Coworking Alliance Asia Pacific (CAAP) held a live webinar on 3rd May, 2017, with Faye Alund, President of Coworking Indonesia and Co-founder of Kumpul Coworking Space. Faye is passionate about coworking, active citizenship and community building. The purpose of this session was to look at coworking spaces through an industrial lens. And how to harness its power at a national level.
Faye explained that in a country of millions like Indonesia, the involvement of government to achieve scalability is inevitable. Indonesia has been perceived as a global market for years. So, Coworking Indonesia formed as an acknowledgement of the urgent need for the country to become an active player here. The coworking movement, she said, will boost economic development. Coworking Indonesia here is taking initiative to make the economic dreams of the country a reality.
When asked about competition between the rapidly mushrooming coworking spaces in Indonesia, Faye spoke about the necessity to combat with programs, values and services rather than a price war. She spoke further about how the association plans to provide a platform for the smaller coworking spaces. It is difficult for such small independent spaces to survive without guidance from a governing body.
They are currently working on developmental and awareness campaigns in collaboration with Youtube channels to answer common questions and concerns. All members and stakeholders have the opportunity to make their voice heard. They are also trying to tailor their marketing strategies to fit the demographic trends. For instance, they are focusing more on social media engagement and making videos more interactive.
Coworking Indonesia intends to be an entry door for members to tap into national level programs of monetary value through an equitable and transparent system. The crux of the organization is to put Indonesia on the global map despite its relatively new inception and “build a sustainable ecosystem for young, creative Indonesians by developing skills, resources and information”.