Confessions Of A Digital Nomad: My First Coworking Crawl Experience

As a digital nomad, I am able to travel and work anywhere in the world. However, I choose to primarily spend my time working from coworking spaces. I visit new offices a few months every year, but the rest of the time I work from my home coworking space in Tampa, Florida.

What keeps me coming back to my Tampa office, beyond the solid caffeine choices, location, design, and wifi, is the fantastic group of people that surrounds me while I’m there. I enjoy working (and not working) alongside my Tampa coworking community.

But even though I have a home base I enjoy, I miss exploring and meeting the other amazing individuals who cowork from other shared spaces around Tampa Bay.

In an effort to bring the coworking community of Tampa together and explore the other spaces, I decided to create a Coworking Crawl for myself. It took place on this year’s Coworking Day, August 9th

What is a Coworking Crawl?

My Coworking Crawl involved spending about an hour to an hour and a half working in as many coworking spaces as possible during a single day.

Simple.

What did my Tampa Bay Coworking Crawl look like?

I visited these six coworking spaces (listed below), starting in Tampa at 8 AM, continuing up to St. Petersburg, and ending in Largo. I ended my day in Clearwater Beach at 6 PM.

Not a bad day if you ask me.

CoCreativ

Tampa Bay WaVE (My Home Base. I created a #HumpDayLunchDay that I had to go back for!)

Station House

TEC Garage

The Hub

Check them out!

Was the day a success? Would I do it again?

Yes, it was. And yes, I would!

As always, planning ahead and thinking about what I want to accomplish beforehand allowed me to have the most flexibility and best experiences.

Here is what I decided I needed to do at each location:

1. Have a tour and chat with the people running the space.
2. Plug in to get some work done.
3. Talk to one or two, or more fellow coworkers.
4. Relax, absorb, and not feel like I have to accomplish anything more than the list above.
5. Repeat.

That’s it.

What did I learn from my first Coworking Crawl?

I need to do this again! And I also encourage others to embark on this type of adventure as well.

There are a lot of different types of coworking. Check out this post on the 9 Types of Coworking Spaces. Different spaces and design meet the needs of different personalities and work styles. There’s a space that’s right for everyone, you just need to be open and willing to explore and try it out.

I could see myself working out of many of these offices and often for quite different reasons. Some have the vibe I like. Some have the coffee I like. Some are quiet. Some are in better locations. Some have nice views. Some have faster networks. Etc. Etc. It all boils down to what members, as individuals, value the most–and that’s what operators should focus on marketing the most.

Overall, I believe I was able to get a good glimpse of what the Tampa coworking market has to offer.

If you’re interested in participating in a coworking crawl, as a user or as an operator, feel free to reach out to me. I am interested in creating an alliance or joining efforts between spaces and individuals to facilitate organizing a coworking crawl and help people find their right coworking match…in Tampa, and anywhere else.  

Here is to the next journey!