Companies Look Beyond Hotels to the Sharing Economy For Cool Meeting Venues

When was the last time you got excited about meeting in a hotel boardroom or breakout space? Since launching in February 2015, Berlin-based Spacebase has amassed a collection of 1,700 partnerships with unique, privately-owned venues available for corporate meetings. These include photography studios, yoga studios, cocktail lounges, post-industrial restaurant spaces, co-working spaces, floating house boats, historic wineries and wine caves, and other creative venues across Europe. Jan Hoffmann-Keining, co-founder of Spacebase, is part of an emerging crowd of entrepreneurs who are trying to marry the meetings industry and the sharing economy. The goal is to match supply and demand for independently owned spaces that can perform double duty as event venues. Companies like Spacebase are using web platforms that closely resemble Airbnb's portal to help a restaurant owner in Hamburg, for example, rent unused dining room space during the day when the restaurant is cl