In this month’s round-up we have 3 excellent reasons to consider coworking in Gran Canaria next month, a look at how big business is poaching the habits of freelance workers and reviews of the best tools and gadgets for digital nomads.
Coworking @ the local mall? Really?
Heard the one about the New York restaurant doubling up as a coworking space between sittings? Hot in their tracks come a bunch of startups looking to establish pop-up coworking spaces in empty shops and even shopping malls, according to the BusinessInsider website.
Companies like Spacious and IndustriousOffice target restaurants in upmarket neighbourhoods looking to turn a profit from dead time, empty store spaces, functioning stores in search of a side hustle and even shopping malls, desperate for some respite from the retail apocalypse.
Big business tapping the cowork ethos
Local shopping centres aren’t the only ones out to profit from demand for coworking space and the huge numbers of us now working freelance. The Harvard Business Review recently published a study revealing several large companies are now running their own coworking spaces, where staff work side by side with independent contractors.
Authors Gabor Nagy and Greg Lidsay highlight a Paris coworking space owned and managed by telecoms giant Orange. Described by the company as “corpoworking”, the VBN centre is home to around 60 coworkers, half are Orange employees while the rest are made up of jobbing freelancers.
The results make a fascinating read, not just for freelance workers and coworking space owners, but also for big business looking to poach agile methodologies, high productivity levels and – let’s be honest – inject a little hipness into their lives.
Live free or die trying
Reality check time. News website BBNTimes has a sobering article asking whether you should give up the dream of becoming a digital nomad and go back to a life more normal. Author Kristen O’Connell asks some tough questions about the mindset, drive and confidence needed to really make a success of combining work and travel as a career.
On a more positive note, she includes lots of smart tips and advice for actually succeeding, embracing the lifestyle and building a profitable remote business. Read the full article here.
Tools & gadgets for digital nomads
What tools help you manage your workload, speak with clients, share files or communicate with colleagues around the world? The rather unfortunately named, but award-winning AmateurTraveler website has a distinctly professional list of 7 essential tools for digital nomads right here.
Meanwhile, travel blogger and serial nomad Julia – at the Jey Jetter website – has compiled a useful list of gadgets that make life and work on the road easier and more productive. These go way beyond the usual powerbank and USB stick fluff with some really useful and imaginative ideas. Check out her full list of the best digital nomad gadgets here.
While we’re on the subject of buying stuff, if you’re looking for luggage the Travel & Leisure blogger Rena Behar has reviewed a bunch of the best laptop rucksacks for heavy travellers here.
Stand & Deliver
New research published on the BBC News website suggests using a standing desk, which allows users to adjust their position through the day, can boost performance and output. Tests were carried out on a group of 146 health professionals, with half using new sit/stand desks and the rest using traditional office furniture for a year.
Among those with the new style desks researchers found employees reported feeling engaged for longer, more productive and less likely to experience fatigue and the dreaded post-lunch dip. One unexpected finding was that the control group increased the amount of time they stood each day, from around 50 minutes at the beginning of the experiment, to almost an hour and a half over the course of the one year study.
What do you think? Do you use stand up desks to work? After introducing a few at The House we’ve had a great response and are considering many more. But we’d love to know what you think. Feel free to add your comments at the end of this post. Or, better still, drop by and give one a try.
November is an excellent month to be coworking in Gran Canaria and here are 3 good reasons why.
1. Las Palmas hosts its third annual Nomad City conference, from the 7-9 November. Network with other location independent professionals, meet startups who want to employ you or just party and celebrate the digital nomad lifestyle with other like-minded folk.
More than 40 industry vets are booked to speak on the usual range of subjects, plus there are workshops, beach activities and plenty of social activities to get to know your fellow nomads. Full details or all this year’s Nomad City here.
2. From Nomad to WOMAD. One week later – on the 15-18 November – our beautiful island plays host to another major international event, in the form of World Music festival WOMAD. Short for World of Music Arts & Dance, expect 3 days of truly international rhythms, workshops, global gastronomy and cabaret, plus plenty of stuff for the kids.
Admission is completely free over the entire 3 days. For more information and this year’s line up, click here.
3. Now that we’ve just about finished the refit of our new premises, you’d be crazy to leave the island without dropping by The House and booking your free one-day trial. We’ve spent a lot of time designing a creative and productive environment, that takes the best elements of coworking and managed office practicality, mixes in a huge dash of private members club chic and keeps plenty of original features.
We’d love the chance to give you a tour and the chance to experience what coworking in Gran Canaria is all about.