per seat/desk. The more seats rented the cheaper the seat becomes. Office space users are automatically a Resident with all its benefits. Seats2meet.com International gets a straight forward transaction fee. Dutch corporations have shown an interest in renting branded spaces: dedicated officeand or meeting spaces with their own identity for their own clients. Also we find growing demand from corporations to rent a number of cowork seats and/or shared offices for its employees at all Seats2meet.com locations. Presently we are talking to KPN and Capgemini.
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SEATS2MEET.COM MEETING & EVENT SPACES. Renting seats in meeting rooms, thus creating a more private environment, is paid for by traditional capital. Meeting seats are rented by the hour. Any meeting can be tailor made by using a range of additional products and services. Pricing becomes therefore less important for bookers, so we have created a flexible pricing system, where a software algorithm comes up with a price proposition, depending on the budget, client history, occupancy and other factors. Contract pricing and/or serial bookings are also possible. After booking a meeting room the booker as well as the attendants have access to an automatically generated virtual meeting room, where the agenda, presentations, documents can be shared or Skype calls can be made. This service is offered in cooperation with the Finnish company Meetin.gs. Any meeting can be made social by using our virtual community dashboard The 2nd Screen, offering Twitter fountains, live streams, and connecting meeting participants as well as the present Knowmads in the central lounge during the meeting. Larger event operators are being offered human assistance, when the group request is larger than 30 participants. Contact is made with the client by a group of experts form the present locations to close the deal. This conversion increase is one of our objectives for 2013.
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SEATS2MEET.COM MEETING & EVENT SPACES. In order to make life more easy for large corporate event bookers, thus increasing the conversion, we also started on the Dutch market with the so called tientjes deal (Ten Euro Deals). All elements of a large event are priced at 10,-- pp. However, the deal is prepaid, with a strict cancellation policy. Event software to publish the event and sell tickets is made available to organizers. Freemium model.
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SEATS2MEET.COM EVENT SOFTWARE. In 2012 S2M operators in The Netherlands handled over 350 events (event = meeting with over 50 participants) with approx. 35.000 seats. In 2013 we offer for event organizers our Event Software. This is a solitary product with its own earning potential. S2M Operators may act as resellers, so revenues will be split. The software is free when no admission for the event is charged. The moment the event organizer activates the admission fee module, the financial administration of invoices, money reception and more is provided. The organizer pays then a fee per seat sold to S2M International. A fortnight before the event the organizer is asked to share his remaining seats with the last minute platform Last Minute Events, where the seats are offered to the S2M Residents in exchange for their social capital, in this case to assist during the event to make the event a soical affaire by real time sharing information with the outside world. Another added value of this event software is the social dashboard the Second Screen, showing real time event info, matching participants, broadcast a live stream, twitter tools and so create a social network around that particular event. S2M Event website & dashboard example:
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