With 2023 coming to a close, we wanted to share with you everything we launched this year. Not only that, but also to look back on the events and conferences that we have been a part of within the coworking industry in 2023.
On-Demand Products and Contact Management
With the continuing strong demand for flexibility in workspaces, one of our key objectives this year was to provide you with tools that cater to visitors, drop-in guests, and members alike.
- Drop-in Passes: We introduced a completely new way for you to sell passes to visitors who need an occasional workspace, without memberships or long-term commitments.
- External Bookings: Our most popular product for visitors has become much more powerful in 2023, now supporting the sale of booking extras, discounts, and many new customization options.
- Additional Payment Methods: We've overhauled the checkout UX and added manual payments and PayPal to all on-demand products, alongside credit cards. For external bookings, you can now allow visitors to pay later, after all charges have been added to the invoice.
- All Your Products on Your Homepage: To help people find and compare all offerings of your space, we added them to your public Cobot homepage and optimized it for search engines.
- Contacts: A whole new way to manage visitors and leads. Contacts are the start of a lightweight CRM within Cobot, helping you to manage non-members more efficiently.
Members and Space Management
- Task Management for Your Team: Assign issues in your Help Desk to your staff, turning your Cobot Help Desk into a lightweight task management system.
- Memberships: Member management became more powerful with plan-specific booking privileges, improved display of time passes and bulk discounts, and an option to convert contacts into members.
- Bookings Timeline View: For those running busy spaces with many resources and a packed booking calendar, you can now see all bookings at once, grouped by resource.
- Restructured Admin Portal: With a new navigation, separate menus for Account & Subscription, and the new Products section, you’ll always have key sections of your space right at hand.
Integrations and Zapier
Cobot connects and integrates with many of the tools you already use and love. This year, we added two new integrations:
- Luckey by Sofia Locks, a flexible, easy-to-use, and advanced cloud-based access system.
- sevDesk, a widely used German accounting software.
We also improved our existing integrations, like Dormakaba and Salto KS.
We revamped Zapier to be integrated directly in the Cobot UI and made all existing triggers and actions available for open-source contributions.
Compliance and Localization
Various local regulations changed in 2023, and we’ve updated our support accordingly.
- Fattura Elettronica: Cobot fully supports electronic invoicing in Italy.
- Swiss QR Bill: Each invoice sent by Swiss customers now includes a QR code.
- Japanese Invoicing: We now support the 2023 invoice format changes.
- Translations: We’ve expanded and updated the languages supported in Cobot, including Italian, Japanese, and Brazilian Portuguese.
Events and conferences
2023 has been a very busy year for conferences and events within the coworking industry, and we have endeavoured to attend as many as possible. From Germany and the United States to Spain and Portugal, Cobot has been present for many exciting conversations and developments within the coworking world. As the year draws to a close, we want to take the time to look back on these wonderful events and look forward to what 2024 will bring for the coworking industry.
Cowork2023
In March, we had the pleasure of attending COWORK2023 (Cowork), a conference that brings together German-speaking coworking enthusiasts and professionals. The conference was spread over three days, starting with a tour and keynote at the innovative Utopiastadt in Wuppertal, followed by Barcamp sessions and a closing event at the vibrant Coworkit coworking space in Solingen.
Attended by our CEO Thilo, CPO Kristina and CTO Alex, Cowork 2023 provided three days of excellent conversation as well as abundant networking opportunities with people throughout the coworking industry.
Make sure to check out the full story over on our blog.
Coworking Festival Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
Staying in Germany, the Coworking Festival in Mecklenbug-Vorpommern this year was a great chance for Cobot to support the industry. It was a pleasure to sponsor the festival, and it was amazing to see regional support for coworking, which would be further emphasized in the Berlin and Brandenburg coworking festival later in the year.
Flexwork Academy 2023
On May 8th, we had the distinct pleasure of attending the Flexwork Academy, organized by Marc Navarro and Vika Zhurbas in Valencia.
The Flexwork Academy was a unique one-day masterclass aimed at professionals from the coworking industry. The event gave people the opportunity to gain valuable knowledge, skills, and also practical experience.
It was a great experience for everyone involved, make sure to see the full rundown over on our blog.
GCUC North America 2023
Held this year in the windy city of Chicago, GCUC NA 2023 provided Cobot's Morgan with plenty of opportunities to meet and chat with veterans and newcomers to the industry alike.
There were many topics discussed during the conference, from activated space design to inclusive coworking to adapting to the hybrid work model. We can't wait to see what GCUC North America 2024 has in store!
Read the full article here.
The Coworking and Coliving Conference, Spain 2023
The Coworking and Coliving Conference Spain 2023 this year was held in Valencia and Cobot had not only the pleasure of attending but also sponsoring it.
Thilo and Kristina, joined by Cobot's Laura Tump attended a variety of talks covering many issues, trends and best practices. Held over two days, the conference provided great learning opportunities, and also a chance to sit down with Marc Navarro to discuss trends that he was seeing in the industry.
All in all, it was a great experience and a conference that we will be sure to attend again next year, make sure to check out the full article here.
Berlin Brandenburg Coworking Festival
In September, Cobot had the distinct honor of helping to organize the Berlin Brandenburg Coworking Festival. It was a great opportunity to shine a light on the many great spaces in Cobot's home region.
Coworking Canada Unconference
While we were not able to attend in person, we made sure to support our friends at Coworking Canada this year in October, held in Calgary and Banff. Ashley Proctor's efforts brought together the best and brightest people from the coworking industry in North America, and by all accounts it was an excellent event.
Future Coworking Conference 2023
In November Cobot CPO Kristina and Laura Tump had the pleasure of attending the Zukunft Coworking conference this year in Köln, organized by the Bundesverband Coworking Spaces Deutschland e. V.,
The conference discussed the ever-changing needs of the industry and why personal exchange and experience is so important to the coworking world and everyone in it.
The Coworking Europe Conference 2024
Ending the conference season was the Coworking Europe #conference 2024 which proved that the coworking sector is a wide and diverse ecosystem. The 4 days of conference and travel for Cobot | Coworking Software were not nearly enough to finish all the conversations that we started.
There were so many talks and panels to listen to, ranging for Flex Space business models, over Rural Coworking to AI in operations.
What’s Next?
As we look back, we're already gearing up for the next updates. A sneak peek into January will bring news on Stripe ACH, tags for Contacts, selling multiple Drop-in Passes, and a completely new Tapkey integration. And that's just the beginning – in 2024, we’ll continue to dive deep into building the features you need to provide your members and visitors with the best possible coworking experience.
Thank you for joining us throughout this year. We look forward to making your space's operations even easier and helping you grow further in 2024!
