According to Right Management Consultants, 86% of corporate employees are actively seeking employment elsewhere. What is it about the corporate business model that has so many looking for something different? Could coworking be the answer to what corporate escapees are looking for?

In 1996, Activity Based Working was introduced in the Netherlands (spreading to Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, the United Kingdom, and Scandinavia), offering employees a bit of flexibility in not only where they worked, but when. This reduced the amount of desks corporations needed, as well as increased productivity by giving individuals options in choosing where they felt their work could be accomplished most effectively. Coworking spaces evolved from concepts such as these with only one center in 2005, to 781 cowork spaces by 2013.

“Indie Desk is a coworking space— a middle ground between working out of your loft and renting your own office. You'll find a desk and an Internet connection, but also a community of members who are building their own creative businesses.”

“Working from home is isolating and leads to slower business growth and a slew of distractions. Posh CoWorking provides a supportive community for entrepreneurs and freelancers who want a space to work, connect with peers and collaborate.”

“Harlem Garage is a coworking space for Harlem businesses, and a community space for Harlem. Entrepreneurs work and meet clients in our space, and teams make ideas happen in our collaborative areas.”

Occupying the entire 8th floor, WE Labs (Work Evolution Laboratories) is 8500 square feet of Long Beach entrepreneurship. WE balance the classic stylings of the historic Pacific Tower with cutting-edge tech innovation, inspiring members to work for themselves, not by themselves. In trying to get you out of your home office and onto what WE call  “the playing field of innovation” (like Indie Desk in LA), WE offer 2 wings of large, small, and dedicated deskspace. The walls and open spaces are filled with fixtures, installations, and canvases by local artist curated by co-founder and CEO Robbie Brown. Additionally, the west wing hosts events and workshops, as well being a satellite location for PadNet TV (Public Access Long Beach).  The interchange between part-time freelance members and full-time members (similar to Posh CoWorking in Austin) has led to successful community events and concepts. With The Works, soon freelancers can be in the running for future service contracts. WE Labs is very much a place for Long Beach business (like Harlem Garage) with a conference room available for reservations, including discounted rates for members. Our bottom-up approach to business reflects the values Virginia Rometty, CEO of IBM, expressed in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations: that a “person’s value lies not in what she/he knows, but in what he/she shares.”  WE work together, WE learn together, WE grow together.

WE didn’t realize WE’d scheduled PitchLab: Pitch or Treat on the night that would be game 7 of the World Series until the celebratory cheer from every watering hole in Downtown Long Beach filled the air around our 8th floor perch in the Pacific Tower. However, not even sports history could keep the entrepreneurs and visionaries from our most popular monthly event (and the spread from Beachwood BBQ probably had something to do with it too). But more on that in a second.

Our featured feedback panel for the October PitchLab included Mike Daniel, director of the Long Beach SBDC Service Center, and Lisa Mastramico, director of PADNET at the Long Beach Community Action Partnership. They lent their feedback to ideas ranging from a veteran’s art program, to a hip-hop festival, to an app that allows you to treat your friends to dinner or buy them a drink with your smartphone.

But the most important part of PitchLab is the open networking mixer after the pitches. It’s always easier to make connections and create friendships among creative individuals when WE can establish some common gastronomic ground, and that’s where Brandon at Beachwood BBQ came in. This month he provided pork, chicken, and brisket with their delicious array of sauces. And oh yes, there was beer.

Please join us for our next PitchLab on December 3rd at 6:30pm. Keep an eye on our newsletter for updates and announcements, including who will be on our featured feedback panel and what sponsored goodies will be tempting us this time! This will be our last PitchLab of 2014, so come join us to celebrate the closing of one year and all the possibilities in the new one!

1. We have 8500 square feet of space to accommodate you and your party.
Have you been to WE Labs? WE occupy the entire 8th floor in a building that is in the exact center of the downtown area. Located on the corner of Long Beach Boulevard and Broadway, WE have a 360 degree view of the city of Long Beach where, every night, you can see the fireworks from Disneyland, Knott's Berry Farm, and the Queen Mary.

2. Getting here is EASY!
Downtown Long Beach is a notoriously hard place to find parking, but not at WE Labs. WE are located one block away from the free 2-hour City Parking lots.  If that isn’t enough time, there are two (count ‘em, two) City of Long Beach lots that cost only $5 for the entire day located across the street from us!!!  As if that weren’t easy enough, WE are also located one block away from the Transit Mall.  You can go green and get drunk at the same time.

3. Affordable
WE Labs is a community-minded connector organization that welcomes all organizations and parties. Our focus as a business is to have a space where anyone can drop in and connect. WE don’t expect you to work by yourself, why do you think that we would want you to party by yourself? WE have packages available at all price points.

4.Access to a super awesome event coordinator.
Did you even know that WE Labs has an event coordinator?  Well, it does, and she is AWESOME!!! Award-winning and notorious for wrangling zombies and WE Labs staff, Ina can help you with all of your party needs. Remember how WE don’t want you to work or party by yourself?  Well, WE also don’t want you to plan by yourself—that’s what Ina is for!

So really, what are you waiting for? Contact us about your next event. WE are here for YOU.

There are literally thousands of reasons why Long Beach is an amazing place to start or relocate a business. But we had to pick five (time constraints, you see).* Let’s get to it: 

Number 5 (yes, its a count down)
Long beach is walkable, bikeable, and generally just easy to get around. We are the 11th most walkable city and the 3rd most bikeable city in the US. In California, that ranking translates to 2nd and 2nd, right behind San Francisco in both cases. What makes for a better start to your work day than a non-traffic traumatised team? 

Number 4
Being part of a major metropolitan area is important to any business looking to grow and attract talent. In Long Beach, we are in LA County, but not in L.A. Don’t get us wrong, we love our big neighbor to the north, but as many metro residents will tell you, there is a big difference between living in L.A. and visiting L.A. In our opinion, we’ve got it just right. We live right next to the beach, have everything a big city has to offer and we have another big city just a train ride or short drive away. Did we mention its usually about 10-15 degrees cooler in Long Beach than it is in L.A.?

Number 3
Every good business leader knows that innovation, creativity and business outlook only improve in a diverse environment with a diverse team and LA Metro is one of the most diverse places on earth. In the United States, it is THE most diverse major metropolitan area. Awhile back, USA Today did a comparative study which broke down the stats and it turns out, Long Beach is a big reason why LA metro is number one on the diversity charts: Long Beach just happens to be the most diverse city in the US, contributing significantly to LA Metro’s ranking as the most diverse metro area. 

Number 2
Long Beach is probably the easiest city in the United States to get involved in civic and community affairs. We have a robust nonprofit community and our our community leaders, elected or not, are easier to talk to than a neighbor of ten years. Its like having a nearly 500k-person support network. We call it community. For startups and entrepreneurs, just about everywhere you turn there is someone, some organization or some institution, just waiting to help you get off the ground. For more information, see our previous post: Five Local Startup Resources You Might Not Know About.

Number 1
The number one reason Long Beach is such a great city to start or relocate your business is definitely WE Labs (forgive us for self-aggrandizing, but it's our blog and we can do what we want). WE are connected, innovative, supportive and hard working. WE are basically the best business thing to come along since the abacus. We are your ultimate resource and we like to share, just like this list you are currently reading. And this list.

Don’t want to take our word for it? Then drop us a line or, better, just swing by and check us out. You won’t be sorry.

*subject to change on whim, fancy, sound argument or for any other reason.

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Article by Lincoln Bauer, edited by Victoria McCoy