Notes from #cowork2025 – the coworking conference & barcamp coworking in the German-speaking region of Europe. This year the event took place in Berlin at BEYDES New Working Culture. A wonderful choice for experiencing the various spatial aspects of coworking in one place.
Lies diesen Beitrag in deutscher Sprache.
The COWORK2025 was co-organised by German Coworking Federation and BEYDES in Berlin. As I have done several times before, this year I was also part of the preparation team for three days of inspiration and exchange between coworking enthusiasts, researchers and practitioners.
The event is rounded out by people from a wide variety of backgrounds:
- rural coworking meets urban coworking,
- small coworking meets large coworking,
- long-established coworking meets new coworking, or coworking in the planning stages.
This brings together so many different perspectives that the annual thema of the association, ‚Collaboration‘, was also optimally reflected by the participants.
In their welcoming remarks, both State Secretary Michael Biel and Birgit Steindorf (Berlin Economic Development Agency & Berlin Business Portal) emphasized the valuable collaboration between coworking and Berlin. Both are proud that the German capital is home to a large startup scene. And the foundation for a startup’s success is almost always laid in one of the numerous coworking spaces.
Collaboration starts with you.
Leonie Müller arrived to kick off the conference in her ‚New Work Van‘. The management consultant got us off to a good start with her keynote speech on the conference theme ‚[WORK] together, right now‘. Collaboration always begins with ourselves: And to help us feel how different our respective ways of assessing things are, she pulled out a picture of a dress that went viral on social media in 2015.
Perhaps you remember? The patterned dress that some people see in white and gold, others in light blue and brown, or in black and white? It doesn’t matter how often we tell each other that we see it differently: Each of us has different ways of constructing the reality our senses perceive. And that’s precisely what makes collaboration so challenging. We all have different perspectives and understandings. It’s important to recognize that in order to be able to negotiate them with others.
The hashtag #dressgate made the rounds on Twitter in 2015, along with the #whiteandgold or #blueandblack camps. The starting point was the discussion about the color of a wedding dress, which is interpreted very differently in this rare example.
Thanks also for reminding me of Tuckman’s phases of teamwork: forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning. I already knew these, but I’ve learned now, that when a person joins the team, it doesn’t just continue with performing or adjourning, instead you really start again with forming, storming, norming. Before I was like, okay, someone’s joining, we need to put that person on track, and things nay move on. Sometimes this will work well, but it clashes in lots of other cases.
Carsten Foertsch from deskmag brought some figures on coworking. Afterward, it became very interactive.
We immersed ourselves in a World Café moderated by Stefan Evertz / elbelab Wittenberge. In three rounds, we discussed six different aspects and questions around the topic of spaces and collaboration, collaborative neighborhoods.
Barcamp Coworking
Saturday a barcamp is always part of the coworking conference. It’s the only barcamp dedicated to coworking in the German-speaking world – since 2014. I love moderating this format. This time, as at the COWORK conferences in Solingen and Karlsruhe, Beate Mader from the coworking space in Bad Tölz co-moderated.
3 Hashtags for Introductions
After orienting themselves along a taped line from ’north‘ to ’south‘ of Europe, everyone introduced themselves with three hashtags. Mine, as usual, were #barcamp #mallorca #coffee. Then it was off to the pitches for five rounds and seven parallel rooms on the expectant day.
To counter the well-known ‚fear of missing out‘ (F.O.M.O.) at a barcamp, we distributed small session posters. With that a few key points or a summary of each session could be shared back with the plenary.
Due to the organization, I hardly attended any sessions myself. I liked the question, ‚How can I improvise to transform a sober conference room into a pleasant pop-up coworking space?‘ What can temporarily transform this space into an inspiring work and meeting space? Color accents like cushions, a rug, colorful sitting balls, and definitely plants, perhaps on a rolling base so they can be rolled away when they can’t be left in the room. Comfortable furniture like a beanbag or two armchairs. And definitely find out what the people we want to invite into this space actually need. We’re very excited to see what Manuela makes of it and wish her every success.
Something with AI … & Coworking
Then I invited participants to a session called ‚Something with AI and Coworking‘. I asked the group joining that session what part of their work they would most like to hand over to an ‚AI colleague‘. The answer: accounting. My advice: look for specialized solutions here, because we’re always handling sensitive data here. Otherwise, processes can be linked together using tools like Make.
Accounting: Receipt Capture
You can definitely use this: Scan your expense receipts and have them captured by the AI. To do this, you need AI chat access where you can upload images as input. To capture the receipts, you enter the following prompt:
Extract the following information from the uploaded images: Date, retailer name, item description, and amount. Output the results in a table.
Texting with AI
The topic of texting and support for all texts by AI has already been widely used. Some people want to have an email formulated a bit more clearly. Others seek advice when they want to write a very diplomatic reply. AI’s help is sought for social media posts. And then there’s also the requirement to write texts that are understandable for different target groups. Role assignment for the AI helps us here.
The tools for this are for example ChatGPT, Gemini, Copilot, or fobizz, which is based in the education sector (Germany). For social media, I recommend checking out what new AI features a tool you use, such as Buffer, has already integrated.
Photos & Illustrations with AI
Of course, I always recommend taking photos in your own space. This isn’t always possible, or there might be a missing aspect to illustrate for a presentation, flyer, or event. Nicole Sennewald talked about the Krämerloft in Erfurt, where a networking meetup with freshly cooked lunch takes place every Wednesday. To illustrate the invitation, they have the AI illustrate the recipe, which is very well received.
Easy-to-use tools for this area include Copilot, Canva, ChatGPT, and fobizz. Flux, a tool from the Black Forest, is great for photorealistic photos. There’s also Gamma, which is extremely useful for creating a presentation or brochure with text and images from keywords.
Multimedia with KI
Nobody loved the topic of video, but social media platforms practically compel us to get involved. We talked about tools for longer videos, such as Clipchamp. For shorter videos, which we use frequently, Canva is again great.
Kids don’t like reading long descriptions, Thomas Wick from cobaas in Preetz told us. That’s why he likes to use Google Notebook LM, just like I do. Here, information on a topic can be submitted as PDFs, text files, website links, and video links in a folder, from which the AI can create summaries. In addition to answering questions, Notebook LM creates a podcast with two voices discussing the topic based on the documents. Other tools now offer similar features.
Practice with AI
Many people now use the tool Canva. Since its AI features were unknown, we tried it out during the session. Canva is my ‚Swiss Army knife‘ and supports me in many tasks.
The examples show that it doesn’t always work right away. We were very impressed by the crazy challenge of capturing birds in a coworking space in a photo. I hope everyone has fun exploring the tools further to develop their own workflows!
Team Collaboration for the Trophy
In the evening, we moved to the Marheineke Market Hall. This is a classic market hall that has set up a coworking space on the upper floor with a view of the market stalls. A very bright space and an interesting way to establish a coworking space in the city.
The legendary coworking quiz took place there, with the challenge to win the „Golden Cow“, which was once again awarded by Alexandra Bernhardt to the best pub quiz team.
Collaboration in Practice
On Sunday, we met for ‚Collaboration Sunday‘ and hosted Janek Panneitz, who introduced us to the ‚3D Worlds method‘ with ‚Thinking Without Boxes‘. A practical session, which linked well to the LEGO Serious Play session last year at COWORK2024 in Karlsruhe.
First, Janek Panneitz had us recall all our childhood career aspirations and what we imagined working life would be like. Then we began by writing down specific ideas about how we wanted to work, what our work situation would be like, and what important factors we considered.
As a group, we then arranged our aspects on a mat, which we called the ocean. This was a pleasant way to discuss and negotiate different principles and people’s perspectives on a coworking space.
Community at its best
It was fascinating to learn from Janek about certain styles and approaches to playing, and we certainly know alpha players. Their style hinders collaboration or cooperation on equal terms, so he said. For example, in an escape room game, there are sometimes people who immediately have the solution and send people running around. Other players are losing interest in the game because they’re not actually playing, but just doing what someone else says.
Game providers solve cooperation through time pressure, high complexity, and the many options they provide. Essentially, this brings us to the topic of VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguity), and this naturally presents us with the situation in which we now have to operate as a company, as an organization, as a coworking space.
In companies, or perhaps even as coworking space hosts, many are accustomed to ‚playing in alpha player mode‘, as Janek calls it. We need cooperation, and companies need it just as much as we do as coworking spaces.
Cooperation & Collaboration
And that’s why it’s important that collaboration has been declared the annual theme for the German Coworking Federation. The interaction at the conference, barcamp, and practical workshops was very fitting. I was delighted to meet wonderful people from the coworking community in person again. Thank you all for the wonderful weekend!
Links for further details
- COWORK2025 https://www.coworking-germany.org/cowork/cowork2025-in-berlin-tegel/
- COWORK2025 barcamp sessions https://padlet.com/cowork/sessions-cowork2025-l92jrvjnql72g4pf/slideshow
- COWORK2025 Review https://www.coworking-germany.org/cowork2025-berlin-beydes/
- Tuckman’s stages of group development https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuckman’s_stages_of_group_development
- Dressgate – The Dress (wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dress
- Deskmag ‚Coworking Spaces in Germany Show Strong Signs of Recovery‘ https://deskmag.com/en/coworking-city-country-profiles/coworking-spaces-germany-genuine-market-business-study-analysis-report-2025
- Canva MagicMedia https://canva.com
Photos: Doris Schuppe DoSchu, BEYDES Berlin, Manuela Wehrle
