5 Secrets to Building a Coworking Community

From the Coworking Values Podcast Series

Apr 17, 2025

Community is the key to a successful coworking space. It makes the “co” of coworking, but a sense of community is what makes people feel safe and welcome in any space or place. We know that community matters, but how do you go about building it, and what do you need to do to sustain it? For the answers, we turned to three community experts.

Since November 2023, I’ve been collaborating with Bernie Mitchell, the producer of London Coworking Assembly, and Lucy McInally, the Inclusive Coworker, on a series of SALTO WECOSystem-powered episodes of the Coworking Values podcast. Chatting to the following community builders, Bernie is uncovering the secrets to one question: How do you build a community?

Stefanie Mayr is the Leasing Manager Office Austria for Immofinanz. She talks to Bernie about Urban Garden project, a single-tenanted building that was transformed into a mixed-use development that embraces social interaction.
Architect, Founder, and Principal of HWKN Architecture, Matthias Hollwich, is the author of the mindblowing book – “New Aging: Live Smarter Now to Live Better Forever” – which began as a research project when he worked at the University of Pennsylvania.
Matthias Zeitler is the legendary founder of Coworking Bansko and Bansko Nomad Fest – two businesses that have accelerated the growth of the mountainous town of Bansko, in Bulgaria, into a global nomad hub. He is now launching Coliving Semkovo – a revolutionary mixed-use residential and workspace development.

This interview series follows a London Coworking breakfast show powered by SALTO, that took place in October 2023. Read our summary of the event here.

1. Design places for social interactions

Before Matthias Zeitler arrived in the Bulgarian mountainous town of Bansko to build his “magical community,” there were no digital nomads. But seven years later, Bansko has become ‘one of Europe’s leading nomad hubs,’ thanks to Coworking Bansko and the annual Bansko Nomad Fest. How has Zeitler attracted a community to this town?

He explains how the size of Bansko town, being smaller, has helped to facilitate those tighter connections. Architect Matthias Hollwich explains how you run into the same people in smaller places all the time, and that’s how connections grow. It’s harder to create those interactions in bigger places, although it’s still possible, and the case of Urban Garden proves this.

Stefanie Mayr is the Leasing Manager at Urban Garden – a single-tenanted building that was transformed into a mixed-use hospitality development across two floors, right in the heart of Vienna’s CBD. The ground floor houses a lounge, where an ‘ergonomic workspace with plug sockets’ allows people to simply walk off the street and into a workspace. This setup brings people together who don’t know each other, and they enjoy being involved in conversations with others, says Mayr.

Despite, the community being everywhere at Urban Garden, Mayr reckons it intensifies in their first-floor coworking space – My Cowork. Bonds are created when different people sit together every day, sharing meeting rooms, the kitchen, or other workstations, where people run into one another, like when they’re using the kitchen or making coffee. Similarly, at Coworking Bansko, ‘we have large tables for 8 to 12 people to sit together, that means people will sit closely when they work and have a chance to make connections with one another.’

It’s when you come into a space, you can ‘feel the people, you probably feel it as a strong community,’ says Zeitler. ‘True communities are really hard to create,’ explains Matthias Hollwich. But as architects, ‘we need to break the ice.’ When Hollwich worked on the WeLive project by WeWork, ‘we intentionally designed the stairs so they were smaller,’ and they became an icebreaker for people to squeeze past and start interacting with each other. He believes that ‘office buildings now need to become more social as an intention as people are there less, and to create more valuable social connections.’

‘I think community is why people come to a coworking space. You have a desk and a chair at home, but you don’t have the people at home.’ – Matthias Zeitler

2. Community is led by example

While the creation of spaces can be immensely beneficial in bringing people together, true community doesn’t just happen in a place. It often needs an individual at the helm of it to forge those relationships between people.

As the Leasing Manager at Urban Garden, Mayr is the first point of contact for anyone coming to the space for the first time. She gives tours, and onboards members which she reckons ‘is really important,’ being that person who is always seen with different people. This enables more organic connections to form between community members. She ‘talks to everyone’ in the space, and has formed friendships with many community members.

Mayr’s hospitality background makes her naturally welcoming and friendly. She believes that being a part of a coworking community ‘is so rewarding…I have met so many inspiring people and I don’t want to miss anything in the coworking space.’ Mayr and Zeitler compare in that they both actively participate in their communities, demonstrating a genuine enthusiasm for their communities.

Zeitler moved to Bansko to dedicate his time to growing the community. In the beginning, it was just his friends who came along, but the community has grown beyond that. Zeitler stresses the importance of being ‘part of the community, as an owner, or community manager.’ He says that you need that individual there to guide the community. If, for instance, you have a family and you leave the office at 5 pm, you won’t be able to do many evening events because you can’t guide your community.

He has certainly guided the community in Bansko, to the point where they’re ‘victims of our success’ – with four coworking and two coliving competitor brands launching in Bansko since Coworking Bansko’s launch. This has fragmented their community but Zeitler is now building a multi-purpose development outside of Bansko. Coliving Semkovo will house residential, coworking, food and beverage, and leisure activities, including a pool and climbing wall, under one roof.

‘I’m part of this digital nomad community, and lots of the activities we do I enjoy myself.’ – Matthias Zeitler

3. Understand your community's needs

People are social creatures by nature, explains Hollwich. We all typically gravitate towards one another, and that’s what creates a feeling of belonging. But, ‘when you are younger you take that for granted, and when you get older it gets harder to replenish those social connections…We must constantly replenish our social connections and bonds.’

Hollwich urges urban planners and designers to create more inclusive environments, keeping the needs of older people in mind so they don’t exclude them. His ethos is: ‘If you design for older people, you create better places for everyone.’ For example, he loved going to restaurants but as he ages, the noise level impacts his hearing and enjoyment of that space. Architects are responsible for creating places that are enjoyable for everyone. He also believes that buildings are where people can ‘make meaningful social connections.’

Not only that but interacting with the community is one way to discern individual needs. Zeitler expresses how ‘you need to talk to people’ and observe them to understand their needs. This is crucial for him because his community is unique in that it’s transient, with the majority of members only staying for three months. ‘It’s exciting for the community because there’s always new people,’ he says.

Zeitler gives his community a lot of ownership over his spaces. For example, ‘We allow people to change the tables around, or create an event…it’s up to the members to decide.’ They don’t have a community manager, instead, they empower individuals to bring people together and nurture the community.

The welcome desk at Urban Garden creates that point of contact for Mayr’s community, with the operations team ‘taking care of every coworking member, Monday to Friday.’ Community managers constantly check in, while doing everything they can to connect people by organising events, undertaking small gestures and talking to them, and forging relationships between members. Although, Mayr stresses, there is a fine line to get that right.

‘Architecture isn’t just about building buildings. It’s about building places to empower people and places’ – Matthias Hollwich

4. Forced networking doesn’t work

Mayr recounted a time when they hosted a speed networking event at Urban Garden, which didn’t work because the few who attended were unsure what to say as they felt unable to speak to each other freely. She learned that you can’t force people to connect. Mayr says that going for coffee, lunch, or just referring people is forging more natural connections than forcing everyone together in the workplace.

Organic social interactions are much more impactful because it doesn’t force people to connect. Zeitler suggests that if a workspace has to put on its website that on Fridays they have free beer, as an example, then there probably isn’t a community. At Coworking Bansko, ‘a lot of our activities are recreational’ – from playing volleyball together, hosting poker nights, and going out for dinners. At weekends, they go hiking in the mountains together.

He says: ‘We often go to lunch together, but it’s not formalised. This creates an opportunity for people to get to know each other, and then other connections form.’ When asked what’s a really good way of getting a community going, Zeitler explains how it’s dependent on the community itself. For instance, a group of artists may benefit from a showcase presenting their work to other creatives, and meeting potential customers.

Sometimes people want to connect with their coworkers about something other than work. For instance, during the pandemic, Hollwich had a morning Zoom meeting with his team where they didn’t talk about work for the entire duration of the call, to ‘make sure we were socially connected.’

‘Community isn’t just events, it’s the natural habit of people coming together and talking to one another’ – Stefanie Mayr

5. Use technology wisely

Technology is extremely important in community building. Alongside talking about the benefits of office software, like Zoom, to connect people, Hollwich is currently working on AI that facilitates connections, and breaks down the barriers that people naturally have upon meeting. He’s now looking at how to implement this technology into buildings.

Technology is commonplace in workplaces. Urban Garden has an app where members can ‘fill in their website, LinkedIn, and write about themselves,’ giving the whole community oversight about who is in the space. As an incentive to use the app, Mayr says, they reward members with free juice and coffee when they show they’re using the app. What a great way for people to connect virtually!

Coworking Bansko has an online members directory for the community to see one another, and they also use an active Facebook group, where people are empowered to host their events. This is also a good tool for marketing, and Zeitler expresses its importance to ensure they have a consistent stream of leads at Coworking Bansko. He likes to promote people online to connect like-minded individuals.

Having technology keeps the connection between Coworking Bansko’s distributed and global community, but Zeitler enjoys in-person methods of connecting, believing ‘it’s more important when people sit together to network.’

‘If you stay engaged, you will live longer’ – Matthias Hollwich

Community is the key

If these insightful episodes teach you anything, it’s that you can’t underestimate the power of meaningful human connections. Community is the key, and we’ve learned so much from these exceptional community builders.

How will you go about building your coworking community?

Listen to the Coworking Values episodes:

If you’d like to be featured in an episode of Coworking Values, powered by SALTO, get in touch.

Click here to learn more about SALTO

In partnership with