COWORKING COMMUNITIES CHART A NEW PATH DURING COVID-19

We checked in with Pauline Roussel, CEO of Berlin-based Coworkers to find out what’s next in collaborative (but socially distanced) workspaces.

- S.C. STUART

A year ago, PCMag interviewed Pauline Roussel and Dimitar Inchev, co-founders of Coworkers, an online job forum, advice site community builder, and all-round knowledge base for the free agent. In April 2019, the pair were working on their book, Around the World in 250 Coworking Spaces, and had just returned to Berlin from New York City. In May 2020, like the rest of us, they were grounded at home.

But they weren’t just kicking back and watching TV on the couch. They were organizing Hack Coworking Online, which took place May 28 to 30 (remotely, of course). We exchanged emails with Coworkers’ CEO Roussel to find out more about the conference and coworking in the time of COVID-19. Here are edited and condensed excerpts from those conversations.

PCMag: Hello from Hollywood! All the coworking spaces here closed when California’s ‘Safer at Home’ ordinance hit on March 17. When did it kick in for you in Berlin?