Unreasonable Connection LIVE! The London Coworking Assembly Forum
Unreasonable Connection LIVE
The London Coworking Assembly Forum
May 19th, 2026 | Space4, Finsbury Park
(2 stops from King's Cross on the Victoria Line)
A collaboration between the London Coworking Assembly, Akou, Urban MBA, and the Coworking Values Podcast.
What This Is
Unreasonable Connection is a quarterly, in-person working day for independent coworking space operators, community managers, and civic partners.
No keynotes. No panels. No one standing on a stage telling you what the future of work looks like.
Facilitated by Tilley and the team at Akou. Built with the people who show up.
We run this a few times a year. You don't need to come to every one. Each time we meet, the room gets sharper and the connections carry over. You show up when you are ready and find the others.
What Happened Last Time
On February 24th, 67 people came to Blue Garage in Lewisham.
From Glasgow, Berlin, Milan, Ireland, and Tallinn. From Bristol, Newbury, and Whaley Bridge.
"Running an independent space can feel intense and lonely. Days like this remind you why you do it."
— Melissa Richards, Buick Mackane
"Two hours in, I'd already got most of my questions answered. I feel like I've made some friends—people I'd be confident chatting to in the future."
— Jason Smith, Gather Round
"We all do it to bring conversation, collaboration and a better experience for the workplace and to generate life into our communities."
— Amelia Woolley, OSiT
Who This Is For
You run an independent coworking space.
Without a team meeting. Without a board. Without anyone sitting across from you who understands what it actually takes.
You manage a coworking community.
You are the emotional anchor. Nobody is anchoring you.
You work in local government or civic leadership.
Top-down methods are failing and you know it. You need to sit with the people already doing the real work.
What would change if you had a room of peers who already knew the score?
How We Work Together on May 19th
Space4 opened in 2018 as one of London's first council-backed affordable workspaces. It isn't a glossy corporate hub. It is actual neighbourhood infrastructure in the heart of Finsbury Park.
Tilley and the team at Akou design and facilitate the day. The specific sessions are shaped by who is in the room and what you are working on right now.
We are not setting a rigid agenda. We are creating the conditions for real work to happen.
Here is the rhythm of the day:
Morning — Deep Thinking.
We establish who is in the room. You pick the specific challenge you are facing and move into a small, facilitated group of peers. This is time to think and work with people who actually run spaces.
Afternoon — Cross-Pollination.
We mix the groups. You don't get stuck at the same table all day. You hear the solutions other operators found. New connections form.
The Close — You Leave with One Thing.
Quiet reflection and a sharing circle. You ask the room to hold you accountable for the one thing you need to do when you get back to your space.
You don't have to pitch. You don't have to have answers ready. You don't have to perform your job title.
The facilitation is designed so you can show up exactly as you are, and do the thinking you haven't had time to do.
What happens on May 19th is not set. The people who show up decide what it becomes.
Why This Matters
95.3% of UK private sector businesses are micro-businesses or sole traders. Your coworking space is one of them. Your members are the rest.
We are micro-businesses holding the roof up for other micro-businesses. And right now, most of us are doing that work completely alone.
Research co-authored by Felicia Fai at the University of Bath backs this up.
Her team conducted in-depth interviews with 30 independent operators and analysed 161 UK spaces.
They found that independent spaces act as an "industrial commons", contributing six types of capital to their local economies: economic, human, social, cultural, institutional, and physical.
Local authorities look at your space and see office space. The research proves it is civic infrastructure.
Ireland already has a national network called Connected Hubs that collects this data collectively and presents it to government.
The UK doesn't have this yet. We aren't going to build a national database on May 19th, but we are going to start talking to each other like an industry that deserves one.
You leave with one clear next step and a room of people who'll hold you to it.
£150 — this covers the facilitation, the space, lunch from a local independent, and the continued connection afterwards.
Join the room on May 19th →
The Details
When: May 19th, 2026
Main session: 9:30 AM to 3:30 PM
Doors open: 9:00 AM
Where: Space4, 113-115 Fonthill Rd, Finsbury Park, London N4 3HH
(2 stops from King's Cross on the Victoria Line)
We finish at 3:30 PM so you can make the school run or catch the train home.
If you have time to stay, we are moving to a second location nearby to keep chatting and connecting informally.
Who Makes This Happen
Akou — Tilley and the Akou team design and facilitate the sessions. They are the reason this is a working day, not a networking event.
Coworking Values Podcast — The world's second-best coworking podcast.
Urban MBA — As always, we are collaborating on this event with Kofi and the team at Urban MBA. They are our long-term partners, in the room as peers and core collaborators.
London Coworking Assembly — The community of independent operators and civic leaders, co-creating events since 2015.
Enabled by: Welcome Gate, Coworks, Baseworx, Nexudus, and Cobot.
They fund supporter tickets to make this event accessible and inclusive for everyone.
Can't Make May 19th?
This is a recurring event. We run Unreasonable Connection a few times a year and we are building it with the people who attend.
Subscribe to the London Coworking Assembly event calendar for weekly updates so you know when the next one lands.
Produced by the Coworking Values Podcast, London Coworking Assembly, Akou, Space4 and Urban MBA.