Work Spaces along the road

As to-be managers of Coconat we are naturally interested in places which offer work-space for Digital Nomads, international teams, and other people which would like to have a productive break out at a beautiful place.

To work in the shadow of Buddha at Kohub on Koh Lanta Thailand

To the beach! From Kohub on Koh Lanta, Thailand

On the island Koh Lanta, in the South of Thailand, we actually stayed to celebrate New Years Eve but by accident we ran into the Coworking Space Kohub. A beautiful house with a spacious terrace, a garden full of shade, and even a Buddha statue for meditation in-between working sessions, a café offering healthy drinks, and the beach just down a shady path. Ready is the office in a tropical holiday paradise. The British globetrotter James had traveled the world himself as a Digital Nomad, and a long time before people came up with this new buzzword. He sailed around the world, and was earning his money with his laptop when he ran into the concept of coworking. He sold his sailing boat and since December he is the happy owner of Kohub. We wish him the best and look forward to see James again at the GLOBAL Digital Nomad Conference end of July in Berlin.

CUASIA panelists, sans shoes a la Asia

Our first attempt in Bali to get in contact with the local coworking scene failed since the space in our home harbour, Canggu, was closed without offering further information about the why-question. Luckily, we took part in the Asian coworking conference CUASIA that was located in the well-known and successful coworking space Hubud, a global hotspot of the Digital Nomad scene.

Hubud in Ubud, Bali

The space is located in Ubud, a small town surrounded by lush green rice paddies and known for its vivid cultural life. The space fascinates with its bamboo architecture, and is more than busy with international guests. Quickly we made friends with the two owners Peter and Steve, who also run the CUASIA. Furthermore, we were happy to have access to a big pool of Digital Nomads we could chat to, to get inspired for our own business.

Hubud in Ubud, Bali

During CUASIA we ran into Simone who manages the XL Vision Villas, not far away from Ubud. The concept is a combination of workspace and resort and attract entrepreneurs from all over the world to spend some time on the Indonesian island. People who already run a company as well as people thinking of starting a company can buy a place in an one-month entrepreneur camp, called iLab Accelerator. During their stay they get coaching, time to work on their specific tasks and a community with a group of up to 15 (potential) entrepreneurs. All this in a tropical garden with a big pool and delicious food. Luckily, we were there the beginning of a new camp so we could join the first hours of getting to know each other and got a good insight into the concept of the place in terms of the use of space and the philosophy behind it.

iLAB introduction day at Vision Villas Resort

Thanks to our visits in (co)working spaces in Asia we made use of the unique chance to learn more about international travelling workers and we are looking forward to welcome them soon also in our little village, just outside of Berlin.

The Workation-Experiment

Since we have ethical problems with experiments on animals and we can´t afford the programmers for a computer-simulation, the only solution left was a self-experiment: The Coconat-Team turns themselves into temporary Digital Nomads. The decision for Bali was easy, we have friends living here, coworking spaces are thick on a ground and it is wonderful warm during the cold dark European winter: For six weeks we move 11.544 km South-East on a hunt for maximum productivity.

 

At the beginning we live with friends, a coworking space is located at a hip surfer beach just 10 minutes away. Young, dynamic, highly motivated, our laptops under the arm we are heading for the space: Closed! Mmmhhh… okay. No problem, our friends live in a very nice house with pool, seems a perfect place to work from. But, oha! Not so easy to work if you want to be social with your friends and you have to organise your daily life (visa, cooking…). Furthermore the Internet in the suburbs of Denpasar is a cranky creature, and additionally, on the many construction sites around they work seven days a week, no chance for concentration. No, there is no productivity like this!

We thought it better to get away to Dingo Woop Woop (as our Australian friend says): Amed, East-Bali. It´s beautiful here and quiet… no coworking spaces but every hotel and restaurant offers wifi. Very, very, very slow wifi. Nevertheless we finally find the perfect place to work. A small resort, located in front of the coral reef with a pretty stable 5mbit internet connection, tables to work at, and even power outlets… everything that makes the laptop worker happy. So, let´s get it started!

Breath in the warm ocean breeze, open the laptop and switch her on… Arghhhh!! The screen only shows gobbledigook! Some hours of research later we have to accept that the problem was bigger than we could deal with. Amed is very scenic but probably one of the worst places south of the Equator to try and fix your laptop.

The city of Ubud is the better address. We met the Mac specialist in the parking lot of the CocoMart. He pressed the power button, saw the strange shadows around the apple icon, he breathed out between his lips. The screen came up to the same gobbledigook as before, and the computer was quite quickly announced to be dead. After another meeting with the mac-dealer on a low-lit parking lot I finally managed to get the address of his shop a few days later. Then the long negotiations with the bank (no, I didn’t steal this credit card, yes, I really need that much money, yes, I am really me…) and just a short 10 days later we are holding the new computer in our hands and go on with our workation-odyssee…

In total, four weeks have passed by, our productivity has definitely been lower than expected but one thing is certain, aside from the computer drama and that one-week battle with dengue, we had a very good time!

Dream castles and cozy cabins in the woods

 

When we had the idea to found Coconat in 2012, we believed that the federal state of Brandenburg, surrounding Berlin, would be full of old farms and castles lying like sleeping beauties, waiting for our wake-up kiss. Reality is known for being a grim teacher: We looked at approximately 60 sites but none of them fulfilled our expectations. They were to small, to big, to rotten, to noisy (big buildings are mostly located on the sides of big roads), not accessible by public transport, too protected by the public office of conservation of ancient monuments or already renovated with tons of money in a way that destroyed the soul of the building. After uncounted meetings with local mayors and real estate agents, hectoliters of gas burned in our car and sore fingers from typing in requests into internet search engines, we slowly lost our steam.

On a sunny day in the beginning of August, we had a look at an abandoned holiday camp from the former socialist German government, which was on foreclosure sale. Like many times before, the camp was a total disappointment. But then, when we were already on the way back home, sitting in our car, quietly meditating about our unknown professional future, the wonder happened. All of a sudden a very strange building popped up on the side of the road. It can described roughly as a hybrid, of a former castle of Berlin and the People’s Chamber of the GDR (Palast der Republik), nicely located next to a hill surrounded by forest: It definitely was love at first sight!

Two countries, one idea

For months we scanned the world pretty systematically, but it looked like we were alone. There are tons of seminar houses out there, plus artist residencies and congress hotels. There are coworking spaces in tourist destinations like Ko Lanta, Bali, and Gran Canaria. There are providers of workation trips to interesting cities, beautiful beaches and to Brandenburg. But, a place like ours, located in nature and built for nomadic laptop workers from the creative hubs, didn’t seem to exist on planet Earth.

After these lonely first months, at the corkworking conference in Barcelona in winter 2013, we finally met a group of people that had the same thoughts and came to the same results we did. The very nice owners of the coworking space Mutinerie (French for mutiny) from Paris were planning to turn an old farmhouse, from 1780 in Saint Victor de Buthon and 90 minutes from the capital, into a retreat for laptop workers.

Since it became clear very fast that we needed more time to talk than the short breaks of the conference, Julianne and Janosch travelled to France in spring 2014 for six weeks. We were working in the coworking space in Paris and at the almost fully renovated Mutinerie Village, beautifully located between apple plantations and wide-open cattle range land.

During these productive weeks, our French friends and our-selves were thinking about products and names (this is were we came up with Coconat!) and exchanged knowledge about similar ideas worldwide. For sure we planed future common projects and how we could use the network Copass, which also belongs to our partners, to connect to other projects like our two.

Mutinerie Village is now open, and offering permaculture farming in addition to coworking and is already very successful.

 

Permaculture is part of the concept

Thank you very much for the good time in France. We planted a seed, by working together and creating a partnership, from which we expect much more to grow.

To our common future and that many new places like ours will open up – cheers, Prost, and santé!