Unreasonable Connection LIVE! The London Coworking Assembly Forum
Local Coworking Spaces Thrive When They Work Together
The London Coworking Assembly Forum
May 19th, 2026 | Space4, Finsbury Park
(2 stops from King's Cross on the Victoria Line)
A collaboration between Urban MBA, the London Coworking Assembly, and the Coworking Values Podcast.
Local Coworking Spaces Thrive When They Work Together
On February 24th, 67 people came to Blue Garage in Lewisham.
From Glasgow, Berlin, Milan, Ireland, and Tallinn.
From Bristol, Newbury, and Whaley Bridge.
No keynotes. No panels.
Just operators working on the same problems.
"Two hours in, I'd already got most of my questions answered."
What Actually Happened
The room wasn't there to listen.
The room was there to work.
Blue Garage isn't polished coworking—it's a gritty makerspace with industrial workshops, sewing rooms, fabrication equipment and office space.
The event felt like what it was: operators building civic infrastructure on shoestring budgets, figuring out how to survive crushing business rates and the energy crisis, and asking the hard questions that don't yet have easy answers.
Like: how do you find a permanent home for a coworking space in expensive London?
One group couldn't agree.
Another group talked about an Estonian space that spent months building community in local cafés before they even signed a lease.
Proof before risk.
Community first.
Who This Event Is For
Independent Operators: You're fixing the coffee machine in the morning and sweating over the P&L at night. Rates are crushing you. You survived the pandemic, but you're not sure you'll survive this.
Community Managers: You're the emotional anchor for your members, but no one is anchoring you. You're at risk of burnout and need people who understand the toll this job takes.
Local Authority / Civic Leaders: You have the mandate to "revive the high street," but top-down methods are failing. You need to meet the operators who are already doing the real work.
This Is a Local Neighbourhood Conversation, Not a Global One
On the 24th Feb, we built the event around three focus areas that Robert Putnam laid out in his work on social capital:
Focus on local.
Focus on each other.
Focus on young people.
This isn't about trends happening everywhere.
This is about what's happening in your neighbourhood.
The operators you can actually text.
The local authority people you'll actually work with.
The young people in your area who need pathways into the workforce.
This is coworking for the neighbourhood, not the 1%.
What Happens on May 19th @ Space4
You join a Peer Crew for the day—a small, facilitated group that becomes your troubleshooting team, your advisory board, and your support network.
You don't need a £12,000-a-year industry supergroup.
You'll find your peer crew in this room.
These are the operators you can text at 10 PM when a crisis hits—the ones who text back with solutions, not just sympathy.
But you have to show up ready to do the work.
We create the conditions.
You make the connections.
"Running an independent space can feel intense and lonely. Days like this remind you why you do it."
— Melissa Richards, Buick Mackane (Newbury)
"I feel like I've made some friends. If there's anything difficult in the future, there are certain people here I'd be confident chatting to."
— Jason Smith, Gather Round (Bath & Bristol)
"We all do it to bring conversation, collaboration and a better experience for the workplace and to generate life into our communities. Some do it with private offices, some do it with hourly/day/month memberships... but we all do it to bring people together."
— Amelia Woolley, OSiT (London)
The Flow of the Day
We don't do "sit-and-get" or high-energy performance. We do warm, connected work. While the specific conversations are driven by you and the results of the attendee quiz, here is the rhythm of our day at Space4:
09:00 AM — Doors Open
Coffee, locally sourced nibbles, and the first quiet, meaningful connections of the day.
09:30 AM — A Warm, Connected Welcome
A 15-minute opening to ground us in why we’re here and where we’re going.
09:45 AM — Setting the Scene
We’ll review and discuss the topics that came up in the attendee quiz beforehand. This is where we anchor the day’s work in your real-time challenges.
10:30 AM — Working Session 1 (45 mins)
First round of participant-led group work. No spectators. Just the work.
11:15 AM — Short Reset
15 minutes to step away, breathe, and switch gears.
11:30 AM — Working Session 2 (45 mins)
Diving into the second round of crowdsourced problem-solving.
12:15 PM — Community Lunch (60 mins)
Locally sourced food and informal, human-level conversation.
01:15 PM — Re-engage & Reflect
The Slump Buster: A 30-minute session to re-engage your brain and reflect on what we've uncovered so far.
01:45 PM — Working Session 3 (45 mins)
Our final round of focused group work. Turning insights into next steps.
02:30 PM — Short Reset
15 minutes to step away and compare notes.
02:45 PM — Synthesis & Retrospective
Bringing the room back together. What are the key takeaways you’re testing next week?
03:30 PM — Finish
We close on time. You head off energised, equipped, and in time for the school run or the commute home.
The Three Focus Areas
We don't do "sit-and-get." We do the work.
We'll be crowdsourcing your real-time challenges across three pillars:
💰 Profitability
How do you build civic infrastructure on a small business budget?
Business rates, rent, and the rising costs of running an independent space are making profitability harder than ever.
We'll work through the models that are actually surviving—diversified income streams, event hire, partnerships with local authorities, and affordable workspace programmes.
This isn't theory.
This is operators sharing what's keeping them afloat.
Come with your numbers.
Leave with ideas you can test next week.
🤝 Community
How do you build genuine, sticky connections when you (the operator) are facing your own burnout?
The members need you to be the anchor, but who's anchoring you?
We'll look at what actually works—peer support structures, rotating facilitation, creating systems that don't depend on one person carrying everything.
How do you build community without burning out?
You'll work through this with people who are living it.
📣 Advocacy (Closing the UK Gap)
The UK lags behind Ireland (via 'Our Rural Future'), Italy, France, and Germany in remote work hub policy.
Those countries have coherent, high-profile support for coworking as economic infrastructure.
The UK's support remains patchy.
Independent coworking spaces are treated as niche hospitality businesses rather than civic anchors.
We're inviting local authority representatives into the room so they can meet the real change-makers on the high street.
We're turning our individual voices into a unified force.
This isn't lobbying.
This is showing them what's already working, so they can support it instead of overlooking it.
Who This Is For (In Detail)
The Independent Operator
You're in the trenches.
You're fixing the coffee machine in the morning and sweating over the P&L at night.
You need a room where you don't have to pretend everything is perfect, and validation that your struggles are systemic, not a personal failure.
Rates are crushing you.
The energy crisis hit hard.
You survived the pandemic, but you're not sure you'll survive this.
You need people who understand the economics, not just the aesthetics.
The Community Manager
You are the emotional anchor for your members, but no one is anchoring you.
You're carrying a lot of weight, you're at risk of burnout, and you need a peer crew who actually understands the toll this job takes.
You need to know other people are dealing with the same impossible balance of being a therapist, admin, and cultural architect all before lunch.
You need to meet people who can help you build systems that don't burn you out.
The Local Authority / Civic Leader
You have the mandate to "revive the high street" or deliver economic inclusion programmes, but top-down, traditional methods are failing.
You don't need consultants writing reports.
You need to meet the grassroots operators who are already doing the real work of building neighbourhood infrastructure.
This is the room where these conversations occur.
You need to see what's actually working on the ground, and you need allies who can help you deliver your mission with limited budgets and impossible timelines.
You won't leave with a ten-point blueprint.
You'll leave knowing who's doing the work and how you can support it.
Walking the Walk
This event is run by:
Urban MBA — young people from the neighbourhood who've been working with the London Coworking Assembly since 2019
London Coworking Assembly— the community of independent operators and civic leaders
Coworking Values Podcast — documenting what actually works in neighbourhood-first coworking
Focus on young people.
Urban MBA will staff the event.
They're not volunteers—they're paid for their work.
This is what happens when you connect with people in your neighbourhood: local talent, local investment, local infrastructure.
Focus on each other.
We're not running a consulting gig.
We're creating space for people who are already doing the work to meet those who want to do it.
The value is found entirely through your active participation and the connections you make in the room.
Your obligations to other people, not just to yourself.
Focus on local.
This is a local neighbourhood conversation, not a global conversation.
The solutions you need are in your area.
The people you need to work with are within reach.
Choose Your Pass
1️⃣ The Assembly Pass (£99)
Available until midnight Saturday, 14 March.
A thank you for your early trust.
It keeps this event accessible for independent operators.
2️⃣ The Community Builder Pass (£150)
Always available.
If you have the budget, this helps support the assembly's work and keeps the Assembly Pass accessible for others.
The Shift That's Already Happened
AI isn't going to reshape work—it already has.
Some people are so far behind they think they're first.
Return-to-office mandates are creating strange new dynamics.
Independent coworking spaces are facing crushing rates and fragile income models.
This puts you in a room with people facing the same pressures, building the same infrastructure, and figuring out the same problems.
You leave with answers, connections, and a peer crew who'll text back when the next crisis hits.
You leave knowing you're part of something bigger than your own four walls.
📢 Produced by Coworking Values Podcast & London Coworking Assembly & Urban MBA