Squeezing every last drop out of #Coworking at this year’s Juicy ;) #GCUCUSA

It might be because it's my first time at GCUCUSA or that I stepped foot in the States, but the past two days at the conference have sped by. This time the conference took place in Berkeley at Nextspace. Although the format is slightly different to other conferences such as CW Europe, CUASIA or CWsC, many of the open debates and subjects discussed are similar and based on business models, difficulties, collaboration or the coworking movement's future. The "Unconference" format takes the spotlight at Juicy, during which the participants put forward what they want to talk about. 

We recently posted an article about what to expect from a coworking event and this conference has been no different. However, it has also offered the following:

• Expert knowledge: panels made up of veterans from the coworking world looked at a range of topics, such as the history of coworking (Tony Bacigalupo and Brad Neuberg), the role of technology in coworking spaces (Bill Jacobson), the importance of design in business models and their role as a tool to generate "collisions" (Jerome Chang), financial aspects and the relationship between coworking and real estate (Annette Reizburg), storydoing to set yourself apart from the rest and create engagement (Rosemarie Ryan) and Jacob Sayles's presentation of the data from the survey conducted by Emergent Research, among others. Many of these subjects have common ground with other conferences, although the movement is maturer in the US and debates looked at themes such as the coworking industry, metrics or user experience in more detail. 

• Debate and discussion: The "Unconference" is basically made up of subjects put forward by conference participants and are grouped together by the event organisers, which include Ashley Proctor and Tony Bacigalupo. In most conferences, the star themes are usually geared towards community building, CRMs, tools, technology, and collaboration, etc. However,  subjects such as "When's a good time to sell my space?" start to crop up, as was reflected in some news published in recently. 

Unconference. Photo source: Deskmag

 

• Face-to-face reunions and fun: One of the best things about conferences is reuniting with the same friendly faces year after year and sharing time and experiences together. You also get the chance to meet people "in the real world" that you've only ever spoken to on Skype/HangOut, making these conferences even more special. And last but not least, there's always time to meet lots of new people and have fun! The Scavenger Hunt was a great laugh and got us to work in teams and complete challenges, such as taking a photo of someone with 10 tattoos holding an avocado or a fire engine. And since this is a coworking event and the concept of collaboration runs through our veins, we managed to tick off most of the tasks!

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