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Good morning

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Just kidding, good evening!

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Ladies and gentlemen, Tedsters

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My name is Amarit Charoenphan

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the cofounder & CEO of HUBBA Co., Ltd

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with the first coworking space

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in Thailand for startups, 
creatives and freelancers.

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And today I’d like to share with you

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one very simple message

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I believe that

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coworking can change,

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can and will change the world.

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And I like you to be
part of that movement,

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So, how did coworking begin in Thailand

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and what is a coworking space?

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So, for me the journey towards

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building the whole coworking movement

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is essentially trying…me trying to solve

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a personal, very painful situation,

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from a house that 
was flooded in October 2011

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and I had to move out to Pattaya.

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So…like most people,

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me and my brother, we started working,

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of course, at a house.

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We rented this small house in Hialeah,

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that includes 13 dogs,

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all the stuff we brought over from Pattaya,

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a very nagging mom

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and just general mayhem 
with no wifi and 3G, imagine that!

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And we tried to start 
a business at that house,

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and ok, at first, of course,
it's sort of works

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it's the quickest office
you’ll ever get to in your life.

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You just get up and go,

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it's also the most cost-efficient

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if you're living with your parents.

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And also it's comfortable

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if you're working from your bed
or in your underwear.

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Fortunately I do not have pictures of me

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working in my underwear!

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But, more importantly is that

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we soon found out that

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if you're working from your homes,

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you’ll get the feeling that

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it’s just not a place to start anything.

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Whether you become lonely, bored

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or generally demotivated

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and the place is really not suited

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for you to meet with investors,

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teams, your clients and your suppliers.

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Then once you throw in your pets

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or you have wives, kids,

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visiting relatives and 13 dogs,

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it just becomes too much.

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So like most people, we just said,

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ah…this isn’t going to work,

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so where do we go?

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So we went to look around 
for the best coffee

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and the best café in town.

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And we searched far and wide 
and we love coffee

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and we craved it after a while.

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Also we just love
the energy and buzz of seeing...

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you know...people,

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especially good-looking people

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working at the café.

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And initially it sort of worked as well.

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But, you soon found out that cafés

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were never meant to be

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ah… office substitute.

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For a very good reason:
you're paying the rent

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with 2 cups of coffee a day,

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if you don’t drink,

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the owner starts looking at you

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and getting pissed off

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Then, after a while,

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the power socket is hard to find,

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the chairs are uncomfortable,

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the light is dim,

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and then, all the tourists 
from everywhere start coming,

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and eventually, you realize that

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this is too much distraction.

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And, after a while,

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you just find out that,

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you know, this coffee shop

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has one very big drawback:

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one I just found out 
in a very hard way!

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It's that, I had diarrhea,

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I had to pack all my stuff in my bag,

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put everything together,
run to the toilet,

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and then it’s locked!

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Somebody was inside!

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And then like...No, I know It

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I didn't do it on my pants

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There was the lady's room on the side.

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So what is there to do 
for new entrepreneurs?

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Essentially, there’s…

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it's the house and the café

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just didn’t really work,

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but, we couldn’t afford for an office

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or rent one of those service offices.

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So, there has to be a better way

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And there is!

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Which is this mega trend of coworking,

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which is working out for
a hundred thousand people

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across the world in
over 3,000 spaces worldwide

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and we read all these articles and said,

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this is so awesome

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but none of this exists in Thailand

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So if there was one in Thailand,

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then I would pay money 
to go and use it.

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And, it’s working out 
for so many people

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that it's actually, 
fundamentally changing

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the way we work and for the better.

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So what is coworking space?

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A lot of you would say,

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Yes, it’s basically a whole bunch 
of independent professionals

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coming together to share 
a facility that has

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all the stuff you find 
in a really nice office.

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But that’s the simplistic definition

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that only describes the tangible aspects
of a coworking space

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whereas I’d like to see coworking

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as a concept that is a verb 
and not a noun.

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It's the way of working,

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not actually a static place,

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but also where 3 COs

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in the word “coworking” converge:

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Cooperation, Collaboration, Community.

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That’s where our generation of millennials

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and generation Y and people after us

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want from work space

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a service, a relationship... a community

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So, back to my story.

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I came back from Pattaya and

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I thought this was the big…

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very big pain that I want to solve

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and I really wanted to work at

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a coworking space

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There’s none in Thailand,

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I've never been to one,

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never did any market research,

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but we knew

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there were more people

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going through the same pain as me,

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and not just about diarrhea,

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but just about working;

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so we realized that O.K.

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We’re just gonna build it

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and we found this really beautiful house

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Actually it’s very ugly right now,

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but in 6 months,

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we turned it into this!

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We basically put everything

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that you find in a really nice office

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and more, and shared it 
with everyone else.

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You know,

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beautifully decorated work space,

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fast Wi-Fi, a lot of books,

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shared water, coffee, a printing service,

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meeting rooms, everything,

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even a trampoline in this garden.

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However, all of that is very affordable

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for the budget-conscious entrepreneur

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and freelancer and at the same time,

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so well-managed that

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our members just focus on their work

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and not actually 
on the workspace or managing.

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So we thought that people love us

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for building this,

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that they’ll kiss my hands and say,

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"Oh, shut up and take my money.

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Oh, thank you bringing 
coworking to Thailand."

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But, of course,

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that’s a fairytale

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and then, the reality is that,

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in the first months,

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we had 1 member.

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And we were like, what is going on?

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So we were immediately 
so close to failure.

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I spent millions on this space,

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and built it, nobody…you know

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everybody came

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the investors, media and everyone...

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They liked it, but nobody really signed up

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Nobody really signed up,

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so I realized something was amiss

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and asking enough questions,
I realized that

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people just found coworking 
as a culture so new

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that they didn’t know
what was the value

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that they were getting out of the space,

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and that they didn't know

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whether it was more valuable

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above and beyond, you know,

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just a nice office,

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but why should they be there

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instead of a house or cafe,

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realizing both on to one word:

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community.

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Community is the lifeblood,

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the…what makes 
coworking space so addictive

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because community is what

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gets my members 
and everyone that I know

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up from bed traveled far and wide

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to come to this space

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and pay me to work

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because they find that

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the experience of working with

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awesome like-minded individuals

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side by side, every day,

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sharing coffee and conversation,

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becoming friends,

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starting to help, share, learn

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and collaborate with one another

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is so invaluable, so hard to find

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to the point that, you know,

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entrepreneurship is so hard for them,

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freelancing is so hard

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for them for the first time

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that they believe that

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if they can work with somebody else

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the journey is much more fun and valuable.

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So, finding that out,

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we focus on communities,

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making the space fun and friendly

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but also adding value where we can

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with events, activities, and workshops,

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like this event,

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start on the weekend, 54 hours straight,

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straight complete strangers come together

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to do a start-up business

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and pitch to investors.

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They're so well received

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that 200 people showed up, you know

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in our the latest event

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and our latest conference

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for the technology star vehicle system

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attracted 400 people

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and we filled our entire auditorium.

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So, who are all these people

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that work out of these spaces?

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And, where do they come from?

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and the events as well

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So, essentially

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we’ve met so many 
different types of people,

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the sheer diversity is amazing.

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It's not just start-ups and
creatives and freelancers

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but I’ve met politicians and lawyers

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and yoga masters and painters

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and corporate warriors and nonprofit people,

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social entrepreneurs, actors...

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Actually, I had one really 
nice member recently

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who used to be homeless 
in New York, in the States,

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learned how to become a DJ,

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and one...one day she decided

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she's just gonna fly to Thailand

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and she started writing about

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displaced people 
and becoming really famous

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about refugee issues.

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So basically, anybody can work

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out of a coworking space;

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anybody in this room,

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all of you can work out there

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because essentially,
coworking is a community.

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A community of people that

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share ideas, interests and passion,

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and once we come together,

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we actually create this space 
where we work together

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and because we all bring a bit of
our individual soul and character,

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coworking spaces are places 
with a lot of soul.

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So now there're 3,000 spaces
worldwide and growing.

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But, there's a handful in town

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and, there's one in Chiang Mai Pun Space.

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But I’d like to see this be everywhere

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as common as coffee shops

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and so common that our new entrepreneurs,

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creatives, freelancers, innovators

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and changemakers

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work out of these spaces 
and are supported

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and are nurtured and 
become more successful,

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allowing us to bring in,

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you know, more interested people

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who see now that this... 
their lifestyle is possible,

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this career is possible,

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working out of these spaces

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and are well-supported and

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and once they join the community, 
the community grows.

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And I really love to end this 
with one really simple message:

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coworking spaces are the communities

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that bring the cooperative

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and collaborative cultures back to

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our cities, our communities, our society,

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and if we can help to

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foster more coworking spaces

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to be everywhere,

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we will have many more spaces

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with a soul across the cities

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and that will lead to a rise

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in the quality of life in our cities.

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So I'd like to urge all of you

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to join our movement,

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to work out of a coworking space 
from time to time,

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to support the ideas, people, projects

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that grow out of this space,

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and also to… maybe even decide to

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open, operate or invest in one.

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Because if we cowork together,

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we can create a better Thailand

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and a better world.

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Thank you very much

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(Applause)