Over the past week quite a number of people have asked me to define coworking and Coworking Belfast and explain why renting space there might be in their best interests - something I’m apparently not very good at doing on the spot. We’ve done quite well writing buzzword-rich descriptions for proposals - but I wanted to talk about what coworking means to me personally.

Coworking, at the end of the day, primarily provides workspace for freelancers. It’s basic principle is to provide dedicated workspace for those who don’t have it - which typically populates most coworking spaces with freelancers, startups and individuals working within the digital domain. The advantage of similarly minded people working vaguely within technology and the web is then the knowledge and resources everyone can share quite naturally within the space - which is what then ultimately nurtures new businesses. That is what coworking is to me - a space where small ideas become big through conversation, feedback and sharing ideas and knowledge.

The coworking space will have a open-plan office at its core, but there are other key resources that will be generally required to keep such a space self-sustaining - namely a meeting room and a “quiet” room for taking phone calls, etc. A small amount of incubation space for either ideas that grow too large for the coworking space itself or developing ventures ready to take a private space immediately would also be good to include in the geography of the overall project.

The potential coworking space that’s been identified on Bradbury Place has the ability to facilitate all of these ideas at an agreeable cost and also has the advantage of being in an immediate catchment from Queen’s University and South Belfast residential - as well as being fantastically serviced by public transport, restaurants, cafes and bars.

The project is pending in various key stages right now. We’re awaiting public funding to take the initial financial pressure off, we’re currently registering as a not-for-profit so the space exists as a separate legal entity, we’re currently still enlisting those who will definitely rent a regular space - and we’re getting a full website up and running. The frustrating part is most of those key decisions are now outside those trying to get the space up and running as soon as possible - so we’re simply playing the waiting game until the ball returns to our court.