To Celebrate their 5th Birthday Parliament Co-working …

… is doubling their available desks in Hobart, and opening a new co-working space in Ulverstone in partnership with Switch Tasmania.

New desks in Hobart will be available November 6th, with the Ulverstone space opening in early 2018.

5 years ago Hobart locals Dominic Whittle and Andrew Wilson founded Tasmania’s first Co-Working Space on the third floor of the Gibson City Flour Mill Building — a “side project” they called Parliament Co-working.

“We’d been sharing an office at the top of the Mill building. Co-working spaces were starting to pop up in Melbourne and there was this big empty space one floor down with high ceilings and views over the waterfront.” Says Dom and Andrew

“Like all new businesses we had a few wobbles when we first opened up, but a year into things we changed our business structure and member offer, and since then our community has grown to the point where we’ve constantly been at capacity for the past 2 years.”

This growing co-working demand in Hobart follows a work–lifestyle trend occurring nationally and around the world. A recent report in Melbourne found that the co-working industry there has grown by a staggering 960 percent in the past 3 years. (Source: Sydney Morning Herald)

“Hobart is definitely a great city for co-working. Being at capacity for the past 2 years really proved to us that our setup works for the community developing around us. We want to continue to support small businesses so the recent opportunity to grow into a bigger space was perfect timing.”

When the new space opens on November 6th it will double the number of desks Parliament can offer to people interested in Co-Working, plus the addition of extra areas for informal meetings, screen breaks, or socialising with other members.

Parliament’s expansion plans don’t only include Hobart however… “For the past couple of years we’ve been exploring the notion of partnering with businesses in regional areas to take the simple, cost effective and flexible setup we’ve created here in Hobart, statewide.”

Earlier this year the founders had a chance meeting with Daryl Connelly from Switch Tasmania who is based in Ulverstone on the North West Coast.

“Daryl came to us seeking advice on how he could possibly take what we have built here and translate it to Ulverstone through his relationship with the Apex Club. After chatting we recognised that Switch were the type of entity that we were looking to partner with. We bring in everything we’ve learnt in the past 5 years so they can start up and run a co-working space without having to go through the early growing pains we did.”

Switch Tasmania’s Executive Officer, Daryl Connelly, says “Working together in this way, instead of trying to do everything in-house, allows us to remain lean and agile. Of course with collaboration comes diversity, and with diversity comes new ideas and innovation. So in a nutshell, this partnership will allow us to better support startups in north-west Tasmania, while walking the talk and demonstrating exactly the kinds of principles we try and instill in our small business clients”.

Dom and Andrew continue, “What we’ve worked hard to create at Parliament is a space and community that fosters small business growth and sustainability, but in relaxed, productive and social environs. We’re both passionate born and bred Tasmanian’s and at the end of the day being successful for us is being able to help out a mate, or in this case another small business like us, and that’s really at the heart of what we do and what Parliament Co-Working is all about.”
Parliament Co-Working Dom Whittle, Andrew Wilson, Switch Tasmania Daryl Connelly