COWORKING CAN CHANGE THE WORLD –TED TALK 11-minute presentation

Good morning just kidding

good evening ladies and gentlemen
tedsters my name is Omri turn finally
co-founder and CEO of Pappa with the
first co-working space in tallinn
startups creative in freelance and today
i'd like to share with you one very
simple message i believe that co-working
can change can and will change the world
and I'd like you to be part of that
movement so how did co-working begin in
Thailand and what is a co-working space
so for me the journey towards building
the whole co-working movement is
essentially trying me trying to solve an
personal very painful situation where my
house was flooded in October 2011 and I
had to move out to Pattaya so like most
people me and my brother we started
working of course at a house we rented a
small house in paya that includes 13
dogs all the stuff we brought over from
petia a very nagging mom and this
general hit mayhem with no Wi-Fi and 3G
imagine that and we're trying to start a
business at that house and ok at first
of course it's sort of works it's the
quickest office you'll ever get to in
your life you just get up and go it's
also the most cost efficient if you're
living with your parents and also it's
comfortable if you're working from your
bed or in your underwear unfortunately I
do not have pictures of me working my
underwear but more importantly is that
you'll soon find out that if you're
working from your homes you'll get the
feeling that it's just not a place to
start anything whether you become lonely
bored or degenerate be motivated and the
place is really not suited for you to
meet with investors teams your clients
are just appliers
then once you throw in your pets or you
have wives kids visiting relatives and
13 dogs
it just becomes too much so like most
people we just said oh this is not going
to work
so where do we go so we went to look
around for the best coffee and the best
cafe in town and research far and wide
and we love coffee and we craved it
after a while and also we just loved the
energy and buzz of seeing you know

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people especially good-looking people
working at a cafe and actually it sort
of work as well but we soon found out
that cafes were never meant to be office
substitute but we're one reason you're
paying rent with two cups of coffee a
day if you don't drink the owner starts
looking at you again get a bit pissed
off then after a while the power socket
is hard to find the chair is
uncomfortable the lights is dim and then
it although all the tourists from from
everywhere as the Stars come in and
eventually you realize that this is too
much distraction and after a while you
just find out that you know this coffee
shop has one very big drawback once I
found out we're in a very hard way said
hi dad I had diarrhea I had to pack all
my stuff in my bag put everything
together run to the toilet and then it's
locked
somebody was inside and then like know
it so I didn't I didn't do it on my
pants
there was the ladies room on the side so
what is there to do for new
entrepreneurs essentially there's it's
the house and the cafe just didn't
really work but we couldn't afford an
office or or rented one of those service
offices so there there has to be a
better way there is which is this mega
trend for co-working which is working
out for a hundred thousand people across
03:48
the world in over 3,000 spaces worldwide
and we've read all this article and said
this is so awesome but none of this
existed in Thailand so if there was one
in part out then I would pay money to go
and use it and it's working on so many
people that is actually fundamentally
changing the way we work and the for the
better so what is co-working space la do
you say yes it's basically a whole bunch
of independent professionals coming
together to share a facility that has
all the stuff you find in a really nice
office
but that's the simplistic
finishin that only describes it tangible
aspects of a co-working space whereas I
like to see co-working as a concept that
is a verb and not a noun it's la way of
working not actually it's a static place
but also where three codes in the word

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co-working converged cooperation
collaboration community it's where our
generation of Millennials and Gen one
and people after us one from work space
or service a relationship a community so
back to my story I came back from para
and I thought this was a big very big
pain that I want to solve and I really
wanted to work at a koan space who's not
in Thailand I've never been to one never
done any market research might be new
there were more people going through the
same pain as me and not just about the
diarrhea but just about working so we
realized that okay we're just going to
build it and we found this really
beautiful house actually it's very ugly
right now but in six months
return it to this we basically put
everything that you find in a really
nice office and more and shared it with
everybody you know beautiful decorated
workspace fast Wi-Fi a lot of books
shared water coffee printing service
meeting rooms everything even a
trampoline and a nice garden however all
that is very affordable for the
budget-conscious
entrepreneur and freelancer and at the
same time so well managed that our
members is focused on their work and not
actually on the workspace or managing so
we thought that people love us for
building this and that oh they'll kiss
my hand said oh shut up and take my
money
or thank you bringing co-working time
but of course that's a fairy tale and
the in reality is that there are first
months we had one member I remember like
what is going on so we were admittedly
so close to fail I spent millions in the
space I built it nobody you know
everybody came investors media and
they liked it but only really signed up
nobody really signed up so I realized
something was amiss and actually enough
questions I realize that people just
find coworking as the culture so knew
that they didn't know what was the value
that they were getting out of this space
and that they didn't know whether it was
more valuable and beyond you know just a
nice office but why should they be there
instead of a house or a cafe realized it
was on to one word community and
community is the lifeblood the what

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makes Kohan space so addictive because
community is what gets my members and
everyone I know up from bed traveled far
and wide to come to the space and pay me
to work because they find that the
experience of working with awesome
like-minded individuals side by side
every day sharing coffee and
conversation becoming friends starting
to help share learn and collaborate with
one another so invaluable is so hard to
find to the point that you know
entrepreneurship is so hard for them
freelancing is so hard I've ever been
there the first time that they believe
that if they can work with somebody else
the journey is much more fun and
valuable so finding that out we focus on
our communities making the space fun and
friendly but also adding value where we
can with events activities and workshops
like this event startup weekend's 54
hours straight straight complete
strangers come together to do a startup
business and pitch to investors they're
so well received that 200 people showed
up in our latest event and our 8 latest
conference for the technology startup
ecosystem attracted 400 people or we
filled an entire auditorium so who are
all these people that work out these
spaces and and where they come from in
the events as well so essentially we've
met so many different types of people
the sheer diversity is amazing it's not
just startups and creatives and
freelancers but I've met politicians and
lawyers and yoga masters and painters
and corporate warriors and nonprofit
people social entrepreneur
actors actually I had one really nice
member recently who used to be homeless
in the New York in the states learn how
to become a DJ and one one day she
decided to is just going to fly to
Thailand and she started writing about
displaced people are becoming really
famous about refugee issues so basically
anybody can work out the Kohen space
anybody in this room all of you can work
out there because essentially co-working
is a community a community of people
would share ideas interest and passion
and once we become together we actually
create this space where we work together
and because we all bring a bit of our
individual soul and character co-working

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spaces are places with a lot of soul so
now there's 3000 spaces worldwide and
growing but there's a handful in Tanana
there's one in chinmaya bun space but I
like to see this be everywhere as common
as coffee shops and so common that all
the new entrepreneurs creatives
freelancers innovators and changemakers
work out these spaces and are supported
and are nurtured and become more
successful allowing us to bring in you
know more interested people who see now
that this their lifestyle is possible
this career is possible working out
these spaces and are well supported and
once they join the community our
community grows and and I really just
love to evident with one very simple
message co-working spaces are the
communities that bring the cooperative
and collaborative cultures back to our
cities our communities our society and
if we can help to foster more co-working
spaces to be everywhere we will have
many more spaces with a soul across the
cities and that will lead to a rise in
the quality of life in all our cities so
I like to urge all of you to join our
movement to work out of a co-working
space from time to time to
support the ideas people projects that
grow up this space and also to maybe
even decide to open operate or invest in
one because if we go work together we
can create a better Thailand and a
better world thank you very much