CEO’s Talk Workplace – Interview With Convene’s Ryan Simonetti

Bob Fox: Tell us a little about Convene.

Ryan Simonetti: Convene is the fastest-growing network of full-service, tech-enabled meeting, event, and flexible workspaces. Convene is currently partnering with the world’s most prominent property owners to address the increased demand from enterprise companies for highly amenitized, flexible-term meeting and workspace solutions.

Chris Kelly and I started Convene in 2009. Early on, we were focused on building and growing a network of premium meeting and conference spaces to meet the needs of enterprise companies looking to outsource their corporate meeting and event needs, while still giving guests an elevated hospitality experience.

Prior to co-founding Convene, I was working in real estate investing, and was primarily focused on office buildings and hotels. I thought, “What would happen if you ran an office building more like a hotel? What if you cared about design and its impact on human experience? What if you thought differently about what hospitality means as a compliment to physical space and great design and leveraged human-to-human delivery of a service model to create true sense of place?” That’s how Convene was born.

Since 2009, we’ve grown our footprint to 19 properties in five cities, and expanded our service offerings to include office amenities, hospitality services, technology, and this year, flexible workspace solutions. Convene recently raised $152M in Series D funding, and with this new funding, we’re planning to grow our physical footprint in new and existing cities, expand our service offerings, and officially launch our workplace technology platform, Elevate.

We see an opportunity with Convene to reimagine the human experience in an office building by integrating flexible space, hospitality services, and seamless technology in a synergistic way, with the end goal of creating a true sense of place for end users. In early 2018, we opened Convene’s new flagship HQ office at 101 Greenwich Street in Lower Manhattan, which creates that differentiated experience. Located in the heart of downtown New York City, Convene’s HQ serves as the cultural hub for our corporate team, as well as the home to many other high-growth, established companies looking for an elevated meeting and workplace experience.

Bob: You’re talking about the in-building tenant and what you’re doing provides tremendous flexibility to the smaller and larger tenants. The landlord, while obligated to a traditional lease, now has an augmentation through what you can offer.

Ryan: When we think about the future of work, we think about flexibility, choice, and experience. It’s all about giving employees the freedom to choose where they work, when they work, and how they work.

Tenants moving into a building that Convene operates in can change the way they think about space planning, and their overall footprint in a building. For example, if I’m a smaller tenant, am I going to build out a kitchen for my team or can I leverage Convene and the culinary infrastructure they have built? Am I going to have my own community manager on staff, or can I leverage Convene’s community platform to be an extension of my culture within my company?