Taking part of the OuiShare Europe Tour, the OuiShare team got on the road to discover Central & Eastern Europe (CEE) and what the region has to offer in the field of Collaborative Economy. It was a great start and I cannot wait to see the next steps!
One week, five events moving from one city to another starting in Sofia, Bulgaria, continuing in Bucharest and Cluj Napoca in Romania and wrapping up in Budapest, Hungary and Warsaw, Poland. It was the first time for OuiShare to organize events in the region and also the first time for these cities to learn about the global trend of Collaborative Economy.
What the Collaborative Economy means in CEE?
It would not surprise me if for a large number of “Western people” the first question popping up in one’s head mentioning Eastern Europe and Sharing in the same sentence would go back to socialist history and its heritage. Of course this is an interesting parallel and might influence how the Collaborative Economy is perceived today in the region (on this topic you can read my article on Shareable soon), but when it comes to define what the Collaborative Economy means to the generation leading the movement in CEE, it seems that they have a pretty similar perception to the definition applied in Western Europe. Just like in other countries, the trend is fed by:
Despite all possible doubts, CEE has a pretty similar perception of the Collaborative Economy to Western countries
- Rational decisions "It means sharing of any personal belongings and knowledge with others around me and online in order to lower overconsumption on the developed world and getting things done faster and smarter together." (János Török, PiqNiq),
- A new way doing business "New business thinking" (Attila Nemes, OS Kantine)
- A new way to connect with each other "Sharing Economy for me means change through belief, imagination and action. It's a belief, because it has the potential to reshape consumption behavior and make the world a better place. It's imagination - I like to picture a world covered with millions of small lights. These stand for each moment of pure joy of human connection, of giving and making another human being happy in an endless list of possible ways. Sharing Economy is also very practical and actionable, it is a way of living and thinking that is worth developing." (Zornitsa Tomova, UseTogether)
- Online technologies and an optimized way of living "The Sharing Economy trend will shape the world's mindset with the help of technology and online connection. It will make it possible for us to optimize our lives, to create more sustainable communities and to connect with like-mided people more easily." (Mircea Vadan, Usetogether)
Local organizers leading the way towards a collaborative future in CEE all got familiar with the concept through their studies or working experiences abroad. This generation is empowered to bring fresh ideas to the region.
What have been done so far?
The wave of the Collaborative Economy is just reaching CEE and is still in a very early stage in the region. “Well, its just starting up, but I believe it has a bright future. Budapest and people living here could greatly benefit from the sharing economy.” (Tamás Kiss, PiqNiq)
These were the first OuiShare Drinks we organized in CEE and I have to say they were a great help to people already involved in the field making it possible for them to see outside their tiny world and understand that they take part of a bigger picture. Showing global examples that already have great success with viable and scalable business models made the newcomers positive about the future of the project they are working on. “I haven't heard about Sharing Economy before the Budapest OuiShare event. The community definitely will grow and involve more and more people. Without being conscious about it, I think many of us have been part of the movement already.” (Le Marietta, Járókelő)
The wave of the Collaborative Economy is just reaching CEE...
All events were totally different: some with a lot of participants and more in a conference format and some happened more in a debate style. But one thing is true for sure, all four countries have their very promising initiatives and they seem to have a bright future ahead of them.
To give you a short overview of the five events and the projects being developed, let’s see what happened city by city:
- Sofia - The great surprise of the Tour
When I got to betahaus|sofia directly from the airport I felt that something very cool is going to happen that night. Vibrant atmosphere, positive people and very promising projects… as it turned out later. I really could feel that participants were enthusiastic about the Collaborative Economy, asking relevant questions. There were about 60 people there to hear about it for the first time and 8 pitchers presenting their vision about embracing the Sharing Economy on the local level. Some with extended active community around them and some others still looking for solutions to scale. Projects ranged from sharing journeys (ComboRides), city carpooling (Umno.BG), local experience sharing (4tripsters), item and service sharing (UseTogether) and donating (Za Bez Pari), education timebanking (Nauchi Me), NGO donating initiatives (Idea in Action) to food cooperatives (Hrankoop). As Zornitsa (from Start It Smart and UseTogether), the local event organizer, said: these people really needed an opportunity to work on new ways to collaborate with each other: “The good news is that in Sofia, Sharing Economy is definitely blooming. There's an unimaginable amount of sharing projects, not only in Sofia, but everywhere in Bulgaria - NGOs, cultural and social, offline and online initiatives, as well as startups and businesses. You can find hundreds of these through a quick facebook search. The challenge is that everyone is doing something more or less on their own, solving a problem they've seen, most of us are unaware we are part of something bigger. I think there's a large unexploited space for collaboration between us.” (Zornitsa Tomova, UseTogether)
- Bucharest and Cluj Napoca - Romania leading the debate
The two events we had in Romania were the two most intense ones in terms of discussions. The bar’s owner literally had to kick us out after a while in Bucharest because we could not stop debating about cultural differences with Western countries, trust issues and innovative business models. These cities led by Ruxandra from Babele and Mircea from UseTogether seem to have a very mature perspective about the Collaborative Economy.
In the coworking field the HUB in Bucharest and Cluj seem to be serving their function perfectly: connecting the dots in the startup and Collaborative Economy space. These cities also have some very cool initiatives encouraging sharing stuffs, time and knowledge. Shareequipment and Usetogether are leading the sharing market for physical objects and Babele provides a platform for open collaboration between entrepreneurs.
- Budapest - Between innovation and social benefit
The OuiShare Budapest Drink was a great success but not only for the big number of participants and the good quality of speakers but also because signs appeared for future collaboration between the attendees. Loffice, the initiator of the concept of coworking in the city hosted the event that gave opportunity to ten pitchers to present themselves. They realized that they had a lot in common and it would be way easier to move forward together. The transportation sector seems to be the most developed led by Zivi and Oszkár, two ridesharing platforms and to this will be added in a couple of months the Budapest bikesharing system (BUBI). All in all it was interesting to see how the global concept of collaborative economy was adapted to local needs and opportunities through projects like Pet it!, Járókelő and Heartsmap putting a focus on social and environmental benefit. The Makers movement has also some inspiring representants in the city including Hackerspace Budapest and Kultúrgorilla, an open design platform to build your own unique furnitures. And with the example of the PiqNiq team, we can see that there is a lot of potential in Hungarian creativity building new services for global markets with a startupper approach.
- Warsaw - Last, but not least
OuiShare Drink Warsaw was the concluding event of the OuiShare Europe Tour. Before the OuiShare Drink, Cohabitat - a co-host of the OuiShare Drink in Warsaw, together with OuiShare hosted the webinar promoting the ideas of Sharing Economy in the region and inviting the local community to the event. We had about 150 participants, many of them already quite involved in the sharing economy initiatives.
The event started with some practical sharing practices with amazing food sharing by the participants and a clothing swap hosted by Vinted . It turned out that Warsaw is very rich in Sharing Economy initiatives and we had great pitches, by Cohabitat , Siec Sensownego Biznesu, Wymiennik, Mintu.me, Mieszadlo, Kombinat, FabLab Lodz, Sie-je w miescie, Centrum Nauki Kopernik - ” Uzdrowisko Warszawa”, Vinted, crowdfunding.pl, ekonomiaspoleczna.pl, and BlaBlaCar.pl . The event was hosted at Klub Powiekszenie , with their generous support to make everything work perfectly.
What are the next steps ahead of us in CEE?
According to numerous feedback, the best way to move forward is to start small showing people that it is possible, fun and efficient to collaborate. “Start, vibrant sharing communities/groups could be started in neighborhoods and larger housing complexes in order to first start small, give people a feeling for it and grow the sharing economy from there.” (János Török, PiqNiq)
We also discovered that since the movement is still in a very early stage, it is crucial to organize events and give people the opportunity to start working together.“More small communities that actually do something useful, and events where they can show what they've done, so others can be inspired and join.” (Hackerspace Budapest)
Starting small, starting local is key. But the message I got from all the conversation I had during this very intense week is that these countries are close to each other not only geographically but also in the way we think, we see the world. These small and fragmented countries will definitely have to move together along the way organizing events on the regional level and exchanging best practices. Watch out, Central and Eastern Europe is on the track and is joining the Collaborative Economy Revolution!
A big thank you to all our partners, who made this tour possible: