There’s something about walking into a GCUC event that feels a lot like stepping into the very heart of what coworking stands for: connection, curiosity, and that shared drive to keep building better spaces for people to do their best work.
This year in London, surrounded by some of the brightest minds in the flexible workspace world, I was reminded why this industry keeps pulling me back in. It’s never really about the desks, the meeting rooms, or the Wi-Fi.
It’s about belonging .
The Power of the “Join” Brand My favourite session of the conference, and one that’s stuck with me since, was Koral Ibrahim ‘s talk: “Join, Don’t Just Buy | Building Future-Ready Brands in Flex.”
Koral, Founder & Managing Director of The Ready House , brought something essential to the conversation: brand today is what people do with you. Not just what you tell them about yourself, but the experiences you create, the community you foster, the trust you build.
He laid out what he calls the Culture Space Framework, five core areas that make a place brand work: the physical space itself, the functional experience (what people can do beyond just work), the emotional signal you create, the community loop of recurring connections, and how your space travels culturally beyond its four walls.
But the real shift he talked about was moving from a “buy brand ” to a “join brand .” Buy brands focus on getting people through the door. Join brands focus on what happens after. They invest in the post-purchase experience because they understand that people don’t just buy what you sell, they buy what you believe.
That hit home.
In an era where remote work gives everyone a thousand choices, the spaces that thrive aren’t just functional. They’re emotional. They give people a reason to come in that goes far beyond productivity.
It made me reflect on how we design and support spaces at Hamlet . The real challenge isn’t filling desks; it’s designing environments people want to be part of. Spaces that fold into daily life and make the workday better.
That might mean offering wellness programs, hosting small community dinners, running local collaborations, or simply refreshing the look and feel every few months. Koral described successful spaces as those that “speak like a magazine, change like a gallery, share like an app, build loyalty like a club, experiment like a lab, connect like a friend, and entertain like a show.”
I loved that. A space that evolves stays alive. It keeps people talking, noticing, belonging.
The message was clear: get the basics right, but don’t stop there. Keep adding the little extras that surprise and delight your members. The details that make them proud to say, “this is my place.”
Shifting Perceptions: Beyond Startups and Freelancers Another highlight was a roundtable discussion I joined, led by Jean-Yves Huwart , Founder of Social Workspaces and Coworking Europe . The topic? Shifting the perception of coworking beyond startups and freelancers.
It was one of those conversations where you realise how much power lies in language.
We talked about how even the industry itself struggles with standardised definitions. What constitutes a flex or hot desk? What’s the difference between managed and serviced space? These might seem like minor details, but they matter when you’re trying to educate people, attract investment, or benchmark performance across markets.
The group discussed how simple terminology changes, shared consistently across spaces, could make massive benefits for the industry. Clearer language helps us talk about concepts with more clarity and educate people earlier, even from university age, about what flexible workspace really means.
The goal isn’t just to tweak how we describe what we do. It’s to make flexible space recognised as an industry that can stand on its own, outside of traditional office space, and be understood globally.
Because the moment we help people see coworking not as a niche trend but as a legitimate, thriving industry, we open doors for growth, investment, and impact that go far beyond our current reach.
These kinds of discussions might not make headlines, but they shape the future. And that’s exactly the kind of thing that GCUC does so well: it creates space for the big, important conversations that move the needle.
Making Belonging Easy and Seamless It’s one thing to dream about community and connection; it’s another to make it easy to deliver.
That’s where great technology comes in.
I’ve always believed tech shouldn’t feel like an obstacle course. It should make the day smoother. Booking a room, paying an invoice, joining an event, or chatting with another member should all just work.
What struck me at GCUC was how many operators are realising that they don’t need to invest huge sums to get this right. It’s not about throwing money at the latest gadget or app; it’s about simplifying. Using tools that take care of the everyday so the team can focus on people.
One session explored how to test technology changes without wholesale disruption. The advice? “Learn to surf on small waves, not big ones
That’s the philosophy behind Hamlet: take away the friction so operators can do what humans do best: connect, host, and create experiences worth coming in for.
AI: A Useful Tool, Not the Whole Story Of course, AI made its way into several sessions, as it should. There’s no denying that it’s changing everything, from how we market spaces to how we manage support.
But what stood out was that AI wasn’t treated as the answer to everything. The conversation has matured. We’ve moved from hype to practicality.
One particularly interesting discussion explored how AI might actually change the way people use coworking spaces. Computing students now debug with AI rather than asking colleagues. Companies are using AI for cross-functional collaboration. This could mean less human-to-human interaction in spaces, but it also creates new opportunities.
Someone even mentioned the emerging “AI-free” movement, people deliberately avoiding AI use, and the potential market for human-focused coworking spaces. It was a fascinating reminder that spaces are fundamentally about people, not technology.
For me, AI is still a tool, not a solution. The value comes when we use it thoughtfully: automating the repetitive, lifting our teams up, and giving members faster, more personalised experiences. It doesn’t think for us; it gives us time and bandwidth to think better.
The recommended approach from the conference? Focus on business problems first, not AI technology. Start with competitive advantage and key objectives. Ask, “What would I love to know that would power decision making? ” Don’t try to become an AI expert. Focus on business outcomes.
That’s exactly how we’re approaching it at Hamlet. Our AI features are designed to make life easier, not more complicated. Automating invoices, helping with support, and soon, intelligently recommending ways to improve space usage.
Because in the end, technology should make space more human, not less.
The Spaces That Took My Breath Away The London tours on the second day were an absolute highlight. Each space told its own story, a physical reflection of the ideas we’d been hearing about all week.
Uncommon you’re welcome here.
Then came Huckletree’s Leadenhall
If Uncommon was poetry, Huckletree was cinema.
Think restaurants, garden floors, a library, saunas, gyms, and yes, even a cinema room. It’s opulent without being pretentious; luxurious but alive.
You walk in and immediately think, I could spend all day here, even if I wasn’t working.
What struck me about both spaces was how they embodied so much of what we’d been discussing. These weren’t just places to work; they were designed for belonging. The thermal comfort, the natural light (which apparently reduces cortisol by 30% with just 1-2 minutes of window views), the accessible design with varied table heights, the local identity woven into every detail.
It’s the kind of environment that reminds us how far the flex industry has come. Coworking isn’t the scrappy startup scene it once was. It’s evolved into something mature, creative, and aspirational.
And as an industry, we’re still just getting started.
Beyond the Talks: The Real Value of Connection But as great as the sessions were, what really made GCUC special was the conversations in the hallways, over coffee, and during the evening events.
It’s in those small moments, the chat about what’s working (or not) in your space, the exchange of stories between two operators from opposite sides of the world, that you see the spirit of coworking come alive.
I connected with people like Kofi Oppong , who’s championing affordable education on future technologies for the upcoming generations. We went beyond coworking conversations to talk about deeper topics, and he blew me away with concepts of quantum computing and emerging technologies that are just about upon us. It’s these conversations that remind you how coworking spaces are really incubators for ideas that stretch far beyond the four walls.
Then there was Arjun Veer Chadha , who’s scaling locations in India rapidly because he’s been able to see market needs a step ahead of the big players. Watching operators from different corners of the world tackle similar challenges but with completely different market dynamics is endlessly fascinating. It’s proof that while the principles of great space management are universal, the execution is always beautifully local.
That’s what these events are really about: connection .
And that’s also what our whole industry is built on.
Coworking exists because humans thrive when we belong. The buildings, the software, the events, they’re all just vehicles for that one essential human need.
At Hamlet, that belief sits at the centre of everything we build. We don’t just want to make management easier; we want to make belonging effortless. To help operators create places where people feel at home, inspired, and supported, and where every little detail, from billing to booking, fades into the background so the human experience can shine.
Gratitude, Growth, and What’s Next So here’s to the organisers and the brilliant London crew who made this GCUC unforgettable.
You reminded us why we do what we do. You reminded me that even in a world where tech moves fast, relationships move faster, and they matter more.
Events like GCUC don’t just showcase the future of workspaces; they create it, through shared learning, open conversation, and the courage to keep experimenting.
For Hamlet, it was fuel. Inspiration to keep refining, keep listening, and keep building tools that help operators around the world make their spaces more human.
Because every time someone walks into a coworking space and feels like they belong, a little piece of the future gets built right there.
And that’s worth showing up for, again and again.
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