I walked into the Operator's Summit in Los Angeles with a simple plan: listen, learn, and connect.
No big booth. No extravagant sponsorships. Just me, a notebook, and a curiosity about how coworking operators think about their businesses right now.
By the time I left, I had a list of new relationships, some unexpected insights, and a whole lot to think about—including the possibility of bringing this summit model to the East Coast.
Here is what stood out.
This was not your typical industry conference. It wasn’t the sprawling, brand-heavy, speaker-packed experience of something like GWA or GCUC. Organizers and hosts Jerome Chang and Jackie LaTragna cultivated a small—intimate, even—event, with about 40 people in the room. That number included vendors, which meant the number of actual operators was even smaller.
Now, you might hear that and think, “Was it worth it?” And my answer is yes. Here’s why:
In a room that small, you actually meet everyone. You have real conversations. And you hear things you might not in a larger setting. It’s not just operators repeating industry talking points or sponsors pitching their latest features. It’s raw, honest talk about what’s working, what’s frustrating, and what’s keeping operators up at night.
That’s valuable.
If I had to sum up the theme of the conference in one phrase, it would be this: Operators need help with sales, marketing, and lead generation.
The most engaged conversations—the ones where people sat up, asked follow-up questions, and took notes—were about how to get leads, track leads, and actually convert those leads into paying members.
Jackie from Pacific Workplaces gave a session on lead tracking that should be required viewing for every operator. The biggest takeaway? Most people are sitting on leads they don’t even realize they have. They’re buried in email threads, forgotten in their CRM (if they even have one), or miscategorized and ignored.
As the conversation turned to SEO, one stat floored me: Every operator in the room was on at least four aggregator platforms. Four. At minimum. The consensus was that aggregators are a necessary evil—you need them for visibility, but you can’t rely on them for quality leads.
The key question: How do operators take back control? (See our write up on the recent GWA webinar about marketplaces).
This is where I see an opportunity. Operators want better sales tools baked into their coworking management software. Not to replace something like HubSpot (which they mostly think is too expensive and too big), but to give them an easier way to see and act on their leads without jumping between ten different platforms.
One of the more polarizing moments of the event was on automation features.
We empower our customers to use Zapier, but other operational platforms have established proprietary automations that are internal to their system.
If you know what you’re doing, you can set up some useful automations—reminders for member anniversaries, follow-ups based on usage patterns, triggered messages when certain actions are taken.
But here’s the thing: Most operators don’t want to configure all that.
They might think they do. They might say they want more control. But when it comes down to it, they want the software to do it for them, not hand them a bunch of tools and say, “Go build your own workflow.”
That’s why my stance has always been that coworking management software should guide operators, not give them homework. No need to wire up triggers and actions. No need to figure out a whole new system. Just simple, effective automations built into the platform.
I think Zapier gives a great solution of providing something that works most other platforms. We've done our best to take all the most common cases and provide them as useful templates so it's quick and painless to setup. I recently gave a talk on this to community managers to help demystify and show what types of automations are important.
Something else caught my attention: LiquidSpace is moving beyond short-term bookings and leaning heavily into long-term leasing.
That’s a shift worth watching. (Again we cover aggregators in the GWA webinar)
Historically, LiquidSpace has been known for on-demand bookings—day passes, meeting rooms, hot desks. But now, they’re helping operators fill long-term private offices as well.
That tells me two things:
Another fascinating tidbit? Many operators’ highest-ranking Google search result isn’t their own website—it’s their LiquidSpace listing.
That’s an SEO wake-up call. If a third-party platform ranks higher than your own website, you have some work to do.
Was the Operator's Summit the biggest coworking event of the year? No.
But was it meaningful? Absolutely. Again, kudos to organizers and hosts Jerome Chang and Jackie LaTragna, and a special shout out to the staff at BLANKSPACES Venice. It’s a beautiful space and the event was elegantly run.
I walked away with clearer insights on what operators actually need right now—better lead tracking, smarter sales tools, and marketing support that doesn’t feel overwhelming.
I also saw just how valuable an intimate, operator-first event can be. When the goal isn’t to sell, but to learn and connect, the conversations change. And that’s worth something.
So, we’ll see what happens next. Maybe this event stays a small, West Coast thing. Or maybe it grows into something bigger, something that brings the coworking community together in a new way.
Either way, I’m glad I was in the room.
Plans are underway now for the next event in 2026. The Coworks team is already working alongside Jerome and Jackie to plan the content and the location and the details. Stay tuned!