Reported by Mitchell Kabakow for Flatiron Hot! News

Americans are spending more and more time working indoors, despite the fact that spending time outdoors helps us live a more creative, happy and productive life. The world-renowned outdoor company L.L. Bean wants that to change. On June 21^st, L.L. Bean held their first-ever outdoor co-working space event at Madison Square Park in the Flatiron District, just one block away from the New York City Seminar and Conference Center. The event was part of the “Be an Outsider at Work” campaign which is a collaboration between L.L. Bean and the co-working company Industrious to encourage office workers to spend time outside during the workday. The campaign came as the result of a study showing that the vast majority of indoor workers would like to spend more time outside but don’t get a chance to do so at work. After a trial run at L.L. Bean’s Maine headquarters, the event was brought to NYC and came complete with a number of outdoor work spaces and conference areas, as well as pedal desks and lounge-style sitting areas. After the event wraps up in New York it will move on to other cities such as Boston and Philadelphia.

L.L. Bean and Industrious hope that their “Be an Outsider at Work” campaign will show that employees can be productive outside of the traditional office setting. The rise of WiFi and other new technologies has liberated the white-collar worker from the office chair and created the multi-million dollar co-working industry. Companies like Industrious and the New York City Seminar and Conference Center are able to provide new types of work environments to companies that either can’t afford traditional office spaces or feel like they would work better outside of an office building. Judging by the success of the well-attended campaign, we may be seeing more outdoor co-working in the future.