“If freelancing is the future of work, then coworking is the future workplace.”

Szilvia Filep

Tired of running yourself into the ground?

Then stop running alone.

On February 24th, the London Coworking Assembly presents Unreasonable Connection Goes Live!—a one-day working session for the people running London’s most vital neighbourhood spaces and the public sector allies working to help them thrive. It’s a day to share the load, find real solutions, and build a new playbook, together.

Ten years ago, Szilvia Filep quit her multinational job in Budapest because they wouldn’t let her work remotely.

Back in 2016, that decision meant becoming a freelancer when Hungarian society viewed freelancing as code for “can’t get a proper job.” It meant moving from the capital to Veszprém—a countryside city—with her husband and young daughter. It meant choosing time over salary, proximity over prestige, freedom over the illusion of security.

Today, Szilvia runs the Hungarian Coworking Association, operates a coworking space in Veszprém, and serves as Communications Manager for Coworking Europe. Everything she needs—her kids’ school, her coworking space, the city centre, supermarket, her mother-in-law for childcare—sits within a 10-minute walk from her front door.

She calls it her “10-minute city.” Where Paris has Professor Carlos Moreno’s ambitious 15-minute city vision, Szilvia built her own version through strategic decisions about where to live, what to prioritise, and how to structure work around life instead of life around work.

The contrast with her previous existence is stark. One to one-and-a-half hours each way in Budapest traffic. Now? She chooses how to spend that reclaimed time. Not stuck in traffic jams. Not at the mercy of delayed trains. Freedom to prepare for her day on her own terms.

But here’s what matters for you as a coworking operator: Szilvia’s journey from corporate employee to freelancer to association founder mirrors the transformation happening across Europe right now.

What seemed risky in 2016—outcome-based work, autonomy, side projects, choosing flexibility—has become mainstream. In Hungary, the average person under 35 now spends just two years at one company. The future Szilvia bet on has arrived.

And if freelancing truly is the future of work, then coworking genuinely is the future workplace. Not because of hot desks or good coffee. Because people working flexibly still need human contact.

They need spaces designed around connection, not just productivity. They need to know they’re not alone “slogging it out” trying to make WordPress work or deciding whether to invoice before or after completing the work.

Szilvia’s experience in smaller cities reveals something corporate chains can’t replicate: 60% of her coworking members joined when the space opened two-and-a-half years ago and are still there.

That loyalty stems from limited options, yes—but more powerfully, from genuine belonging. In smaller towns, you run into each other outside the space. The connections run deeper. The community isn’t strategic; it’s real.

This episode is for operators building local coworking spaces, running regional associations, or wondering whether European Coworking Day matters beyond marketing. Szilvia shows how grassroots movements gain credibility through continental connection whilst maintaining fierce local loyalty.

You’ll leave understanding how to design a life that actually fits your values, why freelancing skills translate directly to coworking operations, and how European Coworking Day on 6th May gives your local work the visibility it deserves.

Timeline Highlights

[00:04] Bernie announces European Coworking Day is on the sixth of May

[01:26] Szilvia introduces herself: founder of Coworking Hungary Association, runs a space in Veszprém, recently joined Coworking Europe conference team

[02:07] Coworking Europe 2026 will be in Paris on sixth of November

[02:39] “I’ve created my life, my basic needs in a way that everything is just 10 minutes walk from my home”

[04:52] On reclaimed commute time: “It’s freedom”

[08:34] The brave 2016 decision: “I had to quit. That was the time when I became a freelancer to be able to create the life I wanted to live”

[11:49] Essential freelancing skills: “Creativity... you have to be quite brave... good in marketing and pretty much in sales... personal branding... Very, very thoughtful on financials”

[13:54] Szilvia’s realisation: “It’s just the future of work”

[16:38] On selling outcomes: “It’s not the time what you sell, but it’s the results what you sell”

[17:57] Job tenure in Hungary: “The average time a younger person under 35 years spends at one company is two years”

[21:03] The defining quote: “If freelancing is the future of work, then coworking is the future workplace”

[22:38] Why European Coworking Day matters: “This gives an extra credibility and visibility to the things that we do here in Hungary”

[25:21] On loyalty in smaller cities: “60% of the coworkers who are currently using the space, joined at the very beginning when we opened the space two and a half year ago”

[29:59] Bernie’s reminder: “Collaboration over competition”

The 10-Minute City You Can Build Today

You don’t need municipal permission to create a 10-minute city.

Szilvia designed hers through decisions: choosing Veszprém over Budapest, paying more for a flat near the city centre instead of cheaper suburbs, opening her coworking space within walking distance of her home.

The trade-off was clear. Living centrally costs more. But the return—time, autonomy, presence with her children—proved worth every forint.

Before moving, Szilvia and her husband sat down and asked: “How do we want to lead our family life together?” Both had spent their childhoods travelling to school in different cities. Both commuted 30-40 minutes one way to university in Budapest. Both wanted something different for their kids and themselves.

What makes this relevant for coworking operators? Your members face the same calculation. They’re weighing commute time against flexibility, corporate salaries against autonomy, prestige against presence. The operators who understand this friction—who position their spaces as infrastructure for freedom, not just desks for rent—win the loyalty Szilvia describes.

Sixty per cent retention over two-and-a-half years doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when your space solves a life design problem, not just a workspace problem.

When “Freelancer” Meant “Unemployed”

In 2016, telling people in Hungary you were a freelancer translated roughly to: “I can’t get a proper job.”

Szilvia heard it constantly. “Poor freelancers, it’s how hard for them to get a job, how it’s just not stable, it’s just unpredictable. It’s unsafe financially.”

She could count on her hands how many people she knew doing the same work. So she organised a freelance conference. She ran events for freelancers to meet and learn from each other. She told everyone she could about this emerging way of working.

Ten years later, the world has caught up. Remote work. Outcome-based projects. Side gigs. Portfolio careers. These aren’t fringe anymore—they’re how most knowledge workers operate, whether officially freelance or not.

But here’s the insight that matters: the skills Szilvia needed to succeed as a freelancer in 2016 are exactly the skills coworking operators need today. Creativity. Courage. Marketing yourself (or your space). Sales and personal branding. And critically—being “very, very thoughtful on financials.”

If you can’t plan for income volatility, freelancing becomes genuinely precarious. If you can’t market your value, you struggle to fill your pipeline. If you’re not brave enough to make unconventional choices, you default to copying what others do.

Szilvia’s freelance foundation prepared her perfectly for coworking operations. Both require building community from scratch, explaining a concept people don’t yet understand, and staying financially resilient through uncertainty.

The Future of Work Has Arrived

Szilvia saw it coming in 2016.

She researched freelancing, trying to understand where it fit on “the map of the world of work.” Her conclusion: “It’s nothing extraordinary. It’s just the future of work.”

How people worked as freelancers in 2015 is how most people work in 2026. Remotely. With autonomy over their schedules. Selling results, not time. Managing multiple projects or clients. Doing side gigs alongside main employment.

In Hungary, Bernie notes that COVID revealed how fragile employment security really is. The “job for life” their parents’ generation expected simply doesn’t exist. Under-35s switch companies every two years—essentially living project-based careers even within traditional employment.

This transformation changes what coworking needs to provide.

It’s not about replicating corporate offices. It’s not about professional addresses or meeting rooms. It’s about solving the core freelancing problem: isolation. As Szilvia puts it, home office “turned out it’s also not enough because you don’t have the interaction with people and that has a negative impact on creativity, cooperation, and many, many other things.”

The solution? Flexibility and the idea of coworking. Multi-purpose community hubs where work happens but community forms. Spaces that fit into daily life—Hector’s “ecosystem” insight—rather than requiring members to build their lives around the space.

If freelancing is genuinely the future of work, your coworking space isn’t competing with WeWork. You’re building civic infrastructure for how humans will work for the next fifty years.

Why European Coworking Day Isn’t Just Marketing

Every May 6th, coworking spaces across Europe open their doors for European Coworking Day.

In Hungary, the Coworking Association runs it as part of their “Open Coworking Week”—an extended celebration that’s been happening for six years.

Szilvia explains why they participate: “This gives an extra credibility and visibility to the things that we do here in Hungary.

We are not just saying that, okay, here it’s springtime, let’s visit some coworking spaces in Hungary. But we can say that, hey, there’s a European Coworking Day. All the coworkings in Europe are celebrating this new movement.”

It’s easy to be cynical about coordinated awareness days. But for operators in smaller cities and regional associations, European Coworking Day solves a real problem: legitimacy.

When you’re explaining coworking to local government, potential members, or sceptical family members, being part of a European movement matters. It signals this isn’t just your quirky local project—it’s a continental shift in how work happens.

Bernie captures the power of seeing “big shiny spaces in Berlin and little villages in Portugal and a place in Copenhagen and a place in Basingstoke in the UK all do the same thing.” It’s solidarity. It’s proof. It’s belonging to something that matters.

For you, this means: don’t sit out European Coworking Day thinking it’s someone else’s initiative. It’s yours. It’s how you connect your local work to a movement that’s reshaping European work culture.

And it’s how operators like you find each other, swap ideas, and remember: collaboration over competition.

The Loyalty You Can’t Buy

Here’s what surprised Szilvia about running a coworking space in a smaller city: the loyalty.

Sixty per cent of her members joined at the beginning two-and-a-half years ago. They’re still there.

In bigger cities, members might have ten coworking options within a 20-minute radius. In Veszprém, there’s Szilvia’s space and... that’s largely it. Limited choice breeds loyalty, yes. But that’s not the full story.

“They really belong,” Szilvia explains. “They really feel like that this way they are part of an additional community in their city, and they really value it.”

In smaller towns, community isn’t strategic. You run into members outside the space. Your kids go to the same school. You shop at the same supermarket. The boundaries between coworking community and actual community blur—and that’s the point.

Bernie connects this to his experience in Vigo versus London. In London, you can be anonymous. In Vigo, everyone knows each other. The coworking space isn’t separate from daily life; it’s woven into it.

This has direct implications for how you operate. Stop trying to compete on amenities or price. You’ll lose to corporate chains. Compete on something corporate spaces can’t replicate: being genuinely embedded in your locality.

Know the surrounding area. Partner with local cafés, libraries, schools. Show up at neighbourhood events. Make your space feel like it grew organically from the community rather than being imposed upon it.

The operators winning in 2026 aren’t running coworking spaces. They’re building infrastructure for local resilience. And loyalty follows.

What Skills Actually Matter

Szilvia learned quickly what freelancing demands: “Creativity. You have to be quite brave. You have to be good in marketing and pretty much in sales, personal branding. Very, very thoughtful on financials.”

Strip away the inspirational talk about freedom and flexibility, and freelancing requires hard commercial skills. You’re selling yourself constantly. You’re managing cash flow through income volatility. You’re building a brand whether you think in those terms or not.

Bernie admits he’s good at everything except the money part—he always needs help with finances. That honesty matters. Most coworking operators are brilliant at community and hospitality. Many struggle with pricing, financial planning, and sales.

But here’s the parallel: running a coworking space requires exactly the same skill set as freelancing. You need creativity to stand out. Courage to make unconventional choices. Marketing to fill your space. Sales to convert enquiries. Financial discipline to survive lean months.

Szilvia’s freelancing journey prepared her for coworking operations. If you’re struggling with any part of your business, look at what successful freelancers do. They niche down. They build personal brands. They focus on outcomes, not hours. They plan financially for volatility.

The operators thriving in 2026 stopped thinking like landlords and started thinking like freelancers: outcome-focused, community-driven, financially resilient, and brave enough to do things differently.

Links & Resources

Szilvia Filep’s Work

* Szilvia Filep on LinkedIn

* Coworking Hungary

* KATEDRA Coworking Veszprém

* FreelancerBlog is building the Hungarian freelancer ecosystem.

* Coworking Europe 2026 Paris

Projects & Community 2026

* Coworking Operators Weekend Feb 6th

* Unreasonable Connection Live! London Coworking Assembly Forum Feb 24th

* Workspace Design Show London 25th / 26th Feb

* Coworking Alliance Summit 4th March

* RGCS Symposium Berlin 5th and 6th March

* European Coworking Day: 6th May

* London Coworking Assembly

* European Coworking Assembly

* LinkedIn Coworking Group

Bernie’s Projects

* London Coworking Assembly 5-Day AI Crash Course for Coworking Spaces

* Connect with Bernie on LinkedIn

One More Thing

Coworking brings communities together, helping people find and share their voices.

Each episode of the Coworking Values Podcast explores Accessibility, Community, Openness, Collaboration, and Sustainability—values that shape the spaces where we gather, work, and grow.

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