SALTO proudly introduces a partnership with Coworking Bansko, one of Europe’s largest digital nomad hubs based in the mountainous town of Bansko in Bulgaria.
SALTO proudly introduces a partnership with Coworking Bansko, one of Europe’s largest digital nomad hubs based in the mountainous town of Bansko in Bulgaria. Coworking Bansko integrates SALTO technology across their locations for smooth and seamless user experiences. With a strong community of over 125 members on average, Coworking Bansko is people-first. That’s why, each year, they bring together a global community of 500+ digital nomads, location-independent, freelancers, and entrepreneurs at Bansko Nomad Fest.
Since you opened the very first location 6 years ago, Coworking Bansko has developed, changed, and grown. Tell us more about the different spaces at Coworking Bansko, and your ethos.
Our community is built on freedom and happiness and is guided by the five core values of coworking: community, openness, collaboration, sustainability, and accessibility.
We provide the infrastructure so that our members can become the very best version of themselves. Different people have different needs and work habits; we aim to support them with our different environments. So for deep work, our members can head to the Gondola or the Quiet Space, our main community hub with a large garden that’s home to the famous Friday potluck gathering, where all community members contribute to food and drink and come together to celebrate and enjoy the community. Or, if they want to work and casually socialise in more laid back areas, they can do so in the calming Social Space. We also have the Lounge, a space that recreates a coffee shop with a blend of music, work, and chat, and a great rooftop with a work and chill area.
In which Coworking Bansko locations have you installed SALTO technology?
We’ve installed SALTO technology in all our four locations in Bansko, including an off-the-grid forest location on the doorstep of Bansko National Park that we call the Playground. It’s a place where we host lots of community events and where we’re building our wood cabin.
We’ve integrated SALTO technology across standard use cases, like the main entrance doors, but also at more experiential spaces, like all our meeting rooms and our wood cabin, to better manage access and usage. We’ve also integrated SALTO technology at a separate storage site for external contractors who help with events or other projects to access our locations. They can easily come in and out without our team needing to be around. As it’s so secure, it helps us to continue creating safe experiences for our community.
What impact has equipping your spaces with SALTO technology hadmade in your business and community?
Before we began using a smart lock system, we were using physical tokens that generally worked well although there were issues with the system’s stability. It was a homegrown DIY solution which didn’t work when we experienced power or internet outages, plus there were hardware issues during cold winters. Using only physical tokens held us back. When people arrived outside normal office hours to pick up or return tokens, it created a lot of work for several people, including our team, trial members, and day pass users. We also didn’t have the token system on all our doors, so our teams still had to use physical keys alongside them, which was inconvenient.
We’ve now installed 19 SALTO locks and 5 IQs on our doors, and plan to add a few more wall readers, locker locks, and padlocks in different locations for different uses.
Our users love the new system. Being able to open all doors with the SALTO KS app means that they no longer need to pick up and return any hardware tokens, making operations and welcoming new trial day members much easier. Also, the look and feel of SALTO locks helps us to create the best community experience possible when new people open our doors for the first time.
How did you meet Cate and Christian at SALTO Systems?
I was surprised when Cate and Christian approached us to partner at Bansko Nomad Fest 2021 (we met through a mutual connection). Initially, I didn’t understand why they wanted to come to a digital nomad festival because we’re not an industry trade show. But it soon became clear to me that Cate and Christian are visionaries. They have a passion for community and togetherness, with‘community is the key’ at the heart of it all. They wanted to explore the future of access management for coworking and coliving, and that was the perfect fit for us.
Christian ended up staying with the community, overnight, despite having to fly home early the next morning, I realised that he is someone who we had to work with. Cate stayed longer in Bansko after her first Nomad Fest to engage with our community, organise some photoshoots with our 40-year-old orange Lada jeep and brainstorm many ideas. During that time, she became part of our community. We loved seeing her again this year and look forward to her every visit.
Why do you also believe that community is the key?
Our members join Coworking Bansko to make connections for their business, social life and to enjoy Bansko together. In an era of remote working, nobody really needs to work at a traditional office anymore. But, everyone needs connections to thrive and become the best version of themselves. Our community is not limited to our members. Coworking Bansko is part of several communities who’ve helped us grow from grassroots as a rural coworking location, to one that is now a globally recognised ecosystem and nomad capital. Community is the key that unlocks our peoples’ happiness. That’s how I view my community.
How will SALTO technology continue to support Coworking Bansko now and in the future?
I believe that SALTO KS cloud-based access management and SALTO industrial leading hardware, in combination with a very responsive support team and dedicated partner organisation, is a great basis to integrate with our strategy and operations.
Coworking Bansko is constantly growing. We successfully crowdfunded a “crypto cabin” via an NFT using Web3 authentication, which gives owners access to the cabin at different times. We’re also building a sauna at the Playground, as part of our efforts to boost our community’s well being. To streamline the whole operation, all these locations will have SALTO locks which are accessible using the SALTO KS app that our members already use.
A lot of our members use bicycles that often break down on the rough roads around town. So, we’re building a bicycle repair station outside one of our locations, with access to the tool box and air compressor via SALTO Padlock. We also plan to use SALTO locker locks to facilitate car key access to our orange flotilla of rental cars.
It’s been fantastic to receive the support of SALTO and the Community and Partnership team, particularly over the last couple of years when Cate and Christian joined us at both the Nomad Fest and the CUBB (coliving unconference). We look forward to our continued partnership and collaboration with SALTO at community-oriented events like these as well as events outside Bulgaria.
What’s next for Coworking Bansko?
Our next big exciting project will move us into the coliving space. “Coliving Bansko” will be a purpose-built coliving space co-owned with our community. Unfortunately, supply chain issues and high energy costs are slowing down construction, but this project is at the top of our list, and we hope to start building it in early 2023.
We’ve recently announced our Nomad Festival 2023 edition. I feel that it will attract even more attendees next year (this year it was around 550). We’ll most likely host the second edition of the coliving conference (CUBB) in April 2023, and I’m pretty confident there will be more surprises from Coworking Bansko and our community to come.
We look forward to witnessing Coworking Bansko’s continuous evolution and its growing use of SALTO technology. And we’re looking forward to partnering with them again at their upcoming coworking and coliving events because community is, indeed, the key!
Want to find out more about our partners in coworking or other industries? Take a look at our industry pages and follow us on LinkedIn for updates!
