Locus Workspace

Come Write at the NaNoWriMo Write-Ins in November!

Beth Green collaboration, community, coworking, events, Locus Workspace, members, NaNoWriMo, productivity, Writing , , , , ,
You don’t have to write alone! Come to the NaNoWriMo write-ins on Nov. 12 and 19!
byPhoto by StockSnap via Pixabay w/ CCO license

By Beth Green

The first time I experienced the spirit of coworking was about 14 years ago, right here in Prague. Someone I knew had roped me into this crazy challenge—we were setting out to each finish a novel in a month by writing 1,667 words a day.

Now of course I, like many of you, had always dreamed that one day I’d write a novel. But was “one day” really turning into “today?” And a novel in a month? Preposterous!
The first few days of the challenge, I pounded away on my keyboard dutifully. The words started to accumulate. The story started to take shape. But as work and life intervened over the course of the first week of November, my drive started to wane. I was ready to quit the challenge. The goal was to write 50,000 words—and I was about 45,000 away. But my friend convinced me to come to a meeting she was holding—a “Write-in,” saying she’d re-energize me and my story.
Nervous, and quite skeptical, I entered the small café in Nove Mesto my friend had chosen. I was late (people, I’m always late) and so a lot of writers were there before me. Laptops and notebooks were spread everywhere and beer mugs and wine glasses filled in the rest of the space. I chose a chair, pulled up the manuscript I was working on and stared at the blank screen like usual.
But instead of being alone at home where the voice of my “inner editor” could taunt me by pointing out that my rough draft was really, you know, ROUGH, I was in a place where everyone seemed to blissfully ignoring their own self doubts. They were typing and scribbling furiously, all trying to create something out of nothing. (Well, except the guy at the end of the table. He was drinking beer and hitting on the waitress by telling her he was a Writer. You know, that guy.) And soon, I was in The Zone too—writing pages and pages of my new draft. Ideas came more easily and what the folks at National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) call the “plot bunnies” were all working in my favor.
Since then, I’ve attended NaNoWriMo Write-ins in countries around the world, in noisy coffee shops in Hong Kong and China, weird basement restaurants in Thailand and, of course, right here in the comfortable meeting rooms of Locus Workspace.
Locus NaNoWriMo Write-in 2016
Photos by Beth Green
This November, I’d like to invite the other members of Locus to join me, the Prague Writers Group, and NaNoWriMoers from around the city to come to Write-ins at Locus and tap into that creative coworking spirit together.
Though writing is generally a solitary activity, Write-ins (and the NaNoWriMo community online) help make it a shared endeavor.

The goal of the Write-ins is to simply write. Show up, put your fingers on the keyboard or your pen on the paper and let your creativity do the rest. At the beginning of the meeting you can state goals for the session, if that helps you. I’ll also bring donuts and NaNoWriMo stickers for the people who get there early, so there’s also that. 😎

Check it out! I got some writer goodies to pass out at our Write Ins next month! #nanoprep #NaNoWriMo17 #amwriting pic.twitter.com/q3TSNS6Oar

— Beth Green (@Bethverde) October 26, 2017

Though we’re holding these Write-ins for NaNoWriMoers to get closer to their goals of writing 50,000 words in November, the time is open for any Locus member who wants to come and write or work on another creative project in solidarity with the writers.
When: Sunday Nov. 12 and Sunday Nov. 19 from 11 a.m.–5 p.m. each day.
Where: Locus big meeting room
Cost: Free
Let me know you’re coming at one of the event links:
November 12th:
November 19th:
What is NaNoWriMo? Learn more at nanowrimo.org

Intern Profile: Simona Nedeljaková

Community Manager Community Managers, Locus Workspace, profile ,
Simona Nedeljaková.jpg
Hometown: Prievidza, Slovakia
Occupation: Intern/Student

Field of Study: Marketing Communication and Advertising

After one year of study at Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovakia, Simona began pursuing her Bachelor’s degree at the University of Economics in Katowice, Poland. Locus Workspace is Simona’s third internship at a coworking space, so she has a lot to say about the coworking environment and community. Her official title is Community and Event Manager, a position with an array of responsibilities through which she hopes to gain significant knowledge and experience.

Why did you decide to study Marketing Communication and Advertising?

I started out my university education wanting to study graphic design. In Slovakia, there are many universities specializing in graphic design alone, but I wanted to expand my options for future careers. Since I was a bit unsure about pursuing graphic design, I chose to study Marketing Communication and Advertising. I also wanted to acquire an education that would set me up for a career in event planning or management, as I was also interested in this area of study at the time.

Why did you decide to intern at Locus?

Unfortunately, I found my first university to be insufficient for what I really wanted out of my education – practical work experience that would prepare me for post-graduate life. Three internships later, I think I gained quite a bit of practical experience. You might be surprised to hear this, but a majority of my university peers did not participate in an internship like I did. I would encourage more people to participate in internships. I feel that they are essential to gaining certain skills applicable to the work force. At Locus in particular, I feel like I can build these skills in an environment that is already both friendly and familiar to me.

How do your past internships compare to Locus?

At my previous internships, I worked on graphic design and social media, but I believe Locus will help me reach my full potential in ways that these past internships couldn’t. While I found each of the coworking spaces I interned at to be community oriented, I feel most at home at Locus Workspace. Here, I can learn more in terms of technical skills, in addition to the soft skills I am building in communication. Locus hosts events that enable its members to learn of each other’s various careers and cultural backgrounds. Since Locus is a predominantly English speaking coworking space, I get the chance to practice my English often. The best part about this is that I am gratefully met with an understanding and encouraging community.

What are some of your goals for this internship?

I hope to improve my management and promotional skills through my position as Community and Event Manager. I think tasks like promoting events and organizing meetings will help me further develop these skills. Also, I hope to gain more certainty about my future career by being exposed to the diverse community members at Locus.

What kind of responsibilities do you have as Community and Event Manager?

In addition to making sure the space at Locus is both presentable and comfortable, I am  responsible for communicating with both members and non-members who come to me with a variety of inquiries. I also promote our events, such as Jelly!, our free tour opportunity where anyone can visit the space and spend a day as a member with no actual commitment to the company (for those eager to sign up now, follow this link: https://en.locusworkspace.cz/free-day). Besides these responsibilities, I am in charge of promoting and planning weekly and monthly Locus events. This sometimes includes preparing and directing events as well. I’d like to think my efforts help create and maintain the Locus environment I have grown to love.

Did you already have an idea of what a coworking space was before you joined Locus?

At my previous internships, I enjoyed the experience of coworking spaces. To me, they embodied what a coworking space should – cultural diversity, occupation diversity, and a close knit community. I think a coworking space should be far from a stereotypical office job where you are a stranger to those around you. Locus is already a space where I am comfortable and simultaneously productive. In the next few weeks, I imagine things will run smoothly and I will only enjoy being a part of the Locus community more and more.

How do you fit in at Locus?

I cannot say enough how welcoming and understanding everyone in the office at Locus is and has been from the very start of my internship. I have learned a lot in the three weeks that I have been here and I already feel confident in responding to any questions members or nonmembers may have. There is no stress to burden my mind or interrupt my productivity when I walk into the office – something I am very happy I can say.

 

What are the benefits of interning at Locus?
With an internship, you are exposed to occupations you may not have considered or even heard of otherwise. An internship provides you with more direction, and the potential to discover new people, career paths, and interests. At Locus specifically, you will find yourself presented with these opportunities. It is up to you to take full advantage and make the most of your internship.
 
What is your favorite part about Locus and why? 

It probably comes as no surprise that my favorite part about Locus is its international community. Here I can meet all kinds of people from different backgrounds. The multiplicity of events held at Locus presents the perfect occasion to reach out and get to know others in the workspace. (link to our events page: https://en.locusworkspace.cz/community/events)

 

What hobbies/interests do you have outside work?
When I am not in the office, I enjoy painting and working on my graphic design skills. I spend a lot of my free time in nature, either walking my dog or cycling the outdoors.

Lenka Černáková: My Internship at Locus Workspace

Community Manager Community Managers, Locus Workspace, profile ,

Lenka Černáková was a community manager at Locus for almost a year, and we’re very happy to announce that she came back this summer!

Lenka recently shared her personal experience of what it’s like to work and be a part of a coworking space, writing a guest blog post for The Global Mobile Worker, a blog about the future of work (that happens to have been created by another Locus member, the amazing Robin Terrell).

We’re reposting it here because it’s a nice story about what it’s like to work at a coworking space, and particularly at Locus, and we hope it will be useful for people thinking about doing this kind of work in the future. 

Thank you, Robin, for letting us repost, and thanks most of all to you, Lenka, for sharing your story with others who might soon be in your shoes!


My Internship at Coworking Locus Workspace
Usually, the first big step before you start your career and get „the real job“ or start your own business, or decide you want to go travel the world, or start freelancing, or go get your master degree, or do whatever you want, is to try something out with an internship. If there is one thing that I learned while interning at Locus Workspace it is that the right internship/job/business doesn´t exist. You have to grab the opportunity and make it your perfect one. If you are just waiting for the right one you might wait for another year. Or ten. Or twenty. And it might never come. Waiting for the perfect opportunity is just an excuse not to do anything. Even though I was never really interested in freelancing, didn´t want to start my own business, and my background was in tourism and culture, I decided to get an internship in the coworking space.
While being an intern at a coworking space I was mostly working as a community manager, helping with day to day managing coworking space tasks, organizing events for members and the public focused on startups, business, fun stuff and my favorite topic location independent lifestyle and digital nomads. As I was still a student, I decided to use my last semester for Erasmus + internship abroad. I was also working on my master thesis Digital Nomadism in Tourism. Being at a coworking space and having access to all kind of digital nomads and people who lived location independent lifestyles helped a lot. I was introduced to a lot of people through members of the coworking space, and I could interview community members and used the materials in my thesis. I connected living location independently and digital nomadism as a new way of tourism, and my master thesis was awarded as the second best thesis written in tourism in Czechia in 2016 by the national body of tourism in Czechia – Czech Tourism.
For me, it was also a chance to meet and work with people from different backgrounds that challenged me, questioned me, taught me how to genuinely say sorry when I f*cked up, how to be assertive, how to stand behind my opinions even though no one else agreed. I was surely not being micromanaged, so I had to be able to make decisions on my own and learn how to make the right ones. I learned a lot about what I like and what I don´t, what are my weaknesses and what I want to focus on in the future.
What I enjoyed the most was definitely that I worked with people that had skills I admired. I always wanted to learn Spanish but never took classes. One of the members of the coworking space was Spanish and he would always find 30 minutes for our Spanish mini coffee break. After a year I am able to have the conversation in the language I always wanted to speak. I joined another member on his morning cross country runs in the forest at 7 am two – three times a week, even though I am not a morning person and I don´t like waking up early. I met a great couple from Gran Canaria and when I went there for holiday they showed me the whole island, took me for hikes and I tried the food in local restaurants. I remember talking to another member about what is the difference between working in a small company or startup and big corporate one. He said: „You can either be a small fish in a big bowl or big fish in a small bowl. Both are fine and have pluses and minuses and it is only up to you which one is your perfect one.“ There are hundreds of stories I have with people I met at Locus. I realized that being surrounded by people who were hard working, more talented and more experienced than me also made me a better person in a way.
It was the best opportunity I could possibly get and if I had a chance to choose again my internship would still be at a coworking space. After all, an internship is an adventure. It is a journey and rocky road, but at the end, it is only up to you if you will make it your perfect one.
Check out the position at Locus Workspace in Prague: https://en.locusworkspace.cz/internship

R.I.P. Locus–Muzeum: Part I—SADNESS

Will Bennis community, coworking, entrepreneurship, Locus Workspace, management , , ,

It is with great SADNESS, great RELIEF, and great OPTIMISM that we announce the closing of Locus–Muzeum,  Locus’s first coworking space.

Locus–Muzeum closed its doors on April 15, 2017, after just under 7 years of operation. Don’t worry: Locus Workspace is NOT closing. Our 2nd location at Slezská 45 in Vinohrady is going strong and this was undoubtedly a positive move for Locus.

Why three such distinct emotions? And why wait so long to tell the story of why we closed?

This first of three blog posts tells the story of sadness. The next two will tell the stories of relief and optimism, hopefully conveying why sadness, despite its centrality, gives way to the more positive emotions of relief and optimism.

Mafia Night. Thank you, Nadya, for making Mafia Nights an unqualified success;
my favorite social activity at Locus, hands down.

WHY SADNESS?
There are many obvious reasons one might feel bad about closing the doors of one’s business: a sense of personal failure, financial loss, missed opportunities, or regret over poor choices all might be expected.

Fortunately for Locus and for me, none of those reasons plays a central role in the current situation. Instead the sadness stems primarily from having to say goodbye to something good.

I think they tell (part of) a good story about the entrepreneurial experience in general and about the history of the Czech Republic’s longest-running coworking space—yes, Locus Workspace—in particular.

1. Saying goodbye to a big part of personal and entrepreneurial history

Locus–Muzeum was Locus’s first location and my own first business (assuming you don’t count a lemonade stand or two, charging an entry fee to the living room at my parents’ parties when I was four or five, or my first attempt at starting a business in Prague in 1995, which never made it to opening day). It was also the second coworking space to open in Prague (after Coffice, the first coworking space in the Czech Republic, which closed its doors a couple years ago). And, at closing, it was the longest running coworking space in Prague, or the Czech Republic for that matter. It opened on May 4th, 2010 (about a month before Impact Hub’s Prague location).

Locus has a lot of history given the young history of coworking as a concept, and that history is now part of me, and a big part of what saddens me to say goodbye.

2. Saying goodbye to rich experiences, great accomplishments, deep relationships, and no small bit of idealism

More than that historical significance, closing Locus–Muzeum was sad because of the deep personal meaning it had, not just for me but for many of its members. My second son, Adam, was born the same month Locus opened. We had our first movie nights at Locus (thank you Evi and Yuri for your Belgian and Russian treats); joined writing meetups that were part of the completion of several members’ books and Master’s theses; participated in Mastermind meetings that saw people achieve major life-transition goals (career changes, finished degrees, business pivots including my own, etc.); imagined we’d write and perform an updated version of Čapek’s R.U.R. (the original story of robots) as a satirical play (or musical?!) using real—and really small—robots (thank you, Florian and Lauren for your passions to create!); became perhaps the first coworking space in the world to accept Bitcoin back in 2011, thanks to the time and passion from the creator of the first bitcoin mining pool and the first hardware BTC wallet, Trezor (thanks, Slush!); shared hundreds of lunches and dozens of pub nights with long conversations about philosophy, the future of work, inspiring entrepreneurial ideas, and ways we might all make the world a better place. Etc., etc., etc. Locus–Muzeum was an active center of my social-, work-, and creative life for 3 years, and it shared that center with Locus–Vinohrady for another 4 years.

R.U.R., the musical comedy?
It could have been the first show in the world with robots in the starring roles,
beating the above production by a year or two.

3. Closing Locus–Muzeum meant the end of a center for productive, enjoyable work

Bill King wrote the latest book for the World of Warcraft media empire in preparation for WoW–Legion and the Warcraft film (along with writing another five or ten books at Locus). Thanks, Bill, for helping make Locus proud! 
Illidan was lauded by many fans as the best storytelling the WoW universe has seen.

The saddest part about closing Locus, however, was knowledge of the effect it would have on the people who worked there. Locus was an active coworking space with about 50 members working out of that location at the time we closed (and hundreds of members from almost 50 countries over its seven years in operation). These members cared about Locus, helped make it what it was, and did not particularly want to see it close. Shutting down an office when it only affects you is one thing; for the most part it requires a simple weighing of financial costs and benefits. Closing an office when it impacts the well-being of dozens of others is an entirely different animal; not just a financial decision, but a moral one, and one that no doubt kept Locus–Muzeum running longer than it otherwise would have.

 

So, that’s most of what made closing Locus–Muzeum sad. But why relief and optimism? Just as the sadness came from saying goodbye to something good, the relief came from saying goodbye to some things not-so-good (and hello to something better). The optimism, on the other hand, comes from our anticipated future, a future that will be helped by consolidating Locus into a single Vinohrady location.

But this blog post is long enough already, so those two emotional stories—or at least emotion stories—will have to wait for another day.

— Will Bennis, Founder & CEO of Locus Workspace

The C in Coworking Space Also Stands for Community

Community Manager collaboration, community, coworking, digital nomads, entrepreneurship, events, happiness, location independence, Locus Workspace, Prague, productivity, remote work, sharing economy, Writing , , , , , ,
We’re excited to be “syndicating” a blog post from Robin Terrell’s amazing blog on the future of work (with a particular emphasis on the location-independent variety): The Global Mobile Worker. This post in particular was meaningful to us because it’s about the meaning of community, and in particular the community Robin found (and helped create! – Thanks, Robin!) at Locus.

Along with creating this blog and being a member of Locus, Robin is a Berkeley-educated lawyer, a writer (her book, Two Broke Chicas—a travelogue about her adventures traveling around Central & South America, Mexico, and Cuba with her partner–is available on Amazon), a technology / startup junkie, a proud Amazon employee.

We’re excited to be able to share her blog post here…

wordgram-of-cowork
When I first arrived in town I used Meetup to find people who shared common interest. That led me straight to Locus Coworking space. Once in the door, I quickly connected with both the startup community and the writing community, common members of co-working spaces. It has been almost three years now and although I never signed up to co-work at Locus, I realized that I spent time in one of the two spaces at least once a week.
When my new job took me away from Prague for months, my homecoming included reconnecting with my friends at Locus. I write every Saturday with a dedicated group, committed to various forms of media that involve the written word. We have bloggers, and novelists, and game script writers, and PhD students writing a thesis. We come from different countries, different generations, different genders. Our bond is a long-term fascination with words on a page.
It was through Locus that I joined my E-publishing Mastermind group that has single-handedly taken me from talking smack to preparing to upload my first ebook, Two Broke Chicas, a Travel Series, December 26th, just in time for people to use their Christmas gift cards and make their New Year’s Resolution to travel more. Mentor members, like successful sci-fi writer, Bill King, have made my dreams come true.
While plopped on a big fluffy couch to wait for the group to start, I realized how important Locus was to my social life, and sense of being, in Prague. What my virtual membership gave me access to, besides one day a month and access to my e-Publishing Mastermind group, was a community. A place I could belong with people who shared my passion for a flexible work life.

Community = Thrive

Just like we need a Tribe, we need a community. Research found that people who belong to a co-working space report levels of thriving that approach an average of 6 on a 7-point scale. This is at least a point higher than the average for employees who do their jobs in regular offices. Read more: Why People Thrive in Coworking Spaces
infographic-co-work
Grind, is a growing network of coworking spaces in New York and Chicago. Community manager, Anthony Marinos, shared, “When it comes to cultivating our community at Grind, we’re all about the human element. We consider ourselves as much a hospitality company as we do a workspace provider. Our staff knows all of our members by name and profession, and we’re constantly facilitating introductions between Grindists.”
Research in Forbes magazine showed that entrepreneurs with larger and more diverse networks grow their businesses bigger.Co-working spaces can be a place for women, known for being great communicators and collaborators, who don’t excel at building power networks can find a safe space to start. (Women tend to build deep and narrow networks women-networkwhile men wide and shallow ones.) I’ve added several women to my network from Locus, and started an informal dinner group to encourage young professional women to support each other, over a glass of wine.

Building Intentional Communities

Some experts believe that co-working space should be built more like intentional communities. Example, Brooklyn’s Friends Work Here. Founded by NYC-based Swiss-born designer and entrepreneur Tina Roth-Eisenberg, who’s also behind the international lecture series CreativeMornings (which happens monthly in Prague, but mostly in Czech) and Tattly. The space came as a response to Roth-Eisenberg’s negative experiences in “soulless” coworking places that are more focused on making money than cultivating inspiration among its members.

A Wealth of Human Resources

Locus is how I found my brief dog-sitting gig. I enjoyed several days of pretending to own a dog, forced to take several walks every day, which did wonders for my mental health. I’ve enjoyed people passing through town and people here for the duration, like my friend Sarah who first came when it was Czechslovakia, and still communist. She is at heart a historian, writes historical fiction, and loves talking about the history of this country she calls home, as a well-informed outsider.
It was hysterical and inspiring to sit in on Texas Holdem’ Poker night, where people from around the world turned into ruthless gamblers who might gut you for a pair of Ace. It was motivational to listen to Regina and Mike talk about becoming Courageously Free, and through that relationship I was interviewed for their podcast – which should be out just in time for my book launch.
There were people at Locus doing, looking for, thinking about the exact same things as I was. We all wanted to marry our fascination with social media and our passion for words. I could pick the brains of people who, like me, were inspired by Prague, determined to make their literary dreams come true. We figured out all kinds of ways to make money with words. My critique and Saturday writing buddy, Beth Green, will fix your words for a fee. Which still leaves her time to search for an agent for her first novel, represent on Booklust and @bethverde, and be a Wanderlust columnist at thedisplacednation.com.
My writing group has sustained me, in ways both creatively and emotionally, over noodles and pivo at the Vietnamese restaurant down the street from Locus. We’ve discussed our lives and our loves, U.S. and European politics and the meaning of feminism.
We’ve shared critique groups and book front-cover
launches, like Sonya’s soiree for Under a Caged Sky, held at Locus Slezka, where we toasted with glasses of wine under the skylight, with Prague as the backdrop.

Staying Engaged

partyOnce I’d had that moment of realization, that my co-working space was my community, I started to look around for other ways to participate. Engaged in the social media connection and found easy, fun ways to stay involved. I am looking forward to the Christmas Party catered by Ethnocatering, a social enterprise of migrant women that serves authentic food from Georgia, Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Armenian. You can’t find this deliciousness in restaurants. I know, I said it, that bad M word. Well, I must own it because here in Prague, I’m a migrant. A tax paying, law abiding expat seeking shelter and new beginnings.
I know I’m not alone in this revelation and would love you to share your experience of finding community in co-working spaces. Tell us your story in the comment section here at the Global Mobile Worker Project.