Vale of Glamorgan Festival of Coworking marks growth of flexible working project
A festival celebrating local businesses in the Vale of Glamorgan (VoG) 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 Chloe & Jeff Smith from Big Moose and Hannah Williams from Tiny Rebel.
The festival offers free access to VoG’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 VoG’s communities will increase footfall in shops, cafes and businesses, injecting new life into the local economy.
18 venues are already up and running in VoG, ranging from luxury B&B’s and golf clubs, to traditional taverns and renovated turkey sheds, with another 10 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 VoG 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 local 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 VoG; 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 the Vale of Glamorgan are:
Bonvilston Reading Rooms
Castleland Community Centre
Dinas Powys Library
Emporium
GVS Illtud House
Glamorganshire Golf Club
Parish Hall
St Bridget’s Farmhouse
St Paul’s Community Centre
The Clock Yard @ Rowleys
The Old School
The Red Lion
The Roost on Rock Road
The Six Bells
The Three Horseshoes
The Tudor Tavern
Y Cwt
YMCA Barry
Cowork Local is funded by the UK Government through the UK Community Renewal Fund.