News
The Future is (Almost) Here
August 16, 2012
| The future ain’t what it used to be, said Yogi Berra, and that’s probably as true as ever. Bisnow is going take a look at its Chicago Tech Summit/Office of the Future, which isn’t very far in the future: next Wednesday, Aug. 22 at the Westin River North. (Sign up here!) | ||
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| Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center CEO Kevin Willer, whose company operates the 1871 tech center, tells us that early stage, high-growth startups are approaching the need for work space in new ways. Often entrepreneurs start out working from home or the local coffee shop, so all they need is a laptop and a mobile phone.Mark Zuckerburg famously started Facebook in his Harvard dorm room and Larry & Sergey started Google at Stanford and then in their garage. The trend around the country in the last few years has been the launching of co-working centers where startup companies can get flexible terms like only paying month-to-month rent and connect into a community of like-minded entrepreneurs. (Or we could start selling naming rights to local residential garages.) | ||
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| “Often these co-working centers also provide access to programming, from workshops to one-on-one office hours with experts on a variety of business topics,” Kevin adds. “At 1871 [pictured], a center for digital startups, we have 50k SF of co-working space where we’ve already had 140 startups working since opening in May 2012.” 1871 also has partnerships with both local universities and local venture capital firms. It’s also partnered with a school for coders and designers, Code Academy, as well as with "accelerator" programs like Excelerate Labs and Impact Engine to help entrepreneurs to build their businesses. | ||
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| The future of office development will be the same future as other kinds of space, says Centrum Partners SVP Michael McLean, another panelist at our Aug. 22 Tech Summit. (So it'll be on Mars?) “All real estate sectors will be more thoughtfully designed, authentic, and location specific,” he says. “When everything was booming, even the best companies were creating space that was essentially the same everywhere.” That’s already changing. In the future, design will focus on local needs and local settings, regardless of product type, Michael tells us. The firm marked the grand opening of the Hotel Lincoln this week. The project makes the most of its setting as “a window to Lincoln Park,” Michael says. |
