Hosting a free Coworking Day is a fantastic way to activate your local remote work, digital nomad, expat and freelance community.
I've organized them in Lisbon, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
The first coworking day I organized was in Gran Canaria in 2017. A new coworking space had just opened its doors and I emailed them asking if they would be open to hosting an event.
Being an organizer of a coworking day is a great opportunity to connect with the local community. I found it as a fantastic “hack” when you move to a new city and want to quickly create connections with like-minded people.
Sometimes these events can require a bit of effort to explain the benefits to operators of coworking spaces and promoting the event to enough people can be a challenge at first, but I promise you the results are worth it.
I'm going to share with you some tips and tricks I’ve discovered that help make the process easy.
At Surf Office, we’ve used coworking days many times to test new coworking spaces before becoming their partner in organizing our remote work retreats for clients.
New coworking spaces usually don't have a lot of experience hosting large groups and after hosting a coworking day they can learn what processes need to still be adjusted and what issues need to be fixed (internet bandwidth for instance).
For some, testing the infrastructure on customers that aren’t paying to access the space is a +1 benefit.
Organizing a coworking day in a coworking space makes a lot of sense and it's easy to pitch it to the owner. However, you can organize an event like this basically anywhere if you have access to some desks and an internet connection.
1. Café or restaurant ☕
Busy cafés and restaurants hate “laptop people” but those that are not so busy actually appreciate that there are some people there and the venue doesn't look empty.
Also, most of these places have rush hours. If you can bring in some remote workers that order a few coffees and avocado toast during sleepy hours, the owners might be quite open to hosting. Search for places that are already recommended by remote workers, like this list of coworking cafés in Lisbon.
2. Park 🌳
It sounds crazy but why not? Many parks have seating areas available in the shade. Consider taking advantage of them for a day!
3. Hotel or hostel 🏨
Spaces in hotels and hostels are under utilized most of the time and for their operators hosting a coworking day is an an easy way to promote the venue.
I Iiked the creative approach of this hostel in Lisbon that used its terrace to host a coworking day.
4. Startup office 💻
If you know about a company or startup that has an unused office area, you can propose hosting a coworking day to them. Think about their motivation and what would benefit their company with an event like this.
An ideal scenario would be a company with a product that targets a similar audience and may be able to use the event as a promotional opportunity and great content for their social media.
One more tip: Try to run these events on a regular basis - weekly, every first Friday of the month, once a month, etc. With consistency you will build a great relationship with local venues and have the chance to make deeper connections with the people in your community.
Did this post inspire you to organize a coworking day?
Let me know on Twitter or Linkedin, or even better, share some of your pictures with me!
I created the first coworking and coliving space for digital nomads. It went well until it didn't. We closed it and I started to focus on building a productized service for companies that organize offsites.
This one went better and together with an amazing team I work on it on daily basis. We built a solid booking channel for hotels, I talk about it quite often in the Hotel Nuggets newsletter.
Around 2019 I started to play with an idea of building a coworking cabin. My plan was to operate hundreds of them across Europe. Then Covid came to say hello and I pivoted this project into Epic Monday - a site full of resources for people who are planning to start a glamping business.
Once I'm passionate about something, I deep dive into the topic, run tons of experiments and sometimes come with monetization ideas (not always, unfortunately).
Hoodpicker started as simple survey, then I created a tool to compare neighborhoods in Lisbon and now it's a set of tools for people who want to invest into real estate in Portugal.
I constantly research ideas that combine hospitality, real estate and tech. And share them in my personal newsletter. You can subscribe now:
I don't like to have calls but happy to discuss your project over Linkedin or Twitter chat.
PS: If you like this blog and live in Amsterdam, you might want to join the next Cowork& session.
"Hi Peter, I have subscribed to your newsletter for a while now and am loving it. The hospitality industry fascinates me and your newsletter always gets my brain to go prrrrrr brainstorming ideas."
- Dário
"Really cool newsletter. Thanks for sharing. Too many interesting ideas to work on."
- Johannes
"Just to say that your newsletter is my favorite of all time. I always get so inspired and want to have as many cool projects as you do."
- Margarida
"Very comprehensive. Not working directly on the space anymore, but following your content closely as it is so engaging actionable and without noise 🙏"
- Nico
"Lovely newsletter again Peter! I’m a fan of your ideas and how your brain works.Always sees opportunities ad niche business. Keep up the good work!"
- Sjoerd
"Love your newsletter! The posts are very inspiring and I love how well you break down the business side of it."
- Martin