Growing Brussels’ entrepreneurial ecosystem
Anis Bedda, co-president of BeCoworking and founder of co-working space transforma bxl, works towards creating sustainable innovation made in Brussels
In his own words, Anis Bedda is driven by “having fun and having purpose”. The founder and manager of coworking space transforma bxl and co-president of open collective BeCoworking (an open collective of coworking spaces in Belgium) wants to be thrilled by what he is doing whilst maintaining his business. He strives for both fun and purpose knowing that they are closely linked — and wants others to understand and do the same. In managing transforma bxl but also through engaging with BeCoworking, Anis looks to inspire those around him — be it people or businesses, to help develop businesses and help them “to think of themselves as impact-first organisations”.
Anis bootstrapped transforma bxl on the values of sustainability, innovation and community and wants to foster what he calls “sustainable innovation”. “We cannot afford to consider sustainability as a ‘nice-to-have’ box in an end of year report. It is not only an imperative concern to tackle pressing global challenges but it is also a source of great opportunities”, he says. At transforma, he approaches sustainability “as a business as usual prerequisite” and integrates “it to all our efforts in generating innovation. In today’s world, if an emerging business model, product or service is not sustainable, then it’s not innovative, period.”
BeCoworking and coworking spaces “create moments”
It is these values that also drive his engagement with BeCoworking. BeCoworking is the Belgian association of coworking spaces ruled by the motto “United we stand” of which Anis is co-president for the Brussels region. The collective unites 47 coworking spaces from the three Belgian regions around the objectives to bring people together to learn, connect and work. It wants to spread the word about coworking and “bring happiness to a lot of lonely freelancers, entrepreneurs, and teleworkers.”
Anis tells me that BeCoworking is as much about finding “lean ways to organise coworking spaces” as it is about helping to manage activities that promote coworking such as the National Coworking Week. “With BeCoworking, we promote working together, learning from one another and meeting each other”, he explains.
“With BeCoworking, we promote working together, learning from one another and meeting each other.”
Learning is about “being confronted with challenging content”, about sharing and co-operating with third parties through events that help foster new skills that are organised throughout the year. “Working is the common denominator of all our work. Working means to be in a professional environment but one that is inspiring and benefits from the practical advantages that coworking offers over traditional office rentals”, Anis fills in. Meeting or connecting, to him and BeCoworking, is to meet like-minded entrepreneurs and foster networks.
Anis — in his role as manager of transforma — likens his work to that of a gardener: “For example, at transforma we have a permaculture garden and foster an ecosystem inside an outside of our building. What does that mean? We foster a green ecosystem made up of our vegetable garden outside and an entrepreneurial ecosystem inside.” Within this carefully curated ecosystem, he sees his role both within bringing BeCoworking forward as well as within transforma as the matchmaker who creates collaboration and links, and fosters an environment where entrepreneurs come together to meet around food and drinks, during yoga or at improv sessions — “we create moments”, he summarises.
“Managing a coworking space is about ‘creating moments‘.”
The power of co-working lies in its flexibility and community
When talking to Anis about his work and engagement, it becomes clear early on that coworking for him is the future of work. In fact, when exploring this line of conversation, he stops himself saying “the future of work” but instead says “coworking is the present of work”.
Anis stops himself saying “coworking is the future of work” but instead says “coworking is the present of work”.
“Coworking has various economic and practical advantages over traditional office rentals”, he explains, “organisations today become leaner and have the possibility to become more mobile. There is no need for bigger offices and working from a coworking space allows them to benefit from being surrounded by other businesses.”
“Working from a coworking space allows organisations to benefit from being surrounded by other businesses.”
Anis points to the flexibility of coworking spaces for corporates when he talks about the future of work saying that maybe an organisation needs an office for four people one month, but then for six the next, and only a desk but also meeting rooms in the third month. Coworking is very flexible in that regard. He also strongly believes that coworking improves overall employee well-being by providing “access to space”. “Through the different areas such as an event space, co-creation space, even nap areas that coworking spaces such as transforma offer, we take employees out of their bland offices and build a community feel that is important.” He illustrates his point with the example of a new collaboration that ABInBev and Brussels’ coworking space Chester & Fields have recently agreed upon whereby ABInBev employees can now work from the Merode coworking space.
Looking into the future of coworking, Anis sees that many established office rental players will move into the market but remains calm saying that smaller coworking spaces will always have a place in the ecosystem. He compares coworking spaces to lunchtime restaurants: “Coworking spaces are like restaurants at lunchtime, you travel somewhere for dinner, but less so at lunch time” saying that smaller coworking spaces will always be appreciated for their proximity, their local anchorage and for their homey feeling, exactly like a local coffeeshop or a restaurant.
“Coworking spaces are like restaurants at lunchtime, you travel somewhere for dinner, but less so at lunch time — coworking spaces will always be appreciated for their proximity, their local anchorage and for their homey feeling, exactly like a local coffeeshop or a restaurant.”
He reflects that within the Brussels region there is a “good mix” of coworking spaces in terms of price, location and focus. When talking about transforma bxl’s future plans, Anis explains that he wants to “mutualise logistics”: “we already have prototyping opportunities in house through our fablab, but next we also want to offer warehouse and logistics abilities in the same space.”
Want to hear more of Anis? Give this podcast a listen: https://electricsheep.fm/fr/episodes/3
Learn more about BeCoworking: http://www.becoworking.be/
Contact Anis Bedda at anis@transformabxl.be
Join or contribute to BeCoworking’s open collective: https://opencollective.com/becoworking
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