Coworking in Prague … An Internship Experience

When something is kitschy or badly made or just bad in general we say that it’s Czech. I guess that’s an indicator of what Slovenians think of Czech. 🙂 But using the phrase now, just makes me think of my lovely experience in Prague. Just a few weeks ago I was still an intern there. My four month internship at Locus Workspace went by in a flash and an eight hour drive to my home town of Ljubljana brought me back to reality.
 
I landed in Prague by coincidence, even more so at Locus. As it turned out Will and I have a mutual friend, who recommended us to each other.  And he is one of the people who started coworking events in Ljubljana.  For now it’s a weekly event at a cultural center. Hopefully they will establish a permanent space and give me a job. 🙂
 
Before this I didn’t know much about coworking. I understood the theory behind it, but didn’t know the real life feel of the concept. The community, networking, creating and sharing knowledge among members, forms a unique environment. It gives people a chance and motivation to work on projects, to help each other and make ideas come to life. But it doesn’t only provide a pleasant work environment; it also gives the opportunity to meet new people and to form new friendships. And I think this was also one of the wonderful things about working at Locus, meeting all the interesting people from all around the world that made the experience even better.
 
This was also my first time living abroad. Prague turned out to be a great choice. It’s a lot bigger than Ljubljana, but still easy to handle due to its great public transport.  There is a lot going on, lively atmosphere, beautiful architecture and lovely parks. I even almost enjoyed the masses of tourists and the occasionally rude Czechs who have to deal with foreigners on a daily basis and seem to be sick of them.

All in all, living in Prague and working at Locus has left me with wonderful memories of new places, new people and new experiences. And they were not at all Czech.

Coworking in Prague | Coworking v Praze

Recently Locus Workspace has teamed up with a group of other coworking spaces in Prague to see how we can work together to do things we can’t do as individual spaces.

The project was largely inspired by Coworking Seattle‘s collaboration, so we owe a big thanks to their positive example.

Central to the collaboration is a recognition from all of us that there are many ways in which we all gain by focusing on how we can collaborate as well as on how we can co-promote the idea of coworking, coming together as coworking spaces much as individual space members might come together to facilitate something greater than the collection of individuals. We all believe the potential future size of the coworking community in Prague is much larger than the capacity of our combined spaces, and that at least for now the more options out there the better for the success of coworking more genreally. For now–I think–the biggest barrier to our collective success is not one another, but the extent to which the public and media are unaware of the coworking option, and how valuable it can be.

We do things such as:

  • Co-sponsor a Jelly (free, informal coworking open to the public) that meets every two weeks and rotates across 7 different coworking spaces in Prague.
  • Participate in a “Coworking in Prague visa program” (inspired by the international Coworking Visa) that allows members of any one of 5 coworking spaces in Prague use the other spaces for free for up to 25% of one’s membership time.
  • Share a common website and Facebook page (please join it, we just started up) for promoting the idea of coworking and communicating options for coworking in Prague to the public and to the media.
  • Help organize cross-space events that can bring our members together as well as bring awareness about coworking and what it has to offer to the public.

I’m really excited about the collaboration and the support for it that has come from the other participants in the Coworking in Prague program!