Engineering Serendipity: The Art of Inspiration through Co-working

Inc.Ubate Coworking: Engineering Serendipity: The Art of Inspiration through Co-working

Lina Forrestal

What learning about sharks taught me about my corporate job in tech

It’s 2pm in my town’s local coffee shop, and, for such a sleepy seaside town, the room is buzzing with life. Gathered around a small table to my left are the regulars, sipping their drinks and sharing the gossip of the town. Luckily, I managed to grab the best window-side table, looking out to the Boston Harbor. I plug in my power strip to the wall to charge my phone and laptop. I hate fighting for power outlets, and surprisingly a power strip is an excellent way to make friends! In a crowded little coffee shop where everyone needs to charge their devices, you become a hero when, in an almost alchemical way, you can turn 1 outlet into 6.

Just as I’m getting settled in, my friend Kate walks up to the table. “How was your weekend?” I asked: we’re meeting to spend the afternoon catching up and working together. Our work couldn’t be further unrelated; I am a digital marketer, working for a global software company, while she’s finishing her doctoral research on sharks (and I don’t mean the special kind of sales reps). Jokes aside, while our jobs do not share common topics, we find that our jobs have many parallels, and that our jobs inspire each other when working together. Wouldn’t we benefit from a dedicated space for these interactions?

Co-working is more than simply sharing a space with other people; it’s sharing your ideas, passions, and stories together—and, most importantly, the inspiration that arises from those stories.

The “future of work” has become somewhat of a buzz phrase, yet I cannot find another phrase that more accurately describes our current work force. I think the future of work probably means different things to different people—depending on your situation and the industry you work in, but to me, the future of work means recalibrating our infrastructure to support the growing number of remote employees. With Wi-Fi now expanding to the far reaches of the world (and with increasingly faster internet speeds), it’s no wonder that the work force is exponentially becoming location independent.

Digital nomads are on the rise in the global workforce, and they’re carrying precious cargo in their travels: ideas. Co-working spaces such as Inc.ubate aren’t just for startups and entrepreneurs anymore; they’re for all who are location independent. You have full-time employees traveling and working alongside freelancers in co-working spaces around the world. Travelling with them are those ideas and stories that manifest themselves through their influence on others.

Let’s go back to Kate and her research on sharks as an example. It was inspiring to learn how other disciplines use social media in other ways to connect with each other. I’ve been managing social media for B2B for so long, that I felt reinvigorated to hear how Kate uses Twitter as an outlet to connect with other shark and marine life researchers around the world. Seeing her use social media in an entirely different way brought a new perspective to my own work that I otherwise wouldn’t have seen, if it weren’t for the fact that we shared a table and a power strip.

Fortuitous encounters with life-changing ideas shared by Winthrop and Boston’s digital nomads: that’s why I’m excited about Inc.ubate. I may work full-time for a software company, but I’m also a remote worker who benefits from everything a co-working space has to offer. I’m eager to be part of a professional community in town where I can not only get my work done, but where I can network with others and find inspiration in the work that they do. There is something serendipitous about the idea of sharing your work with others, and the creative energy that flows from these encounters. A co-working space like Inc.ubate provides the foundation for those encounters to happen.