MICROLAB: A COMMUNITY-CENTRED REFLECTION OF THE ENTREPRENEURIAL CLIMATE

A city within a city, conceived to inspire and to spark creativity: welcome to Microlab. After a successful start at its first location in Eindhoven, a year and a half ago the flexible workspace provider made the leap to a second site in Rotterdam. Great news for anyone looking for a comfortable, flexible and affordable coworking and office space in Holland’s port city. Elsemieke Beuk is Microlab’s Rotterdam location manager and offered to give us a tour of their six-storey business community.

“Microlab is really a platform where everyone can pursue their ambitions”, Elsemieke sums up as we look around their inspiring spaces. “Whether you’ve just set up a business and are taking your first steps or are starting with a small team but want the flexibility to grow as needed, you’ll find an option that fits here.” With 500 members and counting, Rotterdam Microlab is growing rapidly. Which makes it all the more important to create a community in the truest sense of the word, Elsemieke underscores. “Partly, it’s about how we arrange each floor, but we also organize activities reflecting this city’s cultural and creative personality.” That includes everything from event partnerships with Art Week Rotterdam and Dakendagen, where Microlab looks for ways to contribute and offer a showcase, to casual Thursday and Friday afternoon drinks. They even have a small golfing course and basketball room, which draw a diverse group of tenants.

Enriching Diversity

“We make every effort to foster connections within our community”, Elsemieke says with clear enthusiasm. “Ideally, we want it to be a reflection of the whole entrepreneurial climate. It’s brilliant to see how freelancers, foundations and businesses large and small all come together here.” One of the spaces in Microlab’s community is one they offer free of charge for social initiatives, and it’s located right next to a law firm. “It just goes to show how there’s a fantastic blend of people here. It’s easy to keep orbiting inside your own sector or cluster, yet it can be so enriching to connect with like-minded people outside that bubble. We believe it challenges people in positives ways and can lend new insights. At Microlab, that’s how we stimulate our community to come together and have a real and positive impact on each other.”