Hub Pavilion: London’s New Mobile Workspace

I noticed a wave of bedouin or ‘Mobile Working’ in London when I was back there for nearly a month recently. In fact I spent most of my time in London either using the mobile workspace I am now a member of, Hub Pavilion, or attending meetings hosted by others (headhunters, ad industry people, independent consultants etc) in their similar space, most which also have “Hub” in their name somewhere. Hub Pavilion, and founder Stan Stalnaker, hosted a dinner for me and 16 of my guests in the space, which gave me a sense of how these spaces serve social contexts too. It’s a very different feeling to an office, particularly as the local food was amazing and we wanted to hang there all evening.

While coworking spaces are plenty, Hub Pavilion seems to have put a lot of thought into how to do it right. It’s cheap at £29 p/m or $10 per day (cheaper than running an office or having to scale-up office space), it is a preferable environmental choice (resources/energy is shared within a small but efficient space and mobile working can reduce travel), and it’s built around the network – socializing business in the workspace (as well as online) and bringing people together to drive ideas and world change together. The convergence of tight times, a no-option global CO2 diet, and the power of the network is fueling this Hub-buzz.

The other thing to take-out is that these places are filled with smart independent workers many or most of whom are working in areas related to sustainability and business practice: be it venturing or consulting. (Note: I’m making an assumption here based on the amount of time I spent in them having meetings with people in this field or hosting meetings myself). ‘Hubs’ are kind of becoming the brand tag of Generation Sustainability in London, and the meeting place for those who share values (values-driven business), are ready to do good work together and who share the notion of shared spaces/resources. It’s great to have something that is ‘used’ like this service, as opposed to ‘owned’, so explicitly generating status. live|work used to call this type of status “Service Envy” (in contrast to creating product envy).

Let me share my experience and the service at Hub Pavilion (which also serves as the real-world space and sister to Hub Culture, a private social network and platform for brokering business). What follows is an explanation of how the mobile workspace is reacting and innovating with regards to three topics/themes: Recession, CO2 and Network.

Recession:
Hub Pavilion is incredibly cheap and probably cheaper than a) having to upscale an office space as a business expands, or even downscales and moves out; b) running the heating and associated home office costs such as printing if you’re a mobile worker; c) provides for some a cheaper alternative to long distance travel if you don’t have to go to the office each day but instead hang in a closer by Hub.

Hub also offers premium valet services, such as hotel, car and restaurant bookings, at a fraction of the cost because costs are distributed through the wider Hub Culture network as well as in the Pavilion. It’s high- value at cheap prices.

CO2:
Hub Pavilion works on a shared-use/service paradigm model: sharing office resources means more energy efficiencies and CO2 reductions. (I’d like to see an effort to ensure users are stakeholders in the spaces and the energy they consume, and avoiding pre-pay type behaviour).

Hub Pavilion, in cahoots with Cisco, will soon be able to provide the latest Telepresence conferencing facilities, connecting with other Hub Pavilions all around the world (NYC in the making and on…). In other words these places will be a ‘business class lounge of the future’ – requiring no travel at all and in place of an upscale conferencing platform. Watch your back BAA and co.

The Hub allows people to work remotely and reduces the need for long distance travel to office spaces or meeting places. Hub Pavilion does it’s best to provide water, coffee and products with low environmental footprint. It’s a bit like being at home really and putting the kettle on, but much better coffee in rather fancy china cups.

The Network
Hub Pavilion is an extension of Hub Culture’s networked world online – therefore it’s inherently immersed in connectivity. All members of the physical space receive access to the online Hub Culture platform and collaboration tools.

Everything is billed through the Hub Culture platform using their very own currency system “Ven”. Ven is a social currency somewhat similar to Timebanking, promoting the trade of time and value delivered. You can earn Ven by doing stuff for each other.

Once Telepresence is in place, I can network with others in NYC as well as next to me in London. I’ve already met some very interesting people using my Hub Pavilion London office space, including someone I’ve hired as my pretend boss – there to kick my freelance ass, check in on my deliverables and celebrate with me on occasions. He’s great. So is the place. Sign-up. It’s the new way recession-CO2-network way.

Hub Pavilion