Coworking as a tool to help companies embrace the change
I was invited by Sabrina Schifrer the founder of the Alpe Adria Coworking project. It is a platform focused on start-ups, entrepreneurs and professionals from Carinthia and Slovenia. Its aim is to spread the word about coworking and to build and support the coworking community in this area.
The Triple E! LAB consisted of 3 days of workshops exploring ways to collaborate between the ‘old’ and the ‘new’ economy. Within the seminar, I joined the group Coworking Trend-Lab team representing the new economy.
Coworking trend lab team
I was happy to see friends again. Matija Raos of the Croatian Independent Professionals Association; Amanda Gray of Poligon (a coworking space in Slovenia) and a journalist at Deskmag; Sabrina Schifrer and Martina Linzer of the AA-Coworking project.
I also met nice cool people from the coworking scene in the region, let’s name Ines Avdic of Academy387/NEST71 in Bosnia Herzegovina; Federica Niero of Impact Hub Trieste (Italy); Marko Redenkovic and Aleksandra Savanovik, both of Nova Iskra Design Incubator in Serbia; Andrea Kall of Sustain AK (Coworking Carinthia), and others.
The Coworking Trend-Lab was the most proactive team. We worked hard and had a lot of fun together. It was amazing to work with all of them.
The mission
To identify, in only 6 intensive hours, how coworking could transform the old economy in the alps-adriatic region.
Our main challenge was working with the difference in values between the new economy and the old economy. Our focus was how to generate financial profit from our social capital. With these questions in mind, we developed products and services for corporate organisations. And we created a plan for how coworking spaces can work together to help the traditional economy through the Alpe-Adria Coworking platform:
- Coworking experience for team building
- Connecting talent
- Special events to bring together the economical ecosystem
- Testing products
- Mentoring
- Hot and inspirational desks
- Space design
- Community development
The result
The other teams were represented by startups and corporations, couldn’t contribute as much to find solutions. They got stucked, didn’t know how to work together. Coworking Trend-Lab was there to provide the solution.
Coworking comes with innovative ways of working and values. It not only offers a cool and dynamic work environment. It also offers knowledge, skills and practices addressing the critical challenges of the traditional economy, whose vertical model has become totally obsolete.
This experience confirmed once again that the current economy needs to change. I support the necessity of the coworking culture to change the economy. We have the know how to make the workforce stronger, flexible, social and collaborative, consequently happier and more creative and productive.
I strongly believe that things are changing and the future of work is for those passionate people who love what they do.
This article has been written by Vanessa Sans of HWL.
