Jost Spantermann works in Dusseldorf today, in Hamburg tomorrow and the day after that in Frankfurt. A week later he sets up shop in Cologne, Berlin and again in Frankfurt. His current home: Stuttgart. His job: He’s a media consultant. To describe what that means exactly, the 54-year old casts a wide net: “By trade, I’m a journalist. When I started out, I wrote copy for newspapers and TV shows, then I produced series and conducted investigative research. A few years ago, I started my own copy-editing service, and soon was asked to do projects all over Germany. I created public relations campaigns, produced TV pieces, wrote press releases and news copy.”
At first, the native from Westphalia worked out of a spare bedroom in his apartment. „But then I started to get bored at home, cabin fever got me. I rented space in a Business Center and felt much better from the get-go: I had a seat at a desk in a coworking office, and it felt great to have the opportunity of exchange with people – human contact is essential for many creative workers, and I belong in that group. There were quite a few one-man-bands like me. You share your worries, but also the good times – for instance after landing a lucrative job. We actually formed a little community, even went to grab a bite together for lunch or dinner. I still have precious friends from those days.”
Today, Spantermann uses Business Centers to prepare for his assignments: “I teach media seminars for top executives. Many of them are first class experts in their fields, my clients comprise economists, financial advisers, engineers, or pharmacists – however, dealing with the media requires another skill-set altogether, particularly in the age of digitization. Most of the men and women in my seminars have to add those skills while they are in the middle of their careers. I have rented conference rooms in Business Centers in order to bring clients from different companies to the same premise – in Dusseldorf, for example, there are many executives from different companies in town during trade shows. If I manage to have several of them attending one seminar, it’s more cost-efficient for everyone involved.”
Dr André Helf, CEO of COLLECTION Business Center Group, is very well aware of media clients’ needs: “Very few businesses see such dramatic changes in their procedures as service companies in the field of communication. The impact left by public appearances can be dramatic – and we here at COLLECTION Business Center fully understand the importance of media work and public relations. We are very happy to do have customers from that line of business and will do everything we can to continuously support them with our state-of-the-art technology and our attractive leases.”
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