Coworking Spain Conference: Day 1 Recap
When the captain of Sundays flight FR2528 from Madrid announced the airplane has landed at the Berlin’s Schonefeld airport I’ve been thinking about what happened during the two days of Coworking Spain Conference for about 3 hours. We had 2 full days of presentations, conversations and reflections. People shared their good and bad stories, insights, hopes and fears.
For Coworkies this was the 3rd coworking conference. Funnily enough we were invited because of the first one we went to, Coworking Buzz in Portugal. There Laura from CREC BCN saw Pauline’s presentation of our coworking travels, so she thought it would be interesting for the audience in Madrid to get a glimpse of the variety of coworking spaces we've visited. From one message to another Manuel and his team Coworking Spain, found a slot for us and we booked our tickets to Madrid.
Our last visit to the Spanish capital was in May 2017 and you can read our city report overview and few interviews right here 👇
For the historians out there, the first Coworking Spain Conference took place back in May 2012. Since then the scene has changed a lot and it was really inspiring to meet people who attended the first one just out of curiosity and are now running coworking spaces themselves. It was reassuring to see how involved and serious everyone is about the continuous evolution and sustainability of coworking in Spain.
As Pauline’s presentation was scheduled for just before lunch, we had time to sit and enjoy the start of the conference. The day started by quick 👋”Bienvenidos” by Manuel from Coworking Spain followed by an in-depth presentation by Antonio Gonzáles, CEO and co-funder of Impact Hub Madrid. He started with a retrospect of the coworking evolution in Spain, followed by a centered and meticulously build case about communities at work and their role in building their new workplaces. The presentation was backed-up by lots of survey results and reading materials like Nikil Saval’s — Cubed.
For the second presentation of the day Manuel Zea Barral came back on stage to give insightful oversight of the shared offices market in Spain. A lot of number were flying through the slides giving evidence that Madrid is quickly catching up on Barcelona on the number of shared offices. As expected, the two cities are leading by far the rest of the country and as it became evident, throughout the conference, educating the market is one of the prime challenges faced by smaller cities in the country.
As a comparison the next presentation by Pier Paolo Mucelli from eOffices was an overview of the London scene. He dived into the history, evolution and current status of the shared workspaces in the city. Clearly the number of coworking spaces in England’s capital is topped only by New York. With a mature market like that, the coworking spaces in London are feeling the need to differentiate themselves, so Pier presented also lots of examples of how this is done from around the world. Two things stood out for me. For one, spaces need to be brand aware and second they need to define their positioning very clearly. Those two are connected, your brand will only be recognized by your target audience, when you speak the same language! Whether it’s a coworking space for fashion, technology or music. Specialization means you understand your client needs and you can create a workspaces that caters to them.
At 12:30 it was time for Pauline to share our experience of the coworking world and how we see it shift, touching base on many of the points raised earlier. Unfortunately it was overlapping with the talk of Eduardo Diego from Sun&Co about ”The cycle of digital nomads life” — well have no regrets, we plan an interview with him on the topic as their space has some unique positioning between coliving and coworking.
To be honest, when I sit and watch Pauline presenting the work we’ve done with Coworkies I catch myself thinking if all this is real. So far traveling to 30 cities, 287 spaces while developing the platform, keeping up the blog, the magazine and the social media around them. Well, no time for panic, yet 😅!
With so many coworking stories, people urge us to write a book, and we are. Until it comes out, we are sticking to the blog, the magazine and presenting our insights at relevant events.
Our journey into the world of coworking started with a simple questions:
“Why can’t people from different coworking spaces find each other to work and network?”
We look at coworking from the coworkers perspective, and what’s important for them, and especially the freelancers. It is essential for them to be able to market their professional skills globally and locally. For companies that sit in coworking spaces it’s important to be able to use their workplace as their marketing platform. Coworking spaces are not only quick and affordable office, they provide opportunities and attach an image to your business — for clients, the public and …. for the professionals considering working for your company. People care about the work environment and their professional development and there is no better place to do it than a coworking space. You learn with the community, stay close to relevant events and build your professional network simultaneously.
The diversity of coworking spaces is enormous. Companies like WeWork, even with their massive size, are just scratching the surface of what’s out there. Work is evolving and workplaces are following closely.
When we do our presentations we try to focus on that diversity and show how many different coworking spaces are out there. Every city has a unique coworking scene, started for different reasons, supporting different communities, answering to different needs. Of course, one can argue that it’s just a place with a desk and a chair, and we all know how far from the truth this is!
The more people understand how important diversity is, the better they can craft a unique experiences for their members who chose to trust them with their monthly office rent.
To check Pauline’s presentation just follow the link bellow 👇
If you have any tips questions or topics you would like to know more please add a comment or tweet us @Coworkies.
The day continued with Javier Esteban Piñeiro who talked about “The coworking space as a digital ecosystem.” The space of interest here was The Cube Madrid that functions as the connecting point between entrepreneurs, startups and corporate companies. Dubbed as innovation ecosystems, such places play an important role in Europe for creating opportunities for startups to implement their solutions for large organizations with substantial client bases.
Next on stage was Ruba from Porto.io and Cowork Buzz conference. She came on stage with a very personal story of how their coworking space come to be and how they go about creating workspaces for their community in a city like Porto. Home to locals, expats and digital nomads.
She talked about the conscious choice for a coworking space to decide how big they want to be. This reflects on every aspect of your day-to-day activities. Porto has always been a special city and it’s coworking community is no exception. The shared workspace owners in the city know each other, meet, share ups and downs and ultimately refer each other clients, if they fit better in one place or another. Its a healthy way to co-exist and foster each others business, while curating more coherent coworking communities. For Ruba, Nuno and Luis — the whole team behind Porto.io, it seems having fun in what they do comes first and they try to project it in the workspaces they create.
Just before coming to Coworking Spain Conference, we published a guide to Porto’s coworking scene, check it out in the link bellow to get to know the people and spaces of this beautiful city. Pro tip: You can even go 🏄 surf!
The last presentation we were able to attend was by José Antonio De Pedro Cuadrado from Rialto Capital. He talked about the key point to be considered when investing in a coworking space. With lots of examples he showed the process of how to crunch the numbers, see if it makes sense and if it does to proceed with the investment in a coworking space. The example he gave was with one of the newest coworking spaces in Madrid — Urban Campus. Honestly, from the initial photos he showed one cannot imagine the final result and how good the space looks now. Which just reminds me about the importance of interior design for coworking spaces.
The one presentation I missed was by África Rodríguez form Espacio Arroelo since we couldn’t see each other in Berlin, total bummer that we did the same in Madrid 🙄 ! Well from my last visit to Pontevedra I know they make awesome “Pimientos de Padrón”, and as we always say “Coworking is the same dish that everyone makes by their own recipe.” will see how to interview África soon about the way she makes coworking work in her town.
Our first day of Coworking Spain Conference ended with some ice-cold tintos, cuba-libres and a lots of coworking stories shared on the rooftop of The Hat hostel.
Again it was an awesome experience to hear all the stories. To keep up with ours follow the journey on Twitter: @Coworkies
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