The Debrief: Coworking Pop-Up #2
I’m 3 months late in writing this, and about to host the FOURTH coworking pop-up, so I figured it was better late than never to get this rundown published of the SECOND coworking pop-up.
If you didn’t read the post about the first coworking event, start there!
This second event felt like a huge leap forward. I learned so much from the first one that I felt really excited and invigorated with ideas for this second event. And the results of this event were really affirming!
Goals for the event
My first event was all about seeing if something like this was even possible. My second event was an experiment to see if something like this could be profitable.
With that in mind, my goals were:
Increase attendance (my goal number was 14)
Get attendees to register for a required minimum price
Find new ways to make the day feel special and “worth the money”
Things I wanted to keep the same:
Minimal, low-cost marketing - emailing my list of subscribers, posting on Instagram, and boosting a reel if needed
Lots of real and perceived value - a beautiful space to work, a feeling of connection, surprise “extras” that people actually want, etc.
Securing a new space
I really enjoyed working at Familia Coffee in Eureka for the first event, but I knew we would need more space in order to increase the number of people who could attend.
I also really wanted to try a spot in Arcata, since most people who have taken my customer research survey express a preference for coworking in Arcata.
I connected with my friend Gloria at the Arcata Chamber to ask for some help, and with her introduction, I was able to secure the Plaza View Room - at no cost. This was such a dream! I’m so grateful to Gloria, the Arcata Chamber, and Elizabeth who runs Uniquely Yours Catering and the Plaza View Room for helping me get this space with gorgeous architecture and views of the Arcata Plaza.
I booked the space for Monday, June 24th from 1-4pm. How did I pick the date? I didn’t - it was the second most chosen date that my email subscribers and social followers chose on my pre-event survey, and the date that worked for the Plaza View Room.
Adding massages!
In another lucky moment of connection, Michelle from Esperanza del Mar Massage reached out to me and offered to do chair massages for event attendees!
This was something I had imagined offering but wasn’t sure how to make it happen - so it was amazing to have her pitch the idea and make it happen!
Adding “quiet” space
Since the Plaza View Room was so much bigger than Familia Coffee, and I knew many people had cancelled their attendance to the first event due to having a call or Zoom meeting during the event time, I decided to create a space just for those things to happen at this event.
I printed signs and designated a zone of the Plaza View Room, away from the main working room, where people could expect quiet and privacy for their calls.
This was a great idea in theory! However, the wifi at Plaza View Room wasn’t good enough for streaming a video meeting, so the one person who had planned to do a meeting during the event ended up having to dial in to her call by phone. Not a good experience.
Pricing and signups
I decided to set the base price for coworking at $20.
Michelle offered chair massages at $15 for 15 minutes or $19 for 20 minutes.
I still wanted to keep the signup process as simple as possible, without having to create “products” or complicated flows on my website.
On the landing page for the event, I offered 3 options -
basic coworking for $20,
coworking with 15-minute massage for $35
coworking with 20-minute massage for $39
I should have taken screenshots of the page like I did last time to share here, but I didn’t, so I will have to just describe everything.
Basically, under each option I added a button that took them to a new “product”-style page, where it had the price, a brief description of what you got, and a form for people to fill out with their name and email.
I got 15 signups!!
Here is how they broke down:
5 - coworking and 20-minute massage
2 - coworking and 15-minute massage
8 - coworking only
Interesting, right? Almost half of attendees booked a massage with their coworking.
The day of the event
I felt pressure to make this event feel “nice”, wanting my attendees to feel they were getting as much value as possible.
I noticed from my Familia event that no one ordered coffee or drank any of the coffee I provided, but I realized that I was still promising coffee for this new event, so I wanted to provide drink options people might be more likely to drink, while also providing coffee.
I grabbed some cold brew and bag of ice from the grocery store, along with a few other cold drinks and borrowed my friend’s ice bucket and threw them all in there with some La Croix waters.
I grabbed tea bags, my electric kettle from home, granola bars… Oh and I brought planners and notebooks to offer people for free — oh, plus some vinyl stickers that I had made that I thought people might want to take — and a vase, and a bouquet of flowers, and my signup sheets…
It was way too much stuff. I overcomplicated the food and drink and stuff situation on this one, which was one of my biggest lessons. I took what felt like 100 trips from the car to the Plaza View Room (via a very old elevator).
Attendance
Out of 15 people who signed up, 14 showed up!
And they showed up RIGHT on time. Living in Humboldt, I’m very used to 1:00 really meaning more like 1:15, but I learned that for professional events at least, people are prompt! I was definitely still running around when the first attendees arrived at 12:55.
I had a spreadsheet of attendees, tracking who had paid in advance and who hadn’t. It was a little chaotic getting people checked in, mostly to me trying to do two jobs at the same time — be the friendly, competent host checking people in, and also being the behind-the-scenes logistics person making sure things are where they need to be.
Our one no-show was a late cancellation (he emailed about an hour into the event to cancel), and he kindly still paid for his massage slot (though I didn’t charge him for coworking time he didn’t use).
Structure and flow
The day flowed so much more smoothly than the first event! I got really great feedback on the first event that helped me build in a better structure this time.
I spoke at the beginning and asked people to introduce themselves, share what they do for work, and what they were working on that day.
This was a great way to start things out! I think it gave people a baseline sense of connection with their fellow workers, so when our halfway-point networking time came, conversations flowed easily.
Money
Here’s the breakdown:
Gross sales for coworking fees: $280
Expenses: $95
Stickers: $18
Instagram ads: $22
Snacks, drinks, etc: $45
Social media giveaway: $10
This wasn’t directly related to the event, but I did time it to get eyes on my account while the signups were open. I used items I already had been gifted or bought with gift certificates. I spent $10 to get a Familia gift card to throw in :)
Net income on coworking fees: $185
Everyone who booked a massage paid the fee for that + coworking to me via Venmo, and I gave all the massage money to Michelle.
So $185 on this event, compared to $18 from the first one! Great starting data on my goal to answer the question: is it possible to make an event like this profitable?
Lessons learned
Taking the signup process more seriously made attendees take it more seriously
I think setting a price and offering payment tiers for different massage options made the event feel less like a “maybe do” and more of an appointment people planned to keep
Emphasizing the social/enjoyment part of the day matters
I’m learning that this is a really key reason why people come to my events - the human connection. Making that a bigger part of the flow of the day seemed to make people really value the experience
Scheduling was overly complicated
I managed massage scheduling manually, which was time-consuming and challenging. I had to email each person who signed up for a massage and find a time slot that worked for them — which was complicated by the fact that some people had 15-minute slots and others has 20-minute ones.
On top of that, we have scheduled breaks during the day, so it was hard to fit everyone in and work around those. Plus, Michelle was massaging pretty much straight through from start to finish without much of a break for 3 hours (the one cancellation helped build in some buffer, luckily)
For the next event, I knew I wanted to offer massages again but I knew I’d only offer one length of time option, and I also wanted to look into scheduling software (though I’m not sure I would actually pay for software at this early stage and with the events not being a regular, recurring thing — yet).
The stuff I brought was overly complicated
The load-in and load-out was complicated, and many of the things were unnecessary! Very little of it got used, and I don’t think it added much value. A goal for next time is to be more streamlined.
People like this!!
I got so much positive feedback after this event. I had lots of new people attending (and some repeat visitors from the first event) who made a point to check in and offer praise and appreciation
It was great to see a mix of return customers and new people
The Plaza View Room was a great venue for the space is provided. The wifi was not great, but seemed functional enough — and everything else was wonderfully spacious and scenic
I got so much encouragement for hosting another event and finding a permanent location — this experiment seemed to really be yielding the results I was hoping for!