As another International Coworking Day approaches on August 9th, Covid-19 continues to be relevant as we continue to make efforts towards containing the spread of the virus and its different strains. With everything going on in the world right now, the team at Pacific Workplaces (PAC) would like to celebrate International Coworking Day by sharing how our flexible office spaces are supporting the workspace communities we serve during these, let’s face it, crazy times.
Staying connected in unprecedented times
At the start of the pandemic, our coworking communities had to think of ways to keep members connected while adhering to physical distancing guidelines. This brought about many new and creative virtual events that some of our spaces still enjoy today given the current environment of off-again/on-again health and safety mandates. Here are some of the ways we’ve supported and continue to connect with our member communities.
- Weekly virtual happy hours or themed events where a guest speaker highlights a particular topic and then open things up for a larger group discussion became the norm for our spaces in Berkeley, San Jose, Sacramento Watt and Greenhaven. With health and mental wellness on the top of everyone’s minds, our “Wellness Wednesday” events have become very popular. These events include every topic related to wellness from skincare, yoga, to hula dancing! For our wine connoisseurs, our Bakersfield office space community did a weekly “Wine Down Wednesday.”
- Outdoor events are also a hit in today’s environment. Our Reno location does an annual “Duck Hunt” which is essentially an Easter Egg Hunt only with cute rubber duckies. Participants who find a duck win a prize! Other locations with access to a courtyard or any kind of outdoor space also offered physically-distant gatherings to give members working from home an opportunity to come to the space and connect with others safely.
- Facebook groups and weekly virtual coworking sessions. Our Cupertino and Walnut Creek spaces had open coworking sessions via Zoom 1 to 2 times a week to discuss how we can all support each other and as a general check-in to see how everyone is doing. Our Downtown Sacramento office space offered a weekly virtual “PAC your lunch” event gathering members to eat together and an opportunity to catch-up.
- Honorable mention: The holidays were particularly difficult last year because of Covid, but our Pleasant Hill location did not let that stop them! At Christmas, our community coordinator went door-to-door with a festive cart of individually packaged goodies.
Supporting local businesses
International Coworking Day also means celebrating camaraderie and opportunities to learn from each other. This extends beyond the walls of our spaces and into the communities we serve. Even during these times of Covid, many of our spaces continue to support local businesses in any way we can.
Through newsletters and events, our spaces continue our commitment to promote local businesses by encouraging our members to buy local. NextSpace Santa Cruz’s (NsSC) happy hours are infamous for supporting its local community, ranging from small tech and design firms, to the neighborhood cookie community, NsSC continues to support of local businesses. Our Oakland office space location collaborated with Musa Exhibition, a digital platform for artists to facilitate exhibitions, and ended up purchasing a large piece of artwork for our reception area.
To learn more about our Pacific Workplaces coworking communities, find a location near you.