#cowork2015: a short recap with some great news…

What an exciting day last Sunday was — a glorious conclusion for three successful days #cowork2015, the German coworking conference, which even counted more attendees and items on the agenda than last year. It was a great opportunity for us to meet friends, our Cobot community and experts from various fields.

Without a doubt, the founding of the German Coworking Federation was the highlight of the conference. We congratulate Christian Cordes (Schiller40 coworking), Silke Roggermann (Gewächshaus Düsseldorf) and Tobias Schwarz (netzpiloten.de) on their new positions as board members of the GCF.

Markus Achter (meshville.de), Doris Schuppe (rayaworx), Harald Amelung (Coworking 0711) and Anna Christina Blohm (Lebenshilfe Braunschweig) will have an advisory role in the development of the Federation project. The main goal of the GCF is to connect and support the German coworking movement. Among other topics, the engagement of national institutions, creation of a common platform, and the support of community events like the German Coworking Conference will be projects the GCF will take care of. It was a very special moment, full of energy and good resolutions, when the twenty founding members adopted the statutes with one voice. We, the Cobot team, are excited to be part of it!

Of course, not only the foundation is newsworthy. On Friday evening, Franziska Köppe, consultant and founder of the initiative “enjoy work” opened the conference with her invitation to discuss known and new forms of collaboration and cooperation. The question she posed was whether it is possible and more efficient to work together at eye-level, linked to the crowdfunded movie project called “Augenhöhe”.

Many answers and ideas were shared in the barcamp that followed on Saturday, which brought up various related topics and lively discussions, too, including the relationship between and possibilities of coworking and child care, education, and travel, for example.

Further we initiated a talk about the relevance of a coworking software to manage the special needs of communities and spaces of every size. The answers made clear that is not a question anymore if a software like Cobot can help, but how it already does and how it will with future requirements.

Even furniture provider joined the conference to learn more about the special requirements of coworking spaces or shared offices, which are both growing markets. Also representatives of academic institutions talked about their perspectives on coworking. Exemplary Klaus-Peter Stiefel presented some main results from the Fraunhofer Institut survey “Faszination Coworking”. Carsten Foertsch (deskmag) discussed his recent coworking survey (in progress) and Jenny Schäpper-Uster (Büro Lokal, Wil / Switzerland) and Romy Sigl (Coworking Salzburg / Austria) were guests who shared their experiences regarding how coworking has developed in our neighbouring countries.

To summarize: we think cowork2015 was quite a success and a great chance to meet you all. We especially want to thank Harald Amelung and his team, who made #cowork2015 a very memorable event.

We’re looking forward to seeing you next year, probably in Paderborn. With this in mind, we wish you a busy week, happily coworking!

Your Cobot team