"We are transforming to a new era 'The Society30". A new order of people is presenting itself. It may still be an undercurrent, but maybe that is the best way to grow. These Society30 citizens cannot and will not deal with the thinking of the establishment anymore. They want to add value in their work and life in a significantly different way, namely by creating 'value' instead of 'growth'.

We think these global citizens – who are increasing in number daily – are the pillars supporting Society30. Hundreds of millions of people of the world move around without restraints, literally unbounded, across borders all over our world. Sometimes they do this physically, but more often they do so digitally through out the Internet: the World Wide Web. These people of the world are no longer bound to old organizations. They have organized themselves in virtual social networks. They have started to create value in a different way. They do not work according to a formal organizational structure. They guide themselves. They are themselves. Their social connections show great creative vitality and unleash an enormous amount of energy. From within their self-awareness they respect the individuality of anybody. People of the world of Society30 are not after personal enrichment at the expense of others. They share; they are prepared to do a lot for someone else, without always expecting a monetary reward. They reinvent society and create all kind of new, fair and sustainable business models.

We think it is both exciting and fun to be such a person, a Knowmad of the world of Society 3.0.
Seats2meet.com wants to play an active role in that world!"

Mariëlle Sijgers & Ronald van den Hoff
founders of Seats2meet.com

Our co-working formula, Seats2meet.com (S2M), offers venues for free-co-working, meetings and collaboration between Knowmads and traditional organizations on their way to the Society30. A super hub & spoke network of physical co-work, office and meeting locations, where besides dedicated locations even individual co- working places in 3rd party office buildings (belonging to companies who believe it is an asset to welcome outsiders within their walls) are participating. Our conference- & meeting rooms as well as our office spaces are booked by regular corporate clients and Knowmads, who pay a fee per seat-used (and not per room), where pricing is based on a sophisticated yield management system. For Knowmads who just want a place to work, meet and connect with others, we offer co-workspaces, WiFi, beverages and even an occasional lunch free of charge in old monetary terms.

“Free” means however “no free lunch”: upon reservation the bookers/co-workers tell the system, thus the S2M network, what topics he/she is working on, where his/her interests lay and more. This way the booker commits him/herself to the network: he/she is available for unexpected meetings and maybe called upon by traditional clients in the meeting rooms to share their expertise and knowledge. Payment by Knowmads is therefore done by means of social capital. As traditional organizations in transition, renting regular meeting rooms, still pay per seat in traditional Euros, we have created a monetary system linking traditional and social capital.

On top of every physical Seats2meet.com location, there is a real time virtual dashboard of information and knowledge of people present that can be cleverly used. In this way co-working and meeting other people at Seats2meet.com locations become unexpectedly relevant, useful and become a new way to connect and form new ways for cooperation – serendipitously. In blurring these virtual and the physical products, services and logistic components around our physical locations we have created an organization in, what Pine & Korn name in their latest book Infinite Possibility (2011) ‘The 3rd Space’. This 3rd Space co-working approach enables us at Seats2meet.com to offer a unique, tailor-made experience, with a serendipitous educational element, to all our stakeholders. “Experiences” at Seats2meet.com locations become ‘Transformations’ in line with Pine & Gilmore’s theory of “Progression of Economic Value” (The Experience Economy, updated edition, 2011), where “Transformations” are the subsequent drivers of value creation after the traditional “Experiences.”

We as an organization, get back a lot. The return is immense. Our stakeholders appreciate our products and services tremendously and help us to position Seats2meet.com on the market. They create an enormous flow of buzz on the web (we used to call that PR. in the old days); they feed us with tips, reviews, knowledge and their time (that used to be called “marketing”) and actively promote us to other Knowmads and to corporate and governmental organizations (that used to be called “sales”). Whenever they have “real business” they book their training and meeting rooms at Seats2meet.com locations. Therefore, at Seats2meet.com we no longer have a PR, sales- or marketing and reservation department. How do you think that works out for our operational costs? And, the still growing army of “fans” who do our commercial activities is staggering.

With (potential) co-working operators worldwide, we now share our co- working reservation and yield management system, the property management software and operational knowledge through a special program called Myowns2m.com. It is a freemium model. In the Netherlands alone, we have grown this way within 2 years from one location to over 60 locations, handling trough our software over 500.000 seats. Internationally, we are on the brink of making the same waves. In spring 2013 we opened in Tokyo (League Ginza) in cooperation with the UDS Company as our Japanese partner. In Egypt a S2M location, The District, was stared by a local entrepreneur. More locations will follow soon.