Boryana, Author at The Lodge

THE NEW SHARED WORKSPACE IN STARA ZAGORA

май, 2022

Good news for Stara Zagora – we are opening a shared workspace that will welcome IT specialists, entrepreneurs, business people. Its name is The Lodge. Our mission is not only to provide a comfortable office space, but also excellent opportunities for meetings, interesting lectures, events and workshops.

What is coworking?

Coworking is a term used to describe `a way of working in which people who work from different employers or for themselves share a building or office, often in order to be able to share ideas` (Cambridge Dictionary).

The first coworking spaces appeared at the beginning of the century, attracting mainly freelancers, IT specialists and entrepreneurs who were looking for an alternative to working from home, from cafes, etc. Since then, shared workspaces have become a global phenomenon and have undergone a number of changes over the years to suit current working patterns.

Coworking places around the world and in Bulgaria

Towards the end of 2021 there are over 19 000 coworking spaces in 3 000 cities and 172 countries. In Bulgaria, the first shared workspace was opened in Sofia in 2012. Now there are more than 50 coworking spaces in the country, but none of them are in Stara Zagora.

How it works?

The Lodge Coworking Space opened its doors in May 2022. There are 30 workplaces, 3 conference halls, a kitchen area and a comfortable common space for rest, conversations, informal meetings, events. There are several options for renting a workplace – daily, monthly or a package of pre-paid visits. Even if you are not a community member, you can rent a meeting hall. Organizing events is our priority. Interesting meetings with IT specialists, entrepreneurs, startups with the aim of sharing experience and knowledge with the local community are to be organized.

“The opening of a shared workspace in Stara Zagora is extremely good news in several ways. The Lodge is for all professionals who still work from home but want to feel the office environment again. We provide it to them, together with new opportunities for social and business contacts. The coworking will put the city on the map and we believe that this will attract many of the so-called “digital nomads” who will include our beautiful city in their favorite remote working destinations. And most importantly, this space will allow us to develop our local IT community – to communicate with each other, to work together, to share experience and knowledge, and to support the entire IT ecosystem together, not only in the region, but also on national level” , says Nikolay Belchev, a member of the team of the new shared workspace.

Why coworking?

There are several reasons why the “shared workspace” model is gaining popularity and more and more people are interested in to coworking spaces. First of all – flexibility. People are not bound by long-term contracts and can quickly and easily change locations according to their needs. This optimizes the costs of renting your own office, consumables and other related activities – all of which are eliminated when working in coworking, where everything is included in the price. People working together in these spaces become a community. This, along with the opportunities for new business and personal contacts, makes coworking even more attractive for people without their own office. Creativity and productivity – research proves that people are far more effective at work when they work with others like themselves. And last but not least – the COVID-19 pandemic has completely changed the way of working for most people and this change will be preserved. People will continue to work remotely and it will be important for them to find a range of convenient spaces in different areas where they can stay for a day, a week or a month.