The Amsterdam bike tour 2022: Exploring inspiring coworking spaces

By Christian Schmitz, Global Lead Shared Living and Workspaces at SALTO Systems with Matthias Zeitler, Founder of Coworking Bansko and Bansko Nomad Fest.

Coworking Europe brings together the largest community in the coworking industry to share thoughts, insights and ideas. As proud partners of its most recent event held in Amsterdam last November, SALTO Systems collaborated with Matthias Zeitler, a pioneer of rural coworking spaces and the founder of Coworking Bansko, to host a special community event that discovered Amsterdam’s most inspiring coworking spaces.?

Creating an entirely community-oriented experience, Matthias and I gave global coworking operators, consultants, service providers and designers a rare opportunity to go behind the scenes at 7 exciting coworking spaces across the city. And with cycling having the lowest CO2 footprint, whilst Amsterdam is named the “bicycle capital of the world”, what better way to travel to each space than to do it Dutch style! Our group cycled together, networked and interacted with hosts, making new friends throughout the day. I even brought my son along; after all, he’ll be the next generation of coworkers. Read on to explore the fun we had and the insights from people who came along for the ride.?

“Community building is the key to everything. The creation and enhancement of a community of individuals is the crucial aspect to better collaborations and more efficiency” - Matthias Zeitler.

Kicking things off, we started our tour at The Social Hub (TSH), a space that bridges the gap for students, hotel guests and members. It’s an all-in-one solution, and Partnership Manager Raychel Spronk gave a fantastic tour of the coworking offices, meeting rooms and auditorium. Raychel explains that “TSH is one big family”, and the company’s recent rebrand embodies one of its core internal goals: to maximise the positive impact on its community. Human interactions are initiated across everything at TSH, with the team regularly hosting events that welcome its wider local community and initiating fun bonding experiences. TSH was certainly a fitting first stop to warm our group up as they got to know one another. We all enjoyed the tour of its fun spaces!?

We then cycled to Zoku, a luxury hybrid hotel and inclusive coworking office. Straight away, everyone was welcoming and made us feel at home, including our host, Duty Manager Lars Roolvink. We loved looking round the different spaces, our group’s favourite being the cool coworking rooftop which is an excellent green space with stunning views of the city. Although the weather wasn’t great in November, we could imagine the rooftop being the perfect haven to spend time working and chatting during the summer months!

Ben Kolp, CEO and co-founder of The Living Room Coworking in Malaga, was “truly impressed by how Zoku managed to combine the concept of a shared workspace with a hotel under one roof. The jaw-dropping walk through the sky gallery with mini terraces on each side into the workspace is unique. A peak into one of the hotel rooms was the cherry on top of the cake, where a square-metre-conscious design meets style, Bravo Zoku!”

Ali Khadr is the founder and CEO at Kapitalize residences and workspace provider in Egypt. His favourite tours of the day were TSH and Zoku, because they were so “comprehensive and insightful”. Stefania Pasquarelli, Event and Community Manager at Toolbox Coworking, similarly enjoyed touring these “inspiring” coworking spaces.

Our next stop was at one of Amsterdam’s oldest flexible offices: EBC. It's been around for over 55 years! Offering offices and inspiring spaces for the city’s entrepreneur scene, EBC is very luxurious, with some impressive historic features, including fireplaces and painted ceilings. The high level offices are run by a friendly community team who included our fantastic tour guide, General Manager Maudy Westerveld.?

“We believe that our people are the key to success and we want to create a workplace where ideas can be shared and exchanged”, explains Maudy. “We take pride in providing the highest level of service. Whether you’re coming to the office for a meeting, or just stopping by for a quick chat, EBC provides the highest level of service”.?

Through all of our global work and innovations, our people are at the heart of what we do. That’s why we say at SALTO that community is the key! We believe that when we empower our people, we’re driving our organisation forward. At our daughter company - Clay Solutions BV in Amsterdam - we affectionately refer to our team members as “Bricks”: “the people that together make [a] strong foundation”.

A coworking tour across Amsterdam would not be complete without stopping by our SALTO-equipped Clay office to say hello to the Bricks. Although SALTO is a big corporation, stepping into this space makes you think you’re in a coworking office. The “spaciously designed [office] has a flex desk flow of people who use the office space for a combination of purposeful visits and socialising. It’s zoned to cater for different work styles and roles: high concentration, collaborative, conventional desk work and fun” (Wilma Georgeson, Office Manager at Clay Solutions). An auditorium is designed for the Bricks to present their projects to one another, with chilled zones for activities, and a large communal kitchen and seating that brings Bricks together over their love of food. So, we had to stay for some too! Cristina Trilles, from Vortex Coworking in Valencia, really enjoyed having lunch at the Clay office.

Most of the community who joined us for the tour wanted to learn more about the coworking industry, connect with others and, of course, experience a tour Dutch style!

Ben commented that: “visiting Amsterdam on a bike makes you feel like a local straight away. It’s undoubtedly the best way to get around the city and discover it. Apart from that great feeling of visiting Amsterdam the local way, I had a great impression of the city’s coworking scene, even though we only covered a fraction of spaces there.”?

Helga Moreno, Chief of Content at andcards, said: “One of my favourite moments from the bike tour was seeing Amsterdam from a different perspective. It was my first time in Amsterdam and riding a bike, so I was grateful to the SALTO team for the opportunity. Being able to explore the city by bike allowed me to see landmarks and hidden gems that I would have otherwise missed. There was something to appreciate around every corner, whether it was old buildings with century-old roots or modern high rises.”

We certainly did visit some historic buildings, including The Next Web Amsterdam City - which is a refurbished old bank and another space equipped with SALTO technology. It’s so big that over 250 different companies occupy its variety of spaces, which range from private offices to flex desks, on multiple floors. The most surprising space of all, had to be the huge underground vault which has been transformed into a large space for socialising and sport activities, from football to badminton.?

Next stop was one of the group’s favourites - Mindspace - a boutique flex space provider. Offering a mix of coworking, private offices and larger spaces to host corporate clients, Mindspace has all amenities needed and desired of a coworking space. And it’s so charming, it’s practically instagrammable! Helga “loved the stylish and cosy interiors that made me want to stop and stare. The atmosphere was warm and welcoming, and the team were very friendly”.?

Our lovely tour guide, Account and Sales Manager Elena Soler, explains that Mindspace offers “beautifully designed spaces, a personalised level of service and carefully curated events that enhance employee engagement, build a strong sense of community and accommodate the way people work, innovate and grow”. Keep an eye out for a Mindspace in your city, as this Israeli-born company is going global.

Tribes Amsterdam Raamplein provided the final stop of the day. We loved exploring this historic building, which used to be a school then a cinema belonging to Warner Bros studios, with the old cinema still kept in the building. Tribes offer meeting room spaces, a big coffee area to help fuel members for the working day, self-service and serviced amenities to book and use. And its design is very meaningful too, in the theme of the Mosuo - a tribe in China where women are in charge. We enjoyed exploring Tribes outdoor area with a cool garden house.

Both Cristina from Vortex, and John Preece, Chief Property Officer at Hub Australia, a provider of coworking and office spaces, loved Mindspace and Tribe best because the hosts were “nice and approachable”. They also felt that the offices had “some great design features and the character of the spaces really shone”.?

Matthias and I are pleased to see that this tour showed how community is the key. We were joined by a fantastic community of like-minded people who had a great time exploring all of the exciting coworking offices that Amsterdam has to offer. Since then, we’ve kept in touch with everyone and are thankful to each and every participant who took the time to let us know how much they liked the tour, and sent us photos from the day. We’re also grateful to our hosts, who provided a series of exceptional tours around the spaces.

At SALTO, we like to question the “why” and “how” in an ever-evolving and fast-changing world. That’s why we say that "old ways won’t open new doors”, to describe how we’re doing things differently. We’d like to think that the Amsterdam bike tour is an example of this. It was great to meet so many different people, and we look forward to connecting with everyone next time and seeing some new faces on our next tour!?

Would you like to join us next time? Get in touch if you were inspired by our tour.

Some final thoughts from our community:?

“It was fabulous to meet people that I connected with online, and tour Amsterdam via bicycle. It was a great day!” - John Preece.

“Seeing what others have done has helped me to find inspiration to improve TLR Coworking in Malaga. I couldn’t be more grateful for our industry friends to open their doors and show us around” - Ben Kolp.?

“It was great to meet all of the people on the bike tour at our venue!” - Maudy Westerveld.

“It was interesting to see the different styles of coworking around the city” - Ali Khadr.

“My key takeaway from the tour is that Amsterdam is a perfect blend of old and new, with many opportunities for exploration. From its culture and history, to its active and bustling coworking community, Amsterdam has much to offer” - Helga Moreno.?