Marcel van Marrewijk's Blog, page 35

SPECIAL S2M FESTIVAL ON 25/11: THE EXPERIENCE ECONOMY WITH JOE PINE

Monday, November 12th, 14-18, S2M Meeting Plaza Utrecht CS
Prolific business writer Joe Pine presents his rereleased version of his best-seller book, The Experience Economy. Tickets: 99 Euro, including signed hardcover.

REGISTER NOW

Leading business writer and thought-leader Joe Pine comes to Seats2meet for a special talk about the Experience economy. There are not many thinkers and writers who can frame the change we are all under going, as well as give us handholds and tools to thrive. Be it in society, in organisations, in work and personally. His books have been a guiding light for many senior managers as well as forward thinkers.


I met Joe Pine over ten years ago when he shared his thinking and theories, which formed the foundation for his later book Infinite Possibility. Never before had someone so smartly framed what I saw going on in the world of on and offline experiences and how to create strategies in the new world where time, space, and people experiences all blend into one journey. And it starts with the Experience Economy.


As we move from the transactional and services world, relationships, authenticity, and above all, the experience is what determines success for organizations and people. And that is much more than what happens on web pages and in mobile apps. It is how people feel, and that is the ultimate transaction.


As with many important books, the Experience Economy still stands tall. Even more so, with this reissue where Joe Pine and hist co-author Jim Gilmor added a new preview that puts the Experience Economy in today’s context. It is focused on the new subtitle: Competing for Customer Time, Attention, and Money. For that is what every company now does in today’s Experience Economy! And if you do not stage an experience worthy of their time and attention, then you are unlikely to get them to spend their money with you.


I guess that was enough of an enthusiastic blog post about Joe Pine event on the 25th and his rereleased book. I will be there. Will you? It’s 99 euro to attend and includes the book in hardcover which he will sign.


Register: https://passport.seats2meet.com/events/3308
Joe’s post on the rereleased book: https://strategichorizons.com/experience-economy/experience-economy-competing-for-customer-time-attention-and-money/
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Experience_Economy
About Joe Pine: https://strategichorizons.com/pine-and-gilmore/joe-pine/
Buy the book: https://abc.nl/book-details/the-experience-economy-with-a-new-preface-by-the-authors-competing-for-customer-time-attention-and-money/@9781633697973

The post SPECIAL S2M FESTIVAL ON 25/11: THE EXPERIENCE ECONOMY WITH JOE PINE appeared first on Seats2meet.

Publiceer Je Artikel

Dit is een handleiding voor gastbloggers die willen bijdragen aan het Magazine met

hun kennis en expertise.

Voor commerciële zaken en product placement kun je contact opnemen met ons

team via stories@seats2meet.com.

Wat is Seats2meet Magazine?



Seats2meet Magazine is een collaboratief platform dat experts de ruimte biedt eigen artikelen te delen over de volgende onderwerpen:

Ondernemerschap, de deeleconomie, technologie, trends in de samenwerkingseconomie, duurzaamheid, de toekomst van werk en lifestyle.

Als je ook wilt bijdragen aan ons magazine en je visie en expertise wilt delen, dan is deze handleiding voor jou. Deze vier eenvoudige stappen maken je wegwijs in ons magazine en helpen om je eerste post perfect te maken!

Stap 1



Registreer je als Magazine Contributor via de link magazine.seats2meet.com/wp-admin. Je ontvangt een activitatiemail van WordPress (check je spamfilter, daar komt het vaak terecht).

Stap 2



Pimp je profiel. Vergeet niet je profielpagina te bekijken en verder in te vullen. Je kunt je profiel aanpassen door op je profielfoto rechts bovenin te klikken, nadat je bent ingelogd.

Kies een profielfoto
Vul je profielgegevens in
Als je wilt kun je ook je website en sociale accounts toevoegen, zodat je lezers contact kunnen leggen. 

Stap 3

Je kun nu je eerste post schrijven!

 

Minimaal 200 woorden (er is geen maximum)
Een titel met maximaal 70 karakters
Foto van hoge kwaliteit, minimaal 780 x 300 px
Het artikel kan zowel in het Engels als Nederlands zijn
Voeg minimaal 3 relevante tags toe (Hiermee koppelt de op AI gebaseerde technologie van Seats2meet Passport de content aan relevante gebruikers).

Let op:

Zorg ervoor dat jouw afbeeldingen niet beveiligd zijn tegen (re)posten. Let op dat er geen copyright rust op je afbeelding.

Het artikel moet informatief zijn en iets toevoegen voor onze Seats2meet gebruikers. Eigen meningen en referenties naar eigen ervaringen zijn natuurlijk welkom, maar wij houden ons het recht voor om aanpassingen te doen of niet te publiceren als het artikel bevooroordeeld is of niet past binnen de algemene stijl. Voel je vrij om door het Magazine te bladeren voor goede voorbeelden. En als je wat hulp nodig hebt dan helpen we graag met het vinden van de juiste invalshoek of het verfijnen van je post. Neem gewoon contact op via stories@seats2meet.com.

Step 4

Inzenden voor beoordeling: we gaan nu jouw artikel beoordelen, goedkeuren of we sturen het concept terug. Succes, en ontzettend bedankt voor je bijdrage aan een fantastisch magazine! Heb je vragen, stel ze gerust aan stories@seats2meet.com.

The post Publiceer Je Artikel appeared first on Seats2meet.

Coworking Month – Succesvol onderhandelen over je salaris of tarief

“Het is super belangrijk dat mensen betaald krijgen voor wat ze waard zijn en dat ze daarmee niet alleen emotionele waardering krijgen, zoals een compliment, maar ook financiële waardering. Dit geeft je ook de vrijheid om jouw leven in te richten zoals jij dat wil”.

Op 11 november geeft Merel van der Wouden een workshop over “Succesvol onderhandelen over je salaris of tarief”. Een onderwerp waar iedere ondernemer wel een keer mee in aanraking komt. Het wordt tijd om kennis te maken met Merel van der Wouden.

Merel (32) kan omschreven worden als een echte avonturier vol energie. Zij heeft in 2011 haar master Nederlands privaatrecht behaald en heeft zich al snel ontpopt als een échte onderneemster in binnen- en buitenland.

Tijdens haar reizen en werkervaringen in het buitenland, is Merel zich gaan verdiepen op de vraag; “Wat ben ik nu waard?”.

Zij heeft zelf onderhandelingsstrategieën ontwikkeld, Excel sheets opgemaakt, data analyses uitgevoerd en is verder op onderzoek uit gegaan. Na vele onderhandelingen heeft Merel zich ontwikkeld tot een expert op dit gebied.

Eerst in loondienst bij een Internationaal consultancy bedrijf, al snel merkte Merel hier geen energie uit te halen. “Is dit het nou?”, was de vraag die vaak naar voren kwam. Op dat moment besloot zij voor zichzelf te beginnen. Met frisse blik en een rugzak vol ervaring ging zij, met volle moed, haar ondernemerschapsreis tegemoet.

Op 11 november deelt zij haar kennis en ervaringen bij Seast2meet.com Utrecht CS. Aan de hand van verschillende strategieën, die Merel ontwikkeld heeft, ga je aan de slag met het bepalen van jouw tarief. Weten wat je waard bent en dit daadwerkelijk marktconform kunnen aantonen bij jouw werkgever of opdrachtgever. Merel bereid je voor op verschillende vormen van onderhandelen en laat zien welke meerwaarde jij als persoon biedt binnen een bedrijf.

“Het begint bij de juiste mind-set, dat je mogelijkheden ziet om te onderhandelen en dat jij daadwerkelijk meerwaarde biedt”.

Bepaal ook jouw tarief of salaris en maak gebruik van de onderhandelingsstrategieën van Merel. Om de workshop bij te wonen kun je je eenvoudig hier aanmelden!

Volgende week zetten we Mark Daamen in het zonnetje. Zijn workshop gaat over ‘Q&A succesvol ondernemen’.

Blijf op de hoogte!

Nian Wetsteijn

The post Coworking Month – Succesvol onderhandelen over je salaris of tarief appeared first on Seats2meet.

7 Secret Steps to Becoming a Great Leader

In fact, we can all be leaders. It’s like every acorn is almost an oak. But an oak and “almost” an oak are slightly different things. For an acorn to become an oak, it needs to fall into the right soil. Having fallen, an acorn should get a chance to germinate in the right conditions. So a person needs to get into the right environment to reveal full potential.

But! In the civilization in which we were born, each person has the opportunity to show leadership qualities – from kindergarten to infinity. In this article, we share the secret leadership development methods that most popular articles are silent about.

Become a Leader for Yourself

This is the hardest part. Therefore, we started with it. It is much easier to learn how to communicate effectively, build strategies, develop the ability to persuade and inspire, but all these activities do not make sense until you become a leader within yourself. This is a special internal state that consists of a reasonable combination between optimism and realism, self-confidence and faith in the people who will follow you, trust in the world and the acceptance of all the difficulties that await you on your path.

And the first way to achieve this state is through spiritual practices, yoga, and meditation. You must first work with your consciousness, prepare yourself inside, and only then move on to the development of leadership qualities in real life.

Train Your Professional Intuition

Some people are endowed with a natural intuition, but professional intuition can be developed independently of the natural. To make the right decisions, you need to learn to abstract, find energy sources in nature, stimulate your creative impulses and listen to the voice inside yourself.

Develop Your Writing Skills

You probably expected to hear advice to develop yourself as a cool speaker? This is of course also useful, but we live in a time when written communication very often replaces oral. Developing yourself as a leader, be prepared that you will have to write a lot and often. Learn to develop strong points, give real arguments, because you have to convince people very, very often.

If you have not yet mastered this skill in college, then now is the time to start (or continue). Try to write so that not a single phrase of yours allows for double interpretation or hidden meaning. For example, look at how specialists from the translation service The Word Point handle words, and you will understand what accuracy and clarity you need to achieve.

By the way, it is much more effective at first to learn to write convincingly, since after that the skill to speak convincingly will come almost by itself.

Have Own Opinion

Have your opinion on any question and share it in the form that is convenient for you. Sometimes a post on a social network is better than a personal conversation, and sometimes vice versa.

However, do not try to please everyone. A person with a core arouses at least respect. Be honest. Let everyone understand that you are not afraid to speak boldly about what you think.

But! Here you need to feel a reasonable line. Never criticize anyone rudely and give advice that you are not asked for. As soon as people understand that you have your own opinion and in most cases it is true, they will ask you for advice. And here you have to apply the skills to listen and hear about which we will talk about in the next paragraph.

Learn to Listen and to Hear

It would seem that these are similar verbs, but the difference in their meaning is huge. Well-known personal growth coach Richard Branson once said that we have two ears but only one mouth, so it would be cool to use these tools proportionally. In other words, listen more and speak less.

Develop the ability to listen to the interlocutor without interrupting him. Very often we listen only to insert our opinion, and sometimes it is enough just to listen. A leader is a person who is trusted by those who follow him, and trust can be formed only through an open and smooth dialogue where each side listens to its interlocutor.

Once you have learned to listen, learn to hear. Try to put yourself in the place of your interlocutor and understand what emotional coloring each of his words carries. Leaders are those who can penetrate the deepest essence of things, understand real problems, pains, and needs, and develop winning strategies based on this.

Develop a Sense of Humor

A person who knows how to joke will always be the center of attention in absolutely any company. Because the people around him just can’t ignore the really funny situations or phrases.

Also, humor inspires, relaxes, helps to cope with stress and is another source of energy. On the leadership path, you will often have to support your team, and sometimes making them laugh will be the best thing you can do.

However, there is a fine line, having crossed which you can create a reputation of a clown. Therefore, if, in addition to constant attention, you want to feel a serious attitude to your person, do not abuse jokes too much.

Learn to Give Before You Get

You need to understand that even despite the opportunity to develop leadership qualities in yourself, it still does not make you an instant leader. For leadership, personal desire alone is not enough – leaders, as a rule, have the opportunity to “give” something to their wards. It can be a thing, money, a good offer, jobs, a solution to a problem or the like.

If you want to become a leader, then first you need to give. As a rule, people feel a subconscious desire to thank you right away and this will be the first step to build a trusting relationship between you as a leader and your team.

Conclusion

As you can see, it all starts within us. As soon as you feel that your inner core is strong enough to withstand the onslaught from the outside, people will also understand this and follow you.

The post 7 Secret Steps to Becoming a Great Leader appeared first on Seats2meet.

How to find a job of your dreams or a love of your life? Miriam Notten knows the answer.

“When I explain my job to people I always say it is a combination of mathematics, anthropology, sociology, psychology and communication. We play with all those ingredients to help people live their dreams! It can be a company dream, like getting more clients or finding new employees, or it can be a personal dream, to find a new job or to find the love of your life…”

Finding your dream job or a life partner – it seems that Miriam Notten, a social network expert and founder of her own company “La Red”, knows how to do it all. We interviewed Miriam to get to know the secret to a successful and happy life. Get on board!

Hi Miriam, please tell us more about your company and what you are doing.

16 years ago I founded a company – it is called “La Red”, which is Spanish for “The Network”. And there is only one thing that we do: we teach people and companies how to build or to empower their social capital in the networks of themselves or their employees.

We define social capital as mutual help that is being given or received in the network of people. Social capital can be various things: it can be an inspiration, it can be sharing ideas and knowledge or introducing you to somebody new who possess certain expertise valuable for you; it can simply be listening to your story and giving you feedback or even helping you with moving to a different place.

So what we do at “La Red” is the network analysis that shows people how the network around them or their company is built and how to make use of it in the most effective way.

To give you an example, let’s say that you are in the electricity business and there are 1.200 partnering companies for you to keep in touch with. However, you cannot drink coffee with 1.200 people in a year – that’s impossible! So we identify who are the 50 most powerful and influential individuals for you in your network, so you can take your time and invest in building a genuine and sustainable relationship with those top 50.

How exactly do you do that?

We gather a lot of data about companies and people around you by finding out all the details about who works where and what they do in spare time, what kind of political party they vote for or if they have any extracurricular activities.

All that data is put into a computer model which runs the mathematical analysis. This analysis is based on three measures: degrees centrality, closeness centrality and betweenness centrality.

Degrees centrality is who are the most “popular” people in the network. Those are the ones who know everything that is going through the grapevine.

People who have the highest closeness centrality are the ones who are the closest to everybody else in the network. So if you want to spread a message and spread it fast – you start with them.

Betweenness centrality shows the most influential people in the network, the most powerful between network clusters and certain groups. Those people are the ones to have on your side and to make sure they like your idea, especially if you want it to be adopted by the rest of the network.

The maths behind makes the top 50 list of people of those 3 categories. And then we do the next step. Since different people may come from different backgrounds, cultures and religions not everybody would fit perfectly well together. To give you an example, let’s say that there is a man of 55 who likes playing golf. In that case, you should not match him with a very young woman, especially if she is coming from Muslim religion. They are too different – they would simply not match.

We analyse your top 50 people list and make a description of their “social” DNA. And that actually becomes your guidance of whom to drink coffee with!

And how to find the love of your life?..

It is basically the same process as finding a job! You would not find the love of your life in your inner circle, you have to go to your weak ties. Step out of your comfort zone and go to networks of your acquaintances – there will be someone!

We actually always advise people to find new hobbies. So if you were playing golf forever then you might also like to play cricket or to go to the rugby game or maybe even to a classical ballet performance. And whenever you change the infrastructure of where you meet people – you will start meeting different people. And that is the key to success, be that professional or personal life – doesn’t matter!

General recommendations for people who want to find job/love?..

First, you need to understand that networks are more powerful then you think and that everything is contagious in the network: emotions, information, word of mouth, your reputation. Then it is good to map out your network to check if you are not moving around in circles. Sometimes after analysing your network you might realise that all people you know are actually coming from the same neighbourhood (/town/city, etc.). That means that to move further with your career or social life you might need to step out of regular circles of friends or routines.

What we also suggest is asking people you already know to introduce you to their networks.

And what can you do if you just moved to another city or country and you do not know anybody at all yet?

Whenever we have people moving to a different place we always advise them to check out how people actually mingle in that particular town/city. Would that be a cafe? Or a downtown bar? Or is it actually a place where people gather to play board games? Always try to find out what is the area where people that might be potentially useful for you meet. Then take your preferences and start action! And whenever you meet first 50 people you will get to know another 5 000 through them and expand your network.

Thank you very much, Miriam!

The post How to find a job of your dreams or a love of your life? Miriam Notten knows the answer. appeared first on Seats2meet.

How to find a job of your dreams or a love of your life? Miriam Notten from knows the answer.

“When I explain my job to people I always say it is a combination of mathematics, anthropology, sociology, psychology and communication. We play with all those ingredients to help people live their dreams! It can be a company dream, like getting more clients or finding new employees, or it can be a personal dream, to find a new job or to find the love of your life…”

Finding your dream job or a life partner – it seems that Miriam Notten, a social network expert and founder of her own company “La Red”, knows how to do it all. We interviewed Miriam to get to know the secret to a successful and happy life. Get on board!

Hi Miriam, please tell us more about your company and what you are doing.

16 years ago I founded a company – it is called “La Red”, which is Spanish for “The Network”. And there is only one thing that we do: we teach people and companies how to build or to empower their social capital in the networks of themselves or their employees.

We define social capital as mutual help that is being given or received in the network of people. Social capital can be various things: it can be an inspiration, it can be sharing ideas and knowledge or introducing you to somebody new who possess certain expertise valuable for you; it can simply be listening to your story and giving you feedback or even helping you with moving to a different place.

So what we do at “La Red” is the network analysis that shows people how the network around them or their company is built and how to make use of it in the most effective way.

To give you an example, let’s say that you are in the electricity business and there are 1.200 partnering companies for you to keep in touch with. However, you cannot drink coffee with 1.200 people in a year – that’s impossible! So we identify who are the 50 most powerful and influential individuals for you in your network, so you can take your time and invest in building a genuine and sustainable relationship with those top 50.

How exactly do you do that?

We gather a lot of data about companies and people around you by finding out all the details about who works where and what they do in spare time, what kind of political party they vote for or if they have any extracurricular activities.

All that data is put into a computer model which runs the mathematical analysis. This analysis is based on three measures: degrees centrality, closeness centrality and betweenness centrality.

Degrees centrality is who are the most “popular” people in the network. Those are the ones who know everything that is going through the grapevine.

People who have the highest closeness centrality are the ones who are the closest to everybody else in the network. So if you want to spread a message and spread it fast – you start with them.

Betweenness centrality shows the most influential people in the network, the most powerful between network clusters and certain groups. Those people are the ones to have on your side and to make sure they like your idea, especially if you want it to be adopted by the rest of the network.

The maths behind makes the top 50 list of people of those 3 categories. And then we do the next step. Since different people may come from different backgrounds, cultures and religions not everybody would fit perfectly well together. To give you an example, let’s say that there is a man of 55 who likes playing golf. In that case, you should not match him with a very young woman, especially if she is coming from Muslim religion. They are too different – they would simply not match.

We analyse your top 50 people list and make a description of their “social” DNA. And that actually becomes your guidance of whom to drink coffee with!

And how to find the love of your life?..

It is basically the same process as finding a job! You would not find the love of your life in your inner circle, you have to go to your weak ties. Step out of your comfort zone and go to networks of your acquaintances – there will be someone!

We actually always advise people to find new hobbies. So if you were playing golf forever then you might also like to play cricket or to go to the rugby game or maybe even to a classical ballet performance. And whenever you change the infrastructure of where you meet people – you will start meeting different people. And that is the key to success, be that professional or personal life – doesn’t matter!

General recommendations for people who want to find job/love?..

First, you need to understand that networks are more powerful then you think and that everything is contagious in the network: emotions, information, word of mouth, your reputation. Then it is good to map out your network to check if you are not moving around in circles. Sometimes after analysing your network you might realise that all people you know are actually coming from the same neighbourhood (/town/city, etc.). That means that to move further with your career or social life you might need to step out of regular circles of friends or routines.

What we also suggest is asking people you already know to introduce you to their networks.

And what can you do if you just moved to another city or country and you do not know anybody at all yet?

Whenever we have people moving to a different place we always advise them to check out how people actually mingle in that particular town/city. Would that be a cafe? Or a downtown bar? Or is it actually a place where people gather to play board games? Always try to find out what is the area where people that might be potentially useful for you meet. Then take your preferences and start action! And whenever you meet first 50 people you will get to know another 5 000 through them and expand your network.

Thank you very much, Miriam!

The post How to find a job of your dreams or a love of your life? Miriam Notten from knows the answer. appeared first on Seats2meet.

Coworking Month – Personal Branding

In de maand november: de Coworking Month november! Kom op 4, 11, 18 en 25 november naar de coworking dagen van Meetings in the Sun in samenwerking met Seats2meet.com Utrecht CS! Iedere maandag in november weer een nieuwe interessante spreker. Ben jij erbij? Iedere week voorafgaand een ‘sneak preview’ over de spreker van de week erna.

Deze week: Alex Malone – Hoe creëer je een sterke branding?

Er zijn 4,9 miljoen Nederlandse gebruikers op Instagram en daarvan zijn er 2,9 miljoen gebruikers dagelijks online. Om je heen zie je dat ondernemers social media inzetten voor hun bedrijfsdoelstellingen, maar jij vraagt je af: waarom zou ik mijn persoonlijke en zakelijke leven online delen? Tijdens deze workshop geeft Alex duidelijk antwoord op de vraag waarom je dit niet je hele leven hoeft te delen en dat je je branding juist kan inzetten als een hele sterke tool om je bedrijf of je persoonlijke leven een boost te geven. Hierbij de belangrijkste redenen om te investeren in een sterke Personal Branding strategie:

Onderscheid je als professional – Jij bent uniek! Laat dat zien!

Kom erachter wat jou speciaal maakt als professional en als persoon en vertaal dat door in jouw content om je te onderscheiden van de rest.
Word herinnerd

Het helpt bij een top-of-mind positie. Daarbij regelmatig vertellen wat je kunt en wat je doet voor klanten. Op die manier zorg je voor bepaalde associaties die mensen bij jou hebben.
Acquisitie

Mensen kunnen je alleen betrekken bij projecten en klussen, als ze weten wat je doet.
Maak connecties op basis van persoonlijkheid

Als je consequent gaat delen over wat je interessant vindt, dan zal je merken dat je connecties aangaat met anderen die dezelfde interesses hebben.
Instagram = netwerken

Instagram is een prachtig middel om relevante connecties te maken.
Fake it till you make it!

Wanneer jij graag iets wilt, laat dit dan ook zien. Deel jouw ervaringen, deel jouw inhoud en deel de ervaringen die anderen met jou hebben over dit onderwerp.

Al overtuigd over waarom een sterke Personal Branding jou gaat helpen met online zichtbaarheid, nieuwe klanten, een waardevol netwerk en het uitbreiden van je werkzaamheden? Dan wil je vast ook weten HOE je dit doet?

Kom op 4 november om 15:00u bij S2M030 voor de workshop van Alex Malone – Meld je hier aan!

The post Coworking Month – Personal Branding appeared first on Seats2meet.

Ter nagedachtenis aan Bart van den Bosch

Zo plotseling bereikte ons het trieste nieuws over het overlijden van Bart van den Bosch. Zijn overlijden op 16 oktober 2019 heeft ons diep geraakt.

Bart was al jaren een vast gezicht bij Seats2Meet. Nagenoeg bij iedereen bekend als de expert op het gebied van WordPress en zonnepanelen, die menigeen binnen en buiten S2M van advies voorzag.

Maar Bart was veel meer. Wij hebben hem leren kennen als een leuke, actieve, goedlachse man, die wilde verbinden, die met enthousiasme activiteiten organiseerde, zoals de borrel en de filmavonden.

De laatste tijd zagen wij Bart veranderen. Van de humorvolle, sportieve man veranderde hij in iemand die zich steeds vaker leek af te zonderen. Voor Bart was het leven steeds meer een uitdaging. Elke dag weer. Zijn naasten maakten zich al langer zorgen en met hulpverleners gingen zij samen met Bart de strijd aan.

Die strijd werd verloren. Op 16 oktober 2019 nam Bart de laatste beslissing van zijn leven door eruit te stappen. Voor de familie en andere naasten is dit verlies ondraaglijk. Wij wensen hen veel sterkte toe.

Bart blijft in onze herinnering als een fijn mens.

De uitvaart heeft in besloten kring plaatsgevonden. Vanaf dinsdag zal er bij S2M een plek worden ingericht, ter nagedachtenis aan Bart.

 

Team S2M en Bauke, Isaac, David, Marjolein

The post Ter nagedachtenis aan Bart van den Bosch appeared first on Seats2meet.

Nice2Meet – Faal & Succes

Aanstaande maandag vindt alweer het S2M festival plaats! Dit is een voorproefje van twee workshopgevers die zich alvast bloot geven. Ze antwoorden op het wel en wee van hun onderneming en delen onder andere hun grootste succes en blunder in het ondernemersleven.

Judith van Eersel zorgt voor meer vitaliteit bij werknemers. Ze helpt iemand zicht te krijgen op waar hij of zij energie van krijgt, zodat je meer helderheid, richting en balans krijgt in je leven.

Wat zou je mensen als boodschap willen meegeven die een bedrijf willen starten?Denk goed na of je tegen de onzekerheid en grilligheid kan die het leven van een zelfstandige met zich meebrengt. De flexibiliteit van ondernemen is vaak aantrekkelijk, maar de keerzijde is ook waar. En realiseer je dat je naast de leuke inhoud ook minder leuke dingen moet doen.

Van welk bedrijf / persoon heb je het meeste geleerd, en wat was daar waardevol aan voor je?

Verschillende mensen om verschillende redenen: bijv. denk groot, bied de beste kwaliteit die je hebt, steek veel energie in je materiaal en presentaties, ga vooral DOEN en blijf niet al te lang nadenken

Coliving – a Creative Solution for Contemporary Problems

Coliving – what is it?

While coworking is a term well-known to many, coliving can still raise a few eyebrows. What does it mean exactly and what benefits does it bring? The concept of communal living is not new – from as far back at the end of the 19th century, there started to appear housing arrangements bringing together people not related or acquinted with each other before hand. However, coliving tries to change traditional perceptions of communal living. What was once perceived as a necessity for students and low income professionals now is transforming into a much more contemporary experience. 

Last week our team attended CCCSEE conference in Belgrade, which covered topics such as coworking, coliving and all the latest trends in the industry, both in Balkan region and worldwide. On the last day of the conference we got out of the capital to the countryside to focus on the coliving aspect of the conference. The location for that conversation was coliving space itself – Mokrin House. This concept in rural Serbia combines living spaces with coworking. There is no better way to understand the trend of Coliving than experiencing it by yourself, that’s why we did not only attend presentations and panel sessions on coliving, but also learned about the vision and life of Mokrin House and how it transforms the community in which it is located.

What drives people who choose to share facilities with others they don’t know, instead of opting for a traditional way of a separate individual housing? Sharing economy is, to a large extend, the answer. With the wide spread of sharing economy apps, it seems like the idea of sharing instead of owning is well established in the minds of millennials. On top of that, the society is changing too, with major cities being frontrunners of this change. The “usual” families are not so usual anymore – for example, a traditional nuclear families constituted only 17% of all the households in Munich last year. The cities are becoming increasingly single, with higher age of starting a family in comparison to previous generations. Therefore, housing market has to follow the suit by creating comfortable environment for single younger professionals. This doesn’t only include comfortable living environment, but also necessary shared amenities, such as common areas, coworking spaces and catering facilities.

The benefits of colivings are numerous – they provide instant access to housing for newcomers, access to networks, facilitate relationship building while simultaneously allowing for enough privacy and personal space and creating affordable living solutions for young professionals. In the societies where home ownership is at its lowest and space is scarce, it looks like coliving is becoming a feasible solution to a current housing crisis. The benefits of coliving spaces for big busy cities are quite straightforward, but can colivings be used on a wider scale, and if so, how they can facilitate development of smaller communities?

Coliving as a tool to develop rural areas

As the number of remote workforce continues to grow (the overall percentage expected to grow to 43% in 2020), digital nomads get the freedom to work from any place in the world which has a solid internet connection. This means that more and more people can select freely where they live – and therefore choose to avoid the downsides of living in the cities – overpopulation, long commutes, pollution, noise and high costs of living. An alternative for that for some is becoming living in smaller communities. However, making small towns and rural areas an attractive destination for remote workers requires considerable effort – there has to be an access to transportation networks, convenience infrastructure, quality living and coworking spaces. 

How it works in practice we could see for ourselves when we visited Mokrin House. It is located in a small Serbian village, which is not very well known not only to foreigners but also to Serbian themselves. Mokrin village itself looks exactly like you would’ve expected Eastern European village to look like – peaceful landscape, beautiful nature, local farms and gardens. It is not the world’s famous tourist destination – and that’s exactly what makes it an interesting place for a coliving and coworking space. Since its opening in 2015, Mokrin house has welcomed digital nomads, freelancers and entrepreneurs from more than 60 countries. People come here in a search of a quiet peaceful space to focus on their work, which often can be difficult to achieve with temptations of the city life.

Despite been remote, Mokrin is well accessible – it is located within couple of hours from 3 international airports. What attracts international visitors here is a combination of a peaceful place for contemplation with high quality modern facilities and community – visitors don’t have to compromise the benefits of countryside living with plummeting comfort level. Each resident of Mokrin House gets high quality shared accommodation, 24/7 access to quiet and social coworking spaces, meals from the local farm, gym and pool.

There is a unique benefit of living in such a remote location – establishing deep connections is much easier and faster if people in the community are just a short walk away. Relationship building is also a part of the appeal of coliving in general and Mokrin house in particular – in an environment where a lot of our social networks still highly depend on our work, connecting with people in a different way looks like a refreshing idea. Building meaningful connections is facilitated both by the layout of the space itself and activities which facilitate the community – workshops and educational events ranging from top quality career events with world renowned speakers to cooking classed. All these events are open to the people outside of Mokrin House, thus connecting the location to the local community. 

All in all, Mokrin is a brave and creative idea, which helps you to change your perception of coworking and coliving, which is still mostly associated with tech frontrunners and megapolis living. Creating this kind of ecosystem helps to attract top talent from across the world to an otherwise unknown place, which has a positive impact for a local community itself – financial, educational and creative. It will be exciting to see these kind of developments around the world and see focus shifting from the largest cities to communities which need it the most.

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