Today, I attended a meeting and met many of the local eastside executive office space providers.  It was nice to meet some of the other providers of office space in Bellevue, Issaquah, Federal Way and Seattle.  We were the only ones to show up from Redmond.  Each company provides shared office space to companies that are looking for full service office suites.  There was representation from the following companies:

• Premier Business Centers who has office space in Bellevue, near I-90.
• Hometown Office Suites & Services located in Federal Way.
• Lake Place Office Center located in Issaquah, the Costco shared office space.
• Executive Support Center off Interurban Avenue in Seattle.
• Meadow Creek Professional Center hosted the event at their location in Issaquah.

It’s nice to meet many independent office space providers in the local area so that way if I happen to come across people that are looking for space in Bellevue, I can refer them over to Premier Business Centers.

We discussed the economy and impact that it is having on people looking for shared office space. We’re seeing an increase in demand for virtual offices as companies are looking to minimize their expenses yet still have a professional addresss.  At thinkspace, we also provide virtual offices where companies also get to have their company name listed on our touch screen lobby directory.

We also discussed that there seems to be an increase in the number of companies looking for temporary office space.  Some companies are in-between space, their lease has expired in their current location and the new office space that they are looking to move into is not ready yet.  Tenant improvements sometimes take longer than expected and lining when a lease expires and the start of a new lease can sometimes leave a company without a place to operate.  That’s where companies like thinkspace can fill the gap and provide “sling space”.

I also found out today that there is a conference sponsored by OBCAI (Office Business Center Association International) on October 1- 4, 2008 at Disney’s Contemporary Resort in Orlando, Florida.  It would be interesting to attend that event but unfortunately it does not work with my schedule.  I’m looking forward to hearing about the event at the next gathering.