25N’s conference download, brokered by dozens of handwritten pages of notes & a few hasty slideshow screengrabs.

A handful of 25N teammates flew, carpooled, and Metra’d our way downtown Chicago for this year’s Global Workspace Association conference. We had a blast, learned a lot, and ate far too much charcuterie for our own good (shoutout Yardi’s happy hour on Wednesday).

Here’s our debrief:

An Idea We Wish We’d Had First

Giving away Labubus at the booth. IYKYK.

But actually, Hot Tub Thursday. One operator we know through the LExC network puts their leadership team in a (not literal) hot tub once a month so the team gets to ask all their questions about the business. Certainly audacious, but we love the team-culture implications when leadership is radically transparent. More on that later.

And then there was the company Milkmate, a wellness room resource largely adopted by fortune 100s, that we respect the intentionality and research behind. We’d love to see these in every class A office building we ever walk into.

**An Idea We Did Have First**

Flexing in the ‘burbs.

The State of the Industry panel presented data that caught up to what we’ve been preaching for years: suburban markets are where people want to work. Demand for flex workspace in towns under 5,000 people grew 164% last year. Even enterprise clients, once loyal to high-rises, are now expanding into secondary and tertiary markets, fueling a 170% compound annual growth rate in corporate flex adoption. Global supply still lags behind demand, which means operators rooted in local communities are positioned to scale sustainably.

Questions That Belong in Every Team Meeting

Before Anna Squires Levine took the stage, we were handed a list of questions to ask our seatmates. It was a sneakily simple exercise that ended having a big impact on our team and–word on the street says–most of the others in attendance. Here’s the list, courtesy of The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/09/style/no-37-big-wedding-or-small.html

We’re adding these to the question rotation on our Tuesday team call, between “show-and-tell a favorite photos” and “give a teammate a shoutout.”

Space Design That Deserves Its Own Applause

OFS’s furniture staged by Workplace Studio. Stunning. Unnecessary number of times we said “wow.” And the Workplace Studio booth? Chef’s kiss. Whoever planned that lighting must be a pro. Oh, wait…

A Conversation That Shifted How We Think

Meagan Slavin’s panel: Turning Challenges into Wins.

Hearing your own COO share openly about mistakes she’s made and what she’s learned from them is the kind of bold team-culture moment you can’t fake. The same goes for the other panelists—Flip Howard and Lee Ann Willard— who spoke candidly about what’s worked and what hasn’t in their organizations. It’s rare to see leaders pull back the curtain that far, and it reminded us how much stronger teams become when learning isn’t private. (For more on these lessons, go to this article).

Most Likely to Be Quoted on a Slide Next Year

Any data from the “State of the Industry” panel.

Or, our favorite quote from the “Turning Challenges into Wins” panel: “No one’s gonna die. It’s just workspace.” This is a good reminder for any of us who need to zoom out, take a breath, and remember that, while we’re passionate about our work, it’s not healthcare or aviation…or literal rocket science.

Best Rebrand Moment in the Wild (Intentional or Not)

WeWork has had a remarkable turnaround under the leadership of current CEO John Stantora, and we were delighted to hear him speak thoughtfully on collaboration with smaller operators and a more open, ecosystem-minded approach to flex. For a company once synonymous with disruption (and not always in the flattering sense), it was refreshing to hear language around partnership, transparency, and shared standards.

Most Confusingly Popular Booth Swag

Labubus. Not confusing. Just…everywhere.

Trend We’re All Pretending to Understand but Don’t (Yet)

How SEO and AI Search Optimization strategies play well together. Right now, most industries are racing to understand how tools like Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) and AI-overviews will reshape visibility, and whether traditional SEO tactics (keywords, backlinks, metadata) will still matter when AI summaries become the first thing users see. There are sharp minds doing research and creating strategies in light of these changes, but with LLMs constantly shifting which parts of the internet they scrub to form their summaries, this is—quite literally—an ever-changing trend.

Ideas That Deserve Their Own Panel

Across many sessions, we saw a throughline: tech can’t replace human connection and the human voice, it can only amplify it. We’d love to see that conversation extended into how automation and AI can serve hospitality and free our people-focused teams to do what they do best.

Predictions for Next GWA

Giovanni will accidentally jump-scare at least three more people with session announcements.
FLOC (Future Leaders of Coworking) will expand its reach and likely lead something bold.
Expect more talk about scaling human connection across large portfolios.
“Deal structure” will be a topic of focus.
More talk on AI’s integration into commercial real estate and the hospitality-focused brands within it.
More talk on the WELL Certification.

“Love to See It” Moments

Community managers and operations leads heading up round-table responses with genuinely useful, boots-on-the-ground insight.
The collective consensus that good hospitality isn’t only an art, but an operationalized discipline.

See you next year!

The Semi-Scientific GWA Trend Report