The Office Providers Talking Office Space and Flexible Workspace

Hi and welcome to our first podcast episode! It’s the 23rd of February 2020 and this is a live recording – so apologies in advance for any clunkiness or unforeseen mishaps! This first episode is just me, Mike Gardener, and I’m the founder and MD of The Office Providers. This initial episode will introduce our podcast, our company and me. Firstly, I’ll introduce our company and what we do. Our company is The Office Providers https://www.theofficeproviders.com and we are an office space brokerage, office agency, office search service, office aggregator, office space portal… whichever way you'd like to term it, we help businesses and individuals find office space for their business by giving them access to the whole office space market. We work with all of the office providers and flex space providers in all locations globally. So, we have all the local markets in all global locations covered. These providers operate serviced offices, managed office space, co-working spaces, hot desking centres and other forms of flexible workspace. We also work with developers and landlords of leased office space. We are regulated by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors and our services are always FREE. Because we are paid a fee by the providers, operators and landlords. My background - I started in real estate 20 years ago working as a property manager for a residential letting agency. From there, my interest turned to commercial property and I then completed a masters in commercial property management. I then became a chartered surveyor and a member of the royal institution of chartered surveyors (or the RICS). I worked for two multinational real estate advisory companies and specialised in office agency – both finding tenants for landlord clients and finding office space for tenant clients. I witnessed a major slowdown in the traditional leasehold office space market during the Great Recession of 2008 and saw that companies were increasingly opting for office space with flexibility built-in. Office space options on flexible and shorter terms, with all-inclusive pricing, elements of customisation and the ability to upscale and downscale their footprints with ease. In 2009, I set up The Office Providers to provide a free office space search and acquisitions service that gave our clients access to the whole market. It was also important to bring the values of the RICS to this marketplace so I ensured that The Office Providers company was regulated by the RICS and our company was the first flexible office space agency to be regulated by the body. In these podcast episodes, I will be talking about the office space market, any new developments in the market place, general news, providing hints, hacks and tips, talking about new properties, new developments, new locations, office tech, and everything else that comes under the banner of ‘offices’. From time to time, we will have guests on to talk about all of the above, too. We will also answer any questions asked of our listeners and record those so please send these through to contactus@theofficeproviders.com and mark the subject ‘Podcast’. We will answer these questions in future episodes. Any feedback will be gratefully received, too, so please send this through to the same email address. So, that’s our first introductory episode, so until next time, all the best and take care!