seats2meet.com outlook & strategy

The years of serendipity!

THE WORLD OF SOCIETY 3.0outlook & strategy 2014 & 2015

userreview

outlook & strategy 2014 & 2015 The years of serendipity!

We live at a juncture. There is no escaping it. Certain-

ties of yesterday are gone. There is a crisis. One crisis

after another. Our financial systems failed and dragged

us into an economic recession of unknown proportions.

The cogwheels of our society have stopped. Everywhere

you look there are traffic jams. Crisis? More like a global

social transition!

The technological and social mobility is greater than ever.

Our world seems to have shifted into top gear. But why

are her wheels not turning? Every right-minded person

must agree that our countries are structurally being de-

railed. Our craving for the faster, bigger and better has

crippled us. We still refuse to realize that our growth of

the past decades was based on creating debts and that

this game of debt creation is still a reality today. We also

forgot that economics is a social science and not a math-

ematical prediction machine. In spite of what our political

leaders may want us to believe, we are still in deep, deep

trouble.

However, in times of crisis, there are also great oppor-

tunities. A recent report of the Boston Consulting Group

argues: “the latest wave of technological advancement—

which encompasses cloud-based software, services, and

solutions—brings the potential for the most far-reaching

innovation and business growth ever. The cloud gives

companies of any size access to the kind capabilities and

services that to date have only been available to the larg-

est of enterprises—at a fraction of their historical cost.

Moreover, for those who make the right moves, this new

wave can leverage an al-ready-connected community of

consumers and businesses, which is of unprecedented

size”.

So, being entrepreneurs, where does it leave us? How

do we plan to seize the above-mentioned opportunities

from the cloud in 2014 & 2015? In this world of Society

3.0 we operate a global chain of Seats2meet.com 3rd

Spaces, sell collaboration software and launch exciting

new virtual features like The Serendipity Machine. We

aim to create a fast growing ‘stage’ for Society 3.0 organ-

izational value creation.

Welcome to our World of Society 3.0!

Mariëlle Sijgers

Ronald van den Hoff

Co-founders.

The Netherlands, Spring 2014

INTRODUCTION

outlook & strategy 2014 & 2015 The years of serendipity!Ronald van den Hoff

SocietyMastering the Global Transitionon Our Way to

Cities will become more influential and important

than the actual countries. These cities are global-

ly connected, through their inhabitants and start

to act interdependent with other big cities. They

even will have their own currencies, like the Cal-

gary Dollar or the Brixton Pound and may even

accept company and/or virtual currencies, like the

Amazon Coins or Bitcoins. The new value networks

of the mega cities, the places where the old and

the new work together again, are characterized by

clear communication and co-creation: directly ‘do-

ing business, designing, producing and assessing’

together. We call this The Mesh, not just a net-

work but the basic foundation of connected and

engaged people forming the starting point of new

value creation social networks.

The Mesh is an enormous cluster of value net-

works, also called value constellations. Processes

in this chaordic (chaotic and organized) society, are

simplified by social media. A society that is much

flatter and therefore simpler, because we are bet-

ter connected with each other, with others, through

knowledge and through transactional systems. So,

a new economic playing field is arising. The alli-

ance of prosumers with the new organization 3.0

ensures that consumers-to-be are participating at

an early stage and in doing so determine what and

how it is being produced.

By doing so all stakeholders in ‘The Mesh’ of an

organization combine social capital and traditional

capital, both needed to create value.

In this case it is not about the product itself. More

and more products are being packaged as a ser-

vice. Many people want to have access to some-

thing, but do not necessarily have to own it.

The Interdependent Economy of Society 3.0 is try-

ing to create an innovative and visionary solution

for today’s big challenges. This new eco system will

OUR VISION: THE RISE OF THE INTERDEPENDENT ECONOMY

Cities will become more powerfull than countries.

“Today, after a long history of regional success, the nation-state is failing us on the global scale.

It was a perfect recipe for the liberty and independence of autonomous people and nations. It

is utterly unsuited to interdependence. The city, always the human habitat of first resort, has in

today’s globalizing world once again become democracy’s best hope.”

Benjamin R. Barber: “If Mayors Ruled The World”.


need leadership based on vision and authenticity.

The mutual dependency – of time, place and of

social groups – shape the starting point of this sys-

tem. The Interdependent Economy will create val-

ue by leaving the value chain and adapt our value

systems to a sort of continuous productivity system

that fosters a seamless integration between con-

sumers and business platforms.

A generation of Knowmads (Self Enterprising Pro-

fessionals) has access to the collective knowledge

of an entire profession and other experts are easy

to find and connect with. According to a study by

the global market intelligence and advisory firm In-

ternational Data Corp., this mobile work force will

surpass 1.3 billion people by 2015 – representing

37.2 percent of the world’s overall work force.

Asia had 601.7 million mobile workers in 2010, but

that number is expected to reach 838.7 million

in 2015. Those figures do not include Japan.

Japan is expected to hit 38.6 million mobile work-

ers in 2015, or 64.8 percent of the country’s

overall work force.

The Americas are expected to see a growth from

182.5 million mobile workers in 2010 to 212.1

million in 2015.

Europe, the Middle East and Africa will see a

growth from 186.2 million mobile workers in

2010 to 244.6 million in 2015.

Organizations have to connect, engage and collab-

orate. Value creation takes place across organiza-

tion and company boundaries as the Web connects

everyone. Data, knowledge, analysis, and opinion

are equally available to every member of a team in

formats that are digital, sharable, and structured.

All the above may be already obsolete. Where vir-

tuality blurs with reality we see the rise of so called

Crowd Companies (Owyang, 2013). The crowd can

get anything they want from each other and may

go around your organization. So in order to sur-

vive as an organization, you have to connect with 4.8%7.5%

87.7%

6.1%

12.7%

81.2%2012

USED DEVICES DESKTOP, TABLET AND PHONE

12

.7%

81.2%

6.1%

2013

Mobile visitors are growing for www.seats2meet.com. A growth of 6% in just one year.


the crowd. Engage with the crowd. Work, design,

produce and sell with the crowd. Hence the name

“Crowd Company”.

To become a successful organization in Society 3.0,

we have to change our organizational thinking, in

terms of value creation, our raison d’être, the jus-

tification of our existence as an organization, and

we have to do that within different organizational

structures. We must do so with a different philos-

ophy than we have used traditionally. It is time to

reinvent ourselves

Smart Society 3.0 organizations can offer ‘plat-

forms’ on which Web-connected people can inter-

act and can get stuff from each other without hav-

ing to go through the traditional organization. The

‘Sharing Economy’ becomes an integral part of this

new Interdependent Economy.

Sharing is made possible by the solidarity of people,

the possibility to ‘monitor’ the quality and integrity

of the network, the will and the capacity of people

to share and the transparency of the supply. Social

media enables us to meet these conditions. Per-

haps it may not be visible to everyone immediately,

but some of these services are starting to grow out

of proportion. Eventually this development will ren-

der the current traditional supplier-chain useless

and will deny the present governments of sales-

and income taxes as their most important financial

resource.

Collaboration is a form of reciprocal reward. Value

nowadays, is often created without money being

involved. In the old systems we call that “free”. A

better definition is reciprocity. Only traditional or-

ganizations can give something away for free, and

then it is literally gone. In a reciprocal organiza-

tion something that is been given for free, always

comes back. You only don’t know exactly when,

where or in which form. We call this Asynchronous

Reciprocity. People help each other in exchange for

acknowledgement, status or just because it is fun.

New eco systems grow because of intangible val-

ues, of social capital. Value creation by means of

social networks means that we are no longer tied

to traditional economic limitations such as time,

place and matter.

From this point of view economic growth can no

longer be described with indexes such as the GNP.

After all we are able to grow in the intangible af-

fairs as mentioned above.

“Airbnb, the world’s leading marketplace to list, discover and book unique local accommodations,

today released a new study highlighting the Airbnb community’s positive economic impact in New

York City. Conducted by HR&A Advisors, the study found that Airbnb generated $632 million in

economic activity in New York in one year and supported 4,580 jobs throughout all five boroughs.

The study also found that nearly 90 percent of Airbnb hosts rent out the home they live in -- their

primary residence -- and use the money they earn to help make ends meet, while Airbnb guests

spend more time and money in New York than typical tourists.”

Airbnb press release October 2013.


Our Holding Company is C.D.E.F. Holding B.V.

CDEF stands for “Cada Dia Es una Fiesta”. This way

we show that we stand for value creation by col-

laboration: working together with other people and

companies should be fun, equally rewarding and

adding value to this world.

C.D.E.F. Holding BV. is equally owned and managed

by Mrs. Mariëlle Sijgers @msijgers and Mr. Ronald

van den Hoff @rvandenhoff.

The purpose of our activities is to create a new

playing field, where the traditional organizations are

working together with the rising class of the Know-

mads, the independent global professional. Our

business models bring back the balance between

social- and monetary capital, making it disruptive

and sustainable.

Seats2meet.com International B.V. is a sub-

sidiary and the business concept suitable for Socie-

ty 3.0. The S2M physical location-concept is a mix-

ture of an incubator, co-working-, meeting-, desk-,

event space, the new innovation lab for corpora-

tions and a level playing field for traditional organi-

zations wanting to open-up and make new connec-

tions with the outside world. Through our software

systems, back office- and (public) serendipitous

dashboard solutions we blur the real, physical world

with the virtual world, thus creating what the Amer-

ican management thinker Joseph Pine calls 3rd

Spaces. Hence serendipity rules at S2M locations:

always unexpected but relevant meetings! That is

the unique added value of the concept, therefore

impossible to copy.

Seats2meet.com locations are co-working spaces,

meeting- and office locations, theaters, retail shops,

boutique hotels and the odd golf course. But also

traditional corporations are introducing the S2M

concept as their in-house innovation/connection

spot within their corporate premises.

ABOUT SEATS2MEET.COM

With (potential) co-working operators worldwide we now share our Serendipity Machine dash-boards,

the co-working reservation & yield management system, the property management soft-ware and

operational knowledge (partly free) through a special program called www.myowns2m.com.


Our stakeholders, our value network The Seats-

2meet.com Mesh, appreciate our products and ser-

vices tremendously and help us to position Seats-

2meet.com products & services in the ‘free agents’

mesh. 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 cor-

porate and governmental organizations (that used

to be called ‘sales’). Whenever they have ‘real busi-

ness’ they book their training and meeting rooms

at Seats2meet.com locations without asking for a

discount. So at Seats2meet.com we no longer have

a PR, sales- or marketing and reservation depart-

ment. How do you think that works out for our op-

erational costs? And the still growing army of ‘fans’

who do our commercial activities is staggering.

To enhance the engagement of the community we

hit our Mesh this spring with a program called ‘Res-

idents’, where community members can earn or

pay for benefits and services, making them better

professionals.

Traditional money is made on various money

streams. For operators it is the commercial selling

of meeting- and desk spaces (we sell by the seat),

or an increased number of theater seats sales, golf

starting times and more. Operators also make mon-

ey, when the numbers of their local network are big

enough, on selling collaboration & event software

and on programs like S2M Residents.

As Seats2meet.com International we make money

by receiving a commission on all the operator mon-

ey streams.

Coworking leads to work for freelancers,

not just a desk

Associate Professor Vareska van de Vrande of the

Rotterdam School of Management at Erasmus Uni-

versity conducted a study on the impacts of cow-

orking and discovered that there is more going on

than heads-down working: there’s a lot of network-

ing. The increasing popularity of coworking world-

wide is having a real impact on work, especially

with freelancers who are most likely to use cowork-

ing facilities and services. She surveyed 500 users

of our coworking service and found the following:

• More than one in four had started professional

partnerships or opportunities to collaborate with

other coworkers.

• One in eight found a job or consulting work

from people they met at a coworking site.

The majority — 65% — of those surveyed are en-

trepreneurs, 10% are students, and 5% are unem-

ployed. The most common reason for using Seats-

2meet is a change of working environment, and

19% of the respondees mentioned not having an

office of their own. Also commonly mentioned are

the results the study uncovered: the desire to find

others to work with, or to find paying work.

53374513

233126

152206€

14447

MEETINGSPACE BOOKERS

BOOKED SEATS

PAID WITH SOCIAL CAPITAL

WORKSPACE BOOKERS

11939

BOOKED SEATS 2012 2013

82693

58176

BOOKED SEATS

PAID WITH EURO’S

SC


Cyberdigma B.V.

Entrepreneurial value creation is moving away from

the value chain towards value networks. These val-

ue networks offer an infrastructure, a stage, on

which people can self organize value creation, us-

ing building blocks like authentic value, relevance,

collaboration and innovation.

When those value networks cluster, this cluster is

called the Society 3.0 Mesh. The interconnectivi-

ty of people in the mesh offers opportunities like

inspiring connections, leading to commercial pos-

sibilities and opportunities. The mesh is a rich eco-

system and a dynamic playing field for pioneering

entrepreneurs.

Our mission:

The Cyberdigma-hub discovers and explores the

opportunities of the Society 3.0 mesh, and trans-

lates these into online applications. These products

and services are incorporated in the S2M platform,

but are also marketable as a white label software

product.

Products:

The Serendipity Machine.

An online dashboard to trace and provoke relevant

serendipitous meetings in the Society 3.0 mesh.

Booking software for work spaces, meeting

spaces and desk spaces.

Quick and easy on line reservations of desk-, of-

fice- and meeting space, including a Serendipity

Machine as an integrated part.

Event software.

Organize, monitor and direct events. Including a

Serendipity machine as a second screen during the

event.

S2M residents program.

An innovative program to engage the S2M stake-

holders and help them to become better profes-

sionals, using gamification principles.

ABOUT CYBERDIGMA.LAB

8.29 pages

in 9:05

INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOUR 2012 2013

in 4:59

3.59 pages

Average time people visit our websites & the average amount of pages visited.


Launches 2014

We have some exciting moments to share with you!

In the beginning of 2014 we expect to launch the

Residents program mentioned above. All the S2M

users will be notified automatically that they can

become part of something special! Trough gamified

tactics we guide them towards Resident status 9.

At the moment they reach that level they practically

live at a seats2meet.com location.

In addition to this we will launch the Serendipity Ma-

chine for the masses in the second quarter of 2014. We

really want to add this virtual blanket over every pos-

sible physical location. You can already use this

tool and request a machine for your own location!

check it out at www.serendipitymachine.com

The last year we’ve learned a lot from the network

that is using our event software. We aim to focus on

the encounter of relevant people during an event.

We got a lot of feedback and are planning a new

release of this software in the third quarter of 2014.

VISITORS BEHAVIOURSEATS2MEET.COM

2012 2013

183.680318.433

645.548358.209

1.286.3615.351.501

uniq

ue

visi

tors

tota

lvi

sits

page

view

s

Jan

12071

Feb

1

1739

Mar

14672

Apr

115

59

May

1

1975

Jun

1

0706

Jul

7

276

Aug

9816

Sep

1

4128

Oct

14298

Nov

1

6340

Dec

1

2696

Jan

16712

Feb

16938

Mar

17830

Apr

1

4417

May

13378

Jun

1

2947

Jul

9

340

Aug

11449

Sep

2

75

31

Oct

2

4705

Nov

24627

Dec

1

7887

Jan

2835

0

Feb

30623

Mar

3

4244

Apr

3

1909

May

3

15

01

Jun

2

8363

Jul

2325

0

Aug

24031

Sep

3

4621

Oct

3

9610

Nov

3

725

0

Dec

305

03

2011: 147276 2012: 207761 2013: 374255

UNIQUE VISITORS SEATS2MEET.COM


The Society 3.0 Foundation as a social enterprise

aims to assist people and organizations on their

way to Society 3.0. Especially on projects where

traditional boundaries block innovation, the Society

3.0 Foundation helps people and organizations to

overcome political-, legal- and mental barriers.

Acting as a modern publishing company we try to

achieve our goals by:

• Matching and connecting people.

• Sharing knowledge, by publishing books, organ-

ize events, blogs, articles and the publication

platform www.Society30.com.

• Sharing the abundance of physical & virtual

spaces, through the services of our sister com-

panies Seats2meet.com & Cyberdigma.com

• Micro funding & loans.

The book Society 3.0 was published in 2010 and

sold over 50.000 times, making it a best-selling

management book in The Netherlands. In 2014 the

book was translated into English and updated. A

resume of the book:

Society 3.0: Mastering the Global Transition on Our

Way to the Next Step in Human Evolution investi-

gates the myriad of financial crises plaguing our

society today, as well as their effects on the fu-

ture of work and education. Ronald van den Hoff

also describes the need for (and emergence of) a

knowledge- driven civilization, marked by acceler-

ating change, value networks, and “knowmads,”

the nomadic knowledge workers of the future.

Monetizing on the Mesh is the final theme explored

in this book. Open value networks replace value

chains, reality and virtuality are blurring. People

get what they need from each other and may go

around your organization, unless the crowd be-

comes part of your organization. Business models

are changing. How do you connect with potential

clients who may never become paying clients in the

end? What is social capital? How do you create sus-

tainable monetization with your own Mesh?

Inspired? visit our magazine at www.society30.com

Ronald van den Hoff


Ronald van den Hoff


SOCIETY 3.0 FOUNDATION

seats2meet.com outlook & strategy

Documents