What’s it like to work in a coworking space?

Coworking is the headline innovation in the office industry of the last ten years. It’s a work philosophy built around collaboration, especially between workers of different firms. At its heart, it’s about ideas – the food of great business success.

In November 2016, 500 delegates of the Coworking Europe Conference met in Brussels to discuss coworking and how it can be improved and strengthened in the 8,500 dedicated coworking spaces in the world.

The serviced office industry has adapted to coworking as the way in which businesses want to work, and provided open plan offices, lounge spaces and communal areas such as kitchenettes and canteens for people to chat, work together and hold informal meetings for networking. 

Opportunity to meet new people

Nicolas Maroy is the Online Communication Manager of Preesale, an events management company from Belgium, who works in the SmartWork coworking space in Brussels. 

Why did you decide to join a coworking space?
As a young tech company, it seemed to us that a coworking space was a great opportunity to meet new people and companies from different fields, and work along them. We hoped to communicate with them and hopefully build strong business links and develop our professional networks.

How is it to work in a coworking space?

Coworking spaces are great and inspiring offices. 

According to you, what are the advantages and disadvantages of working in a coworking space?

Coworking spaces have the advantages of larger infrastructures at lower cost. You work in an inspiring environment where you can meet new people. On the other hand, you don't have your own space for your company or yourself. You don't feel like it's your place, you can't control it. And it can be hard to focus on your work if too crowded.

Did you previously work in a Coworking space?

We work also sometimes at leansquare in Liège.

Inspiring place to go to work

Bastian Grostøl is Head of PR & Branding in Ideanote, and works at the Copenhagen-based coworking space DARE2Mansion. Ideanote is a digital tool for great ideas, where employees, managers and team members can share knowledge and ideas across their organization

Why did you decide to join a coworking space? 

Inspiring place to go to work BastianBastian Grostøl is Head of PR & Branding in Ideanote, and works at the Copenhagen-based coworking space DARE2Mansion. Ideanote is a digital tool for great ideas, where employees, managers and team members can share knowledge and ideas across their organization.DARE2Mansion is home of some of the most exciting startups and the talented young people of Denmark. That makes it a very inspiring place to go to work. DARE2Mansion has created an atmosphere and culture of camaraderie and network and it really feels more like a close community than an office space. 

How is it to work at a coworking space? 

Very inspiring. It motivates me to be surrounded by so many talented people with great ideas, producing great results for their respective companies. This is a workplace of people embracing the new and disruptive way of doing business (heck, many of us are disrupting business fields ourselves). Working at DARE2Mansion feels like being part of the future.

According to you, what are thedisadvantages of working in a coworking space?

Advantages are that you are inspired and constantly having the opportunity to network. A disadvantage is that at some point, your company might be too big to stay at a co-working space. You have to knowwhen it`s time to move-on.

'Cohelping' place 

Stine Hulvej is COO & Co-founder of Low-Fi and works at the Copenhagen based coworking space Dare2Mansion. Low-Fi is an 'Airbnb' for intimate music experience. A global platform where you find, book and support upcoming and independent musicians - by hosting your own concerts or go to others concerts.

Why did you decide to join a coworking space? 

Low-Fi went from being just an idea to a real company through the accelerator Thinkubator (2015) at DARE2Mansion - it was also here the two founders met each other - so DARE2Mansion just feels like being home for the entire Low-Fi family. That's why we love to hang out here.

How is it to work at a coworking space?

DARE2Mansion is not just a coworking space for us - but a 'cohelping' place where we all believe we can go further together. Hence, you will always find helping heads and hands if you ask. For example, we get some of our best advice from Thinking Tuesdays and the Friday breakfast hosted by DARE2Mansion. 

According to you, what are the advantages and disadvantages of working in a coworking space? 

The advantages of working in coworking space are many but having daily access to such a talented and diverse crowd is incredibly valuable for Low-Fi. The disadvantage is that you now and then have to say goodbye to good friends aka other companies that move out.  

Did you previously work in a coworking space?

No.

Having other startups around us

Pernille Spang Lyndegaard is MO at Deemly and works at the Copenhagen based coworking space Dare2Mansion. Deemly build trust within peer-to-peer transactions by enabling users to aggregate their ratings and reviews into one score that they can bring with them to the platforms that they engage on. 

Why did you deicide to join a coworking space? 

We were a part of DARE2mansion's accelerator program, Thinkubator, and loved the place so we quickly secured an office for ourselves when the program ended. 

How is it to working at a coworking space? 

The biggest difference from having your own space is definitely all the people! We love having other startups around us. We all inspire, push, help, laugh with, and celebrate each other, which is awesome.  

According to you, what are the advantages and disadvantages of working in a coworking space? 

I think it is a huge advantage to have people around with different backgrounds. You can always get inputs from people outside your own company if there is something that you are struggling with. The disadvantages are few but there are a lot of distractions (often fun ones) when you are in a shared office space. 

Did you previously work in a CoWorking space? Yes.