Coworking Now Conference — Gdansk
Coworkies team just came back from the Polish coworking conference and I thought it would be good to put down some notes in the form of a blog post while things are still fresh in my mind. So here we go…
Coworking Now conference in Gdansk was an interesting experience. I really started the journey there with no expectations and to be honest I really didn't know much about the Polish coworking scene up until that moment. Going there was quite easy, we just had to hop on a train from Berlin, change once and in six hours we were in Gdansk. Well our arrival there was celebrated by a jump from the moving train as our wagons door was jammed and we had to rush into the next one… alive and well we continued … 😃
As it was late we quickly made our way to the hotel. Not long after Martyna, one of the organizers called us and requested if she can move our presentation to be just after the start of the conference. Claire, one of the other speakers had just missed her plane in Amsterdam, so we had to fill in her spot. Our presentation was planned for the second day so we still had some work on it, but as circumstanced called for it we spent few hours tweaking and improving it to fit the time slot scheduled for the next morning.
After a quick breakfast on the next day we walked to the Olivia Business Center and found our way trough the buildings to meet the O4 team. Things were going great and it was obvious that everyone was excited to get into conference mode. First on stage was Mike LaRosa who focused his presentation on alternative revenue streams for coworking spaces. Quickly after that is was Pauline’s turn to take the stage and tell the story of Coworkies. She dug into how and why we started, quick history of the coworking movement, where it is today and then took everyone on a trip into the world of coworking the way we have experienced while traveling.
Afterwards, the day turned into a really insightful glimpse of the Polish coworking scene. Marta one of the organizers and a managing director at O4 Coworking gave a thoughtful presentation on the Polish coworking scene with focus on the coworkers diversity in Poland. Backed up by data from a freshly made coworking survey with other coworking operators, she presented in an amusing way all the success and challenges faced by the Polish coworking operators and coworkers.
Here is my basic translation of the slide above.
Title: Poland and the world — for now, its divided.
- Less meters, fewer job positions:
Poland: 76% less than 30 members World: 39% less than 30 positions
2. Growth & scaling:
Poland 27% think about a new location World 42% think about new location
3. Better financial results:
Poland 54% declare that it brings profits World 40% declare that it brings profits
4. Women:
Poland less than 30% World already 44%
The other really interesting presentation came from Katarzyna Wojnar from Brain Embassy. It was obvious from the get go that this coworking space gives a damn about their community and the more she was going into it the more obvious it was what great of a job they were doing. It felt surprising to see such a big coworking operation in Poland, with so much emphasis on community and interior design. My take-away from the presentation is that the Polish market is quite big and there is a lot of room for good coworking spaces to position themselves as the go to places for the entrepreneurial and business communities. After the presentation we connected with the Brain Embassy team and got invited to visit them in Warsaw, which seems to be really booming city for coworking. As we don't need much convincing, yesterday we booked our trip to explore Warsaw coworking scene for 11 -14th of April.
Have tips? Add them in the comments below, or tweet us @coworkies
Next on stage was a really interesting presentation from the senior workplace researcher Marta Badura from Nowy Styl Group, the third largest furniture manufacturer in Europe. She gave an in depth overview of how the office has changed and what are the new trends in making spaces work-human-friendly. For those of us who are intrigued by the history of the office space the presentation was a good insight into how this topic is discussed and researched as part of a large furniture manufacturer who is taking into consideration not only the work trends but also materials, colors, modular assembly of desks, personal spaces.
The last presentation I would like to mention here is the one by Claire from The Melting Pot Edinburgh. With substantial know-how she dived from the get go into the inner-workings of a coworking spaces and its community. Gave meaningful insights into questions like: Why people join a coworking spaces? and Why they chose one over another? With more than a decade of experience in running a coworking community she really gave one of the most insightful presentations when it comes down to important dos and don’ts of making a shared work community prosper.
There were many other interesting presentations but those ones really stood out for me. All delivered with professionalism, insightful knowledge and little sales propaganda. It was obvious that the Polish coworking scene is undergoing rapid development with lots of spaces trying to build sustainable communities of freelancers, startups and small businesses. Everyone attending was eager to learn, understand and adapt the material to their local environment.
From the various conversations I had with participants it become apparent that many of them are just starting their coworking journey, like Darek from Clipster a co-living and coworking space in Gdansk for digital nomads. With a small shared workspace area for about 15 people he was eager to know more about how to build stronger community that extends beyond the walls of the physical space.
Another conference guest was Sophia, heading the Swedish branch of the women-focused coworking space Hera. She has an amazing story and I hope we can share it soon with an interview. Let’s just say for now that she heard about coworking while jogging and listening to a podcast, then went to San Diego to learn more :)
While the O4 crew was giving us a tour in one of their spaces we saw startups from France and Finland working from there, so even that everyone claimed that there are not so many international startups, we saw some and if the country continues do well I am sure more internationals will join them to take advantage of the good infrastructure, market access, proximity to Germany and lower cost of living. Plus even that Gdansk is up North it’s on the seaside, so that adds few points in my bucket list for good places to live and work!
Coworking Now turned to be a surprising adventure, and I was happy we survived the train jump to take part in it:)) On a more serious note I did find the conference to be extremely well organized, the venue was awesome, equipped with all the up to date tech gadgets and props to the organizers that they even had simultaneous translators for the non-Polish speakers. Organization aside, the conference presented a great meeting spot for sharing knowledge, discuss present challenges and opportunities with professionals, researchers, municipality officials and people generally interested in the topic.
It’s OK to say that the Polish coworking scene is young, professional, focused and eager to make the best efforts to succeed.
What’s next for Coworkies? We continue to develop the platform to bring together the best coworking communities around the globe.
Our next travels are almost fixed: Warsaw, Madrid, Prague, Sofia, Athens, India, Bangkok, Tokyo and Tel Aviv.
To follow our journey join us on Twitter 👉 @Coworkies
🙌 Thank you O4 Coworking for inviting us to Coworking Now, and a special thank you to Jakub, who took us out to experience the mega delicious Polish pierogi! If you are in Gdansk, do check them out — LINK
