Swansea Festival of Coworking marks growth of flexible working project

A festival celebrating local businesses in Swansea has marked the growth of an innovative project that brings flexible workspace to high streets, community spaces and venues across the region. 

As part of the Cowork Local Project, the three-day Festival will run from 21 – 23 June and sees venues open their doors to coworking, whilst showcasing local role models with a series of lunchtime talks from founders such as Scott Otten, Angie Bettany and George Savva. 

The festival offers free access to Swansea’s Cowork Local spaces for its duration, with catering by a variety of local businesses and a series of lunchtime talks with entrepreneurs and experts from the area.

The Festival is just a part of what will be a long-term opportunity for local people to work closer to home, helping them reduce their commute, escape the isolation of working from home and join a collaborative community of like-minded people.

The Cowork Local project was pioneered by coworking and business support experts Town Square Spaces Ltd (TownSq), whose research found that 85% of people want to commit to working closer to home sometime in the future. With this in mind, it’s hoped that allowing more people to work within Swansea’s communities will increase footfall in shops, cafes and businesses, injecting new life into the local economy.

Seven venues are already up and running in Swansea, ranging from restaurants and cinemas to activity centres and church halls, with another 11 due to come onboard in the near future.

Co-founder and CEO of TownSq, Gareth Jones said: “We’re so proud to have kicked off Cowork Local with the Festival of Coworking to engage with the small business community in Swansea and convey what the project is all about. Local enterprise is a key part of the economic landscape here and it’s a privilege to be connecting venues with the thriving business community.

“Our mission is to create more options for people to work flexibly and championing entrepreneurship is at the core of everything we do. As a B-Corp, we have a commitment to sustainably improving the local economies, communities and opportunities available in all of the places we work – and Cowork Local is a big part of that.

“This ethos is the driver behind Cowork Local in Swansea, through providing practical workspaces in the heart of the region, we hope that the wider impact will see more people buying lunch or shopping from nearby stores, business owners collaborating and networking, and a flourishing startup scene emerging to boost the economy and bring people closer together.”

To learn more about Cowork Local, Festival of Coworking or to find a coworking hub near you, visit coworklocal.co.uk or contact coworklocal@townsq.co.uk.

The Cowork Local venues available to work from in Swansea are at HQ Urban Kitchen; Limitless Activity Centre; Menter Iaith Abertawe; Patti Pavilion; St Mary’s Church; The Phoenix Centre; Space at No. 88.

Cowork Local is funded by the UK Government through the UK Community Renewal Fund.