Tag Archive for: hub

Ingredients for a tasty coworking experience

Coworking spaces have established themselves as the “new normal” and their fundamental characteristic is a sense of “community” and “collaboration”. Coworking communities are a transformed version of the traditional workplaces which are slowly decreasing in size as an aftermath of the pandemic crisis.

The coworking space is a new type of workplace: heterogeneous professionals, in terms of employment, their field of work, organizational status, and relationships, work all together in the same space.

This broad definition is due to the fact that there is no common interpretation of coworking in the academic literature. It is not a coherent phenomenon but a “new normal” based on the values of collaboration, openness, community, accessibility and sustainability, which each organization interprets ad hoc.

Uda’s (2013) definition of coworking spaces is a widely accepted one and goes as follows: “it is a way of working in which individuals gather in a space to create value while sharing information and knowledge through communication and collaborating under conditions of their choosing”.

We all agree that the practice of coworking in a space is a hybrid of remote working and working from a flexible office that does not commit you to anything!

The importance of co-creative work

Co-creative work is linked to the concept of “hubs”. Their structure and content can take various forms, such as coworking spaces, studios, clusters, incubators, accelerators etc. Often the boundaries between these are blurred and there are no clear definitions.

Co-creative work is a manifestation of affective creative labor and its essential ingredients are proximity and co-location. These two characteristics, together with inclusivity, are usually necessary to bring out a complete profile of a coworking space. 

The importance of informality as a component of openness is also in the core of coworking. Informal relationships are truly motivating. When it comes to joining coworking spaces such as Stone Soup, we are proud of our coziness! 

Meet Sergio, a freelance dev who fell in love with Athens!

Sergio is a freelancer specialising in informatics who first visited Athens six years ago while travelling. He came back to the city as a digital nomad and spend some of his time co-working with us.

Life in Athens

Having a Spanish origin, he feels very much at home in Athens and enjoys the Mediterranean climate and relaxed lifestyle of the locals. He has already toured a few of the islands as well as mainland Greece. What excites him the most is how easy it is to get away from the city into the countryside and ‘zone out’ as he put is. 

‘I love nature. It makes me feel recharged and gives me fresh energy which I can then put into my freelance work. As a remote worker I am fortunate to get the chance to do that!.’

Working in informatics

After completing his studies in Media, Sergio moved to Germany in order to to pursue a career in informatics. He is currently working as a web developer for a German finance company. During the pandemic he had to work from home most of the time, but accommodating himself into co-working spaces changed his mindset for the better. 

‘I feel so much more concentrated when in an office due to the fact that I get to work without distractions. I especially like Stone Soup as a space because of the warm and welcoming feeling this place has. The atmosphere is quite the opposite from the stiff corporate environment I was used to be around and I really embrace that.’ 

Video games & more

Sergio’s hobby is prototyping video game ideas and developing graphics for them. He finds it way more exciting than anything else and he hopes to be able to make a living out of it in the future. 

‘Having a project of your own is really fun and rewarding at the same time. For me it has been great working in an office space because I manage to split my time effectively in between my job and my hobby as well!’ 

Sergio’s GitHub profile link : https://github.com/colado

What makes a coworking community thrive is you


The collaborative community formed in coworking spaces is characterized by fluidity, flexibility, mutual understanding, and trust among members of the space. The role of hosts or community managers of coworking spaces is crucial for the aesthetics and ambiance that each space represents and diffuses to its members and customers. Community management is a process of blurring the boundaries between activities that require communication, interaction, and reciprocity.

A coworking community is a story of stories

If we seek for a definition on the concept of community, then a collaborative goal is definitely the central point. Each member’s and host’s experience is built around this common goal that can take various forms!

The concept of community in franchises and independent spaces differs a lot. Each concept is based on the forms of relationships among coworkers and between managers and coworkers. The parameters that reveal these relationships are values, such as trust and the ambiance created, such as coziness. Sharing your needs is a one-way street. Hence it is an experience that all members of a coworking space will collect at some point. The truth is that most coworking spaces are hybrid forms. As a result, there are many variations of community and collaboration narratives.

Finally, the narrative of the community constructed in each coworking space is not introverted and isolated from the larger public space. The spaces are urban meeting points in the city and they have an impact on their surroundings. Depending on the relationship they seek with the public sphere, they are accelerators of growth for startup entrepreneurship, intervention and activism for public policies, and social action and contact with the neighborhood around them.

rooftop drinks

A coworking community is like a novel, a story composed by each member’s storytellings. That is why a host should love listening to people and learning their stories.

Social impact begins from understanding someone’s needs after listening patiently and carefully. Taking advantage of impromptu happenings and serendipity moments is a great start! Unexpected experiences are what make a coworking community look like a group of friends, colleagues, or strangers at the same time. Whatever you pick, it’s your choice, as long as it helps you flourish!

Community management internship at Stone Soup!

Community Management Internship

We are seeking a professional to join our coworking business to manage our community of members and expand Stone Soup’s partnerships.

Office-as-a-service is booming and demand is growing rapidly. The coworking market requires different skill sets and involves a wide variety of duties and responsibilities, including hosting, sales, management, and marketing skills, but it is equally important that the candidate is proactive cheerful, and outgoing. During the internship, the candidate will learn to manage the physical space, interact with our community, represent Stone Soup, and promote our activities. There is the possibility of being hired into a full-time position after the internship is completed.

Key Qualifications

* Experience in customer service and sales
* Excellent English language skills (verbal and written) as we communicate primarily in English
* Interest and knowledge about the creative/cultural industry
* Digital knowledge and familiarity with creating content that can be used for either social media or digital marketing
* Familiarity with software such as Canva and photography or video editing skills is an advantage

Position Description

Stone Soup was founded in 2014 to offer a flexible creative work environment in central Athens. The business manages 900 square meters of fully equipped offices of shared space and other infrastructure, as well as a large rooftop terrace with views of all of Athens. Our services are provided with various subscription packages (daily, weekly and monthly) which are designed to offer the best solution for every professional who approaches us. The primary goal is to provide flexibility in the way our members work but also to create a community among them to form a strong network of support, interaction, and empowerment. Stone Soup community members are a very interesting mix of people from all corners of the world with very different skills and professional experiences. We are a social space that grows organically and we are always looking for new people to support us and we in turn give them the opportunity to grow both personally and professionally.

The post includes the following responsibilities:

* Responding to requests from members or potential customers and resolving any problems
* Creating, scheduling, and publishing web content in English
* Working on new ways to engage the community
* Assist with marketing and promotional activities for the business
* Represent the company and support events and gatherings

The internship program is powered by the Life Skills initiative.
Life Skills is a professional and personal development program for young people run by the British Council with funding from HSBC. The project aims to develop the career prospects of young people (18 to 30 years old) who are either out of education, employment, or training or who are looking for a positive career change to pursue a better future. Life Skills aims to make a real impact on Greek society by promoting work in social and solidarity economy organizations or in SMEs with a social impact, as an alternative and inclusive career option to combat youth unemployment.

For more information and a detailed job description, please visit the following link: 
www.britishcouncil.gr/programmes/education/youth-skills/life-skills-creating-alternative-pathways-for-unemployed-youth

Or contact [email protected]

The deadline for submissions is Wednesday 14 September 2022, 23.59.