A little over a month has passed since we returned from Coworking Unconference Asia 2017 (CUAsia), which was held in Chiang Mai, Thailand and we still find ourselves thinking longingly about the amazing time we had there.
Our team has been to CU Asia several times. We’ve always loved it and we’re happy to confirm that this year was just as incredible as always.
This year’s CU Asia gathered over 250 participants from 35 different countries from all corners of the globe which made this event the most wonderful experience for us.
While previous conferences were held in the spectacular green surroundings of Bali, Chiang Mai did not disappoint. The city was small and easy enough to get around, but also extremely vibrant — not to mention the amazing northern Thai food.
One of the reasons this conference is so unique, specially for us, is that coming from Germany and having most of our client base in Europe and North America, CUAsia was a great moment for us to listen and learn from the Asian coworking community.
Sessions were held in a variety of different formats and the mixture of keynotes, workshops, panels, fireside chats and debates — the last two being completely new to the conference — made everything very dynamic.
The debates were in sync with all current discussions within the coworking community — digital nomads and their social impact in local communities, big corporate partnerships, real estate. The topics weren’t easy but everyone engaged in a critical, constructive and insightful way.
Real problems were exposed in depth and debated enthusiastically and the general feeling was that the conference environment was safe, so that everyone felt encouraged to actively participate in all of the conversations, share their experiences and learn from each other.
We also made our own appearance by kicking off the Tech Carrousel, a panel which presented some of the main coworking tools out there. Some of them were old players, like us and Nexudus, but some of the new tools like our partner Bisner, Colo and Mesh also showed what they’ve been working on.
Instead of doing our usual presentation of our software we decided to go backwards and tell people about the story of co.up, our own coworking space in Berlin, and how it lead to what Cobot is today.
It was a real pleasure to share our story to those who were there and get to know the people behind some of the new companies who like us, are building tools to support coworking.
As a team, we learned a great deal from everyone we met (old friends and new) and in short, the whole event felt like true coworking, in the sense that we were all there to share our expertise and exchange ideas in the context of our community, and that pretty much says everything.
A big thanks to the organizing team for putting together such a great event and for taking the risk, and experimenting with very difficult formats to approach tough and sometimes controversial topics. That on top of having the conference in a different country entirely. And, of course, to all of those who joined the conference and made it even better.
We had loads of fun with you all,and are looking forward to see you in Penang!
