Launching a virtual coworking community
by Startacus Admin
The Hive from myworkhive.com is a new virtual coworking group that connects anyone working remotely with their very own coworking community - online. Lucy Elkin, Director of myworkhive explains all...
"More and more of us are now working from home regularly – over 4 million of us in the UK, in fact. Like many people, I love working from home – I feel much more productive and it fits my family commitments. But it’s also true that working on your own can be hard. At some point, most of us feel a bit isolated, and long for a chance to connect with others working in a similar situation.
That has helped drive a boom in coworking spaces over the last few years, with everything from slick, multi-site companies like WeWork to quirky, boutique, ‘coffee and hot-desking’ spaces springing up in larger towns around the UK. Some coworking ventures now offer crèche facilities alongside the wifi and cappuccinos.
Coworking is great. But what if you live way out of town and don’t have a space near you? Or perhaps you’re bootstrapping and can’t afford the cost of a coworking membership just now? Or maybe you’ve got a toddler at home, and it’s just not practical to travel to your nearest space?
That was my situation. I live in a really rural part of Suffolk, and the nearest coworking spot is nearly an hour’s drive way: getting 
there and back would take two hours out of my busy day. So until now, I’ve been watching the rise and rise of coworking rather enviously, from afar. Sitting at home one day reading another article about a lovely, vibrant coworking community, I had one of those ‘a-ha’ moments. What if I could create the same feeling of a real community space, with people popping by regularly to work, network, share ideas and support each other – but online?
Sure, you’d miss out on the free snacks and you’d have to make your own fancy coffees. But it could be free or very low-cost (as there are no expensive office overheads) and accessible to all. So that’s what I’m setting out to do.
The idea is to create an online coworking ‘space’ for remote workers, freelancers and digital nomads, using (mostly free) tools like Sococo, Slack and Appear.in to connect up.
Community members will be able to log in, have a chat to other members in a ‘water cooler’ area, or just get on with some work knowing that other people are around if they’d like to connect or bounce ideas off the group.
I’m sure working virtually with a group of strangers will feel a little weird at first, but remote and distributed teams have tried-and-tested techniques to help create a feeling of virtual community. For example, I’ll be trying out some networking activities to break the ice and help people get to know each other (don’t worry - no comedy video-conferencing in funny hats – well, unless you want to.)
Of course, there are already some fantastic online forums – including the one here on Startacus – that help people connect. But there’s something about being together in real-time – being able to chat via messaging tools like Slack or jump into a quick video conversation - that I think gives a sense of connection and collaboration that’s hard to find any other way.
You can join myworkhive’s free Slack channel to start meeting other remote workers today, and I’ll be running some ‘pop up’ virtual coworking sessions later this year. I’m currently looking for some adventurous remote-working folk to try this out with me. If you’d like to help shape this new, virtual coworking adventure – a world first, as far as I know – then get in touch, I’d love to hear from you. Email hello@myworkhive.com, find me on Twitter @myworkhive or check out https://www.myworkhive.com/virtual-coworking to join us in Slack. Hope to see you online!
If you like reading articles on 'coworking' you might like our recent article on the changing face of co-working spaces.
Subscribe to our newsletter
If you would like to receive our startup themed newsletter, full of the latest startup opportunities, events, news, stories, tips and advice, then sign up here.
1 in 10 UK kids spending more than 50 hours per week watching TV, playing video games or interacting with a smartphone according to the findings of a report conducted by Care.com
“Free-from” food-to-go startup Pollen + Grace to launch into national supermarkets Tesco and Co-Op, continuing its mission to bring exciting healthy meals to the high street.
Skyports - The drone focused startup that is creating end to end cargo and passenger drone delivery solutions
Bristol and Bath based early-stage startups and entrepreneurs take note - here's the lowdown on key startup support and help available where you are...
Artificial intelligence platform Ricochet is on an AI mission to find new business leads that fit the needs of your company.
From understanding more about how a business can invoice effectively to avoid late payments, to what debt recovery means, to how to take legal action against overdue debt.
For businesses, where getting maximum return on their investment is the name of the game, detecting the next big thing in its infancy is crucial.
If you’re counting on receiving a payment, days or even months after the due date, it’s time to take action. Here's some handy tips for dealing with late payments.
The challenges of working with a business partner or another co-founder, as told by 12 of the UK’s top startup co-founders
Published on: 8th July 2017
If you would like to enable commenting via your Startacus account, please enable Disqus functionality in your Account Settings.
- 1 in 10 UK kids spend more than 50 hours a week in front of a screen 20th Feb 2019 1 in 10 UK kids spending more than 50 hours per week watching TV, playing video games or interacting with a smartphone according to the findings of a report conducted by Care.com
- Startup Weekend Dublin immigration aims to builds ideas not borders 7th Feb 2019 Migrants are gonna surround us, With ideas! We take a look at Startup Weekend Dublin immigration...
- Sports facility management platform Pitchbooking nets £250k investment 6th Feb 2019 SportTech Belfast startup Pitchbooking, secures £250k investment to help become the market leader in sports facility management.
- Too Good To Go raises further €6m to keep fighting food waste everywhere 6th Feb 2019 Fast growing tech for good app Too Good To Go raises a further €6 million to accelerate its mission to eliminate food waste globally, taking its total investment to €16m.
