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Moving from Birmingham to London // WeWork Stage

Getting ready for the pushback

In case you have never heard of pushback, it is the process of pushing an airplane backwards before the engines start running. This is performed by another vehicle on the ground. Once the pushback is completed, the tower confirms that the engines can be started for the aircraft to begin taxiing for the runway and preparing for take-off.

My life is currently at the same position, and I’m getting ready for the pushback to move to London.

Why London? To cut a long story short, for business and for WeWork. Yes, the billion-dollar co-working space one half Disneyland and the other half NASA.

You might be wondering why I am moving from Birmingham to London simply for an office space. Actually, I already moved to London a couple of years ago by travelling there three times a week from Birmingham to use WeWork. In case you are wondering how I can afford it, the answer is that I buy advance super off-peak tickets from Chiltern or Virgin Trains, allowing me to travel for just £11 return.

This method helped me gain traction for my freelance business of behavioural economics consultancy, focusing on marketing and social media applications. However, why WeWork?

The main reason is that it is like a second home for me. I have been using WeWork Spitalfields since April 2016, and they offer more than an office. It is a place where you can stay 24/7 and never worry about tea, coffee or cookies. Yes, these are really distinctive characteristics of WeWork for me. They are not unique selling points, we don’t really think about unique selling points.

Anyway, since starting to use WeWork, 90% of my clients began coming from the WeWork network, especially from the WeWork social network (both on the web and the app). WeWork’s social network is similar to LinkedIn and brings real business.

In addition, the office structure and community approach helped me meet with many people and has helped me gain more clients.

I can’t ignore my Lunch & Learn events. What is Lunch & Learn? WeWork lets you use their meeting rooms for lunchtime events, with them providing food and you providing knowledge. The event is promoted on their weekly email, website and app and event schedule. I have hosted 21 events at various WeWork offices, entitled ‘What is Behavioural Economics? With Social Media Cases’. These events helped me improve my knowledge and increase awareness of behavioural economics in the WeWork London offices. The events were hosted for free, with over 220 people in attendance. The final event I held was at WeWork Paddington with 21 people in attendance.

Community is an important factor as well. In this world you can’t meet a billion-dollar turnover company at the communal kitchen and start chatting and doing business. This is only possible at WeWork. Glass walls not only frame the offices differently, but they also make people live in them very differently.

Why? We perceive the environment based on how it is framed to us. Glass walls remove insulation from other people, making us more readily engage with other people in our office space. This contrasts with Regus, where the whole environment is designed to isolate you.

WeWork’s interior design nudges the brain (welcome to behavioural economics) and creates a new shortcut; if we can see each other at the office, why don’t we socialise? This model works very well at every WeWork office. Even though you may not wish to socialise with others, your brain nevertheless pushes to you to do it. This can result in getting your biggest client whilst waiting for your coffee.

You might be thinking that you have a private members club membership. This means that you wish to be exclusive and not easily approached. Yes, WeWork is similar to a private members club, but one that is open to everyone. Whether you like to dress up perfectly or come to the office with a chubby pug and wearing wear clothes from a second-hand shop, it’s the same. You don’t have to think in a certain way to be a member of this club.

They let you do whatever it is that you really love to do. And believe me, the WeWork team is very helpful. I’m someone who stays in the office into the night while waiting for late trains, and I’ve never had any issues. Imagine waiting for a train at a London Starbucks; it would be a very expensive affair!

I have also been tweeting this journey on my Twitter! Follow the #myWeWorkLife hashtag. It is a kind of travel journey between Birmingham and London.

I think that if I had never used the WeWork office I wouldn’t now be moving to London. The WeWork app literally made me move to London to get more of WeWork. I am even moving to a co-living space called The Collective, which follows the same concept but for living.

I am 100% sure that I will spend more time at WeWork offices than the co-living spaces. There are many WeWork offices that I haven’t been to yet and hosted a Lunch & Learn at.

This is why I mention it is a pushback for a brand-new story.

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Lifestyle

WeWork Creator Awards 2018 London

The Creator Awards 2018 London. I have just left the event in London and am heading back to Birmingham on Virgin Train’s last service at 23:30. This is what I do three times a week but with earlier services.

This year’s Creator Awards event took place at PrintWorks and the demand was far more than you can imagine. It is clear that WeWork is the coolest co-living space in London. I noticed that people were there to see what WeWork really was.

They all know what lies inside the Arts Club, Annabels or Soho House. Expensive members’ clubs! While WeWork is also a members’ club, it accepts everyone regardless of their profession, style of clothing or interests. That’s why WeWork is more than an office space. It is a cool community and you can work there at the same time.

Returning to the Creator Awards, to cut a long story short they fund start-up projects. You record a one-minute video, write a short intro and upload it. If they pick you up, you pitch your business in front of everyone and you receive the money. I did it four times and failed but will do it next year as well. I think that after the fifth time, it will be a tradition for me. I’ll have to apply to it every year.

I am sure you are now getting bored of reading my words and looking forward to watching the videos and seeing the photos. If you are looking for any celebrities or influencers in the photos, I’m afraid I never cover those things. It is just the WeWork vibe.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay until the end of the party and had to leave. Nonetheless, it was amazing and I wanted to stay longer – but if I had stayed longer, I would have had to stay all night and wait for the 5am train from Euston to Birmingham.

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Categories
Lifestyle

WeWork Creator Awards 2017 London

Back to basics. I have been blogging for more than seven years. It started as a fun became a part of my life. During my MSc Research years in University of Birmingham (Doing a research degree is an endless loop, keep in mind) I was attending to many press days, from car launches to London Fashion Week.

When I started to work, things have changed. I couldn’t have time to attend press day often and sometimes doesn’t even bother to apply for a press pass. When you are a blogger and written for a very long time, you can get a press pass.

As a result of my hesitation to apply for press pass and ignoring the fun of covering an event, I didn’t bring my DSLR to WeWork Creator Awards 2017 in London. If this event was happening, five years ago I would have applied for the press pass ages ago.

During the amazing WeWork Creator Awards event, I have realised that once you experienced the excitement of covering an event live on social media, you can’t get rid off it.

So, I tried my best with an iPhone 7+. Unfortunately, smartphones are not really good with the low light conditions and when you use 50mm lense for the DSLR camera, smartphones are way behind DSLRs.

Anyway, long story short, I have covered the WeWork Creator Awards on Twitter, Instagram and on my blog.