“What does it cost to sit there for a day?” “Nothing.” “Why? Do you pay for the Wi-Fi then?” “No, Wi-Fi is for free.” “Then you’ll definitely pay too much for the coffee?” “No, you pay nothing. Even a full lunch is included.” “What? How do they earn their money then? There is nothing free in this world!”
This is the kind of the conversation I had with a friend of mine, that tried to explain the concept of Seats2Meet. Of course, Seats2Meet is not really a concept for poor students looking for a free lunch, but what is then?
The concept of seats2Meet is actually not about money, but about social capital.The idea revolves around the growing group of self-employed professionals that still want to work with you, but not for you. Seats2Meet calls them ‘Knowmads’, being people that are no longer bound to traditional organizations, but organized their professional careers around a (virtual) social network. These people want to engage with potential stakeholders, for exchanging information and knowledge, which eventually could lead to doing business together. These contemporary networks, are called ‘Mesh-Networks’ and to create these networks, virtual and physical locations are required. Seets2Meat facilitates these physical and virtual locations and here professionals can work, meet, exchange information, create new products and services and add value to each other’s work (Saarijärvi et al., 2013). Of course money needs to be earned to keep the story of Seats2Meet going, and therefore people have to pay for hiring meeting rooms. However, this is also being done differently, since you do not pay for the room, but for the number of seats you need.
The reason behind these ‘Mesh-Networks’ facilitated by Seats2Meet and Mindz.com, is the creation of a social community (Batemen et al., 2011). Continue reading Seats2Meet
How the platform works is that if you have a cool idea ‘that matters’ you go to the website, write a description of what you want to share and you upload it to the platform. Other members can find your post, by searching the list of posts or by using a map that helps you to find local tips. The community is based on voting by using the ‘IT MATTERS’ button, which members can use to show they believe that someone’s contribution to the platform is important (Malone, 2010). So, next time if you’re looking for greening-up your life, you type in your location and ideas should immediately pop-up in your screen! 
Consumer Value Creation 
