confluence concept: city hacking through community building
TRANSCRIPT
C O N F L U E N C E . C I T Y
Confluence means to "Flow Together". We are a community ofpeople who want to create, grow and level up every day.
We aim to thrive and build a better city by sharing space withothers who raise our bar - and with whom we can collaborate to
build the next big thing .
“There are four things that need to be in place in order to builda startup scene. The first is a venue that is cheap and central,
where meetups can take place. The second is a monthlyevent where all startups gather. The third is an established
hashtag everyone in the community can use to share photosand event info. And finally, a coworking space that is open
24/7 so that when an outsider lands in the city, they have aplace to go and meet tons of people in the scene.”
D a v i d L u m b i n a r t i c l e a b o u t h o w T y l e r C r o w l e yb u i l t S t a r t u p C o m m u n i t i e s i n L A , L o n d o n a n d
S t o c k h o l m
1. The Lighthouse If you want to meet entrepreneurs, artists, hackers, designers
and makers in KL: where do you go? A physical and virtualspace is needed to bring like-minded individuals together.
Why do some cities which thrive in entrepreneurship more thanothers? Context matters. Our community aims to spread a
growth and creative culture typical from cities like NY and SF.
Why Confluence
2. Thriving Community
3. Engineered Serendipity What if Peter Thiel, Max Levchin and Elon Musk (Paypal) nevermet? As in physics, we will increase the amount of collisions,increasing as well the possibility of successful encounters.
“Silicon valley works because there is such a high densityof people working on start-ups and they are inclined to
help each other. Other tech hubs have this as well but thisis a case of Metcalfe’s law - the utility of a network is
proportional to the square of the number of nodes on thenetwork. Silicon Valley has far more nodes in the network
than anywhere else”
S a m A l t m a n ( Y C o m b i n a t o r ) i n “ W h y S i l i c o n
V a l l e y W o r k s ”
3. Engineering Serendipity
Startup Grind KL: community of 3000+ people in KL.,hosting monthly events. 300 attended Joel Neoh'sevent, out of 500+ subscribed.
TheList.KL: weekly newsletter with curated list ofevents in tech, arts and design. 3000+ readers.
Let's Meetup and Get Things Done: intended tospread the culture of coworking, this community hasgathered 420+ freelancers in only 3 meetups.
Amarit, Hubba ThailandASEAN Coworking
Community
People just need an excuse to get together: so we engineer it, from monthlyevents to online groups and weekly content. It must be constant, sincecommunity building, just like making friends, requires reliability. Examples:
Let's Meetup and GSD Meetup #1
“Community Building is like the Turkey in the Thanksgivingdinner. You know: people get together to eat the Turkey,
but what really matters is what happens around the table”
H u g h M a s o n ( J F D I A s i a , T e c h S t a r t u p s
A c c e l e r a t o r b a s e d i n S i n g a p o r e )
Courageous: in order to level up daily, we embrace vulnerability anddare to fail: which is the only way to grow.
Abundance-Minded: we give more than take. Others success is oursuccess too: which makes us a fearless and open-source crowd.
Enthusiastic: we are full of purpose and that inspires us to create newthings and proactively change the world for better. Everyday.
Diverse: we are different in minds, colors and skills: and we love it.We welcome different - because that allow us to innovate.
Collaborative: we believe in making friends first: building trust.Sharing because we know we can do more and better together.
2. Community. We are...
2. Community of Community Builders:Breaking Walls, Building Bridges
Coming from technology, we see the opportunity of connecting all dots directlywith each other. A distributed network is stronger and more sustainable since it
allows dots to stay connected regardless of a "centralised dot".
It's also about democratising access and opportunity - allowing information toflow faster and interaction to happen freely, on internet-speed.
2. Possible* Community Friends
Wu Han, WebCampKLDesigner Community
Grace, Hub SingaporeGlobal Coworking
Community
Lais, Startup Grind + MaGICFounders Community
Arzumy, CTO KFitCoders Community
Amarit, Hubba ThailandASEAN Coworking
Community
Other Communities
Google Business GroupGoogle Developers Group
Startup MamakMaGIC
* Just friends with whom we have worked before and possibly would jump in.
1. Lighthouse: the spaceAccessible. To be the “go-to-place” for locals and internationals, it must be
central, accessible and easy to reach.
Convenient. Affordable and positive surroundings. Good walk score, foodoptions (cheap and good) and flexible working hours are fundamentals.
Inspiring + Functional. Design matters. The space must educate users onhow to get things done, collaborate and get the best out of it.
.Fast Wifi = OxygenOpen Desks: modular spaces, flexible for events.Kitchen: cozy open space for small gatheringsDens: small private spaces for meetings and conference callsAmenities: writing walls and boards, standing desks. And real good coffee!Good to have: open 24/7
1. Still on the Lighthouse:Ideal Space in a Nutshell
FUNDAMENTALDaylight | High Ceilings | Good Ventilation | Warm Lights | Inspiring Design
Good Service | Caring Staff | Flexible Operating Hours | Safety
FLOOR PLANOpen Spaces | Private Spaces | Smoking Area
Meeting Rooms | Cozy Rooms | Get Things Done Rooms | Chill Out AreaKitchen Facilities (Fridge, Microwave Oven, Stove) | Good Toilets + Shower
POWEREDSuper-Fast WiFi | Abundant Plug Points | AV System | Speakers | WriteableWalls and Boards | Entertainment (Board Games, Videogame KTV, Books)
Free Flow Water | Coffee & Tea | Easy Food | Sweets
C O N F L U E N C E . C I T Y
To build greater things, we must work together. To work together, theremust be trust. To have trust, we get to know each other.
Confluence is to "Flow Together". Our challenge: the “Muddy” side of it.Working together is hard at the start - until we overcome the mud:
getting to know, accept, tolerate and, eventually, care for each other). Trust is fundamental to start flowing again.