Encounter#
The conference lasted the entire weekend (November 18th - 19th, 2023), but due to time constraints, I only attended the activities on Sunday. The activities of the day included:
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A booth for digital nomads (pictured is Dahui, the founder of Electric Duck)
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A debate centered around the theme of digital nomads
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Sharing sessions by digital nomads about their own experiences (pictured is Inka, whose sharing experience effectively illustrates the benefits of traveling during non-holiday periods and meeting other "non-office workers" who know how to "make money while lying down")
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Guest roundtable discussions
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Discussions among the attendees
Overall, the schedule was very tight, with a large amount of information packed into the sessions. My brain was constantly in a high-load state. 😄
Sharing#
Our Living Room & 706#
ELI5: "Our Living Room" is a high-end subletting project.
As the leading host(s), they would first rent a suitable house for multiple people to live in, and then sublet it. Compared to regular shared rentals, "Our Living Room" would have a larger living room/common space. The founder's vision is to create a living room similar to "Friends" and also serve as a co-living space for digital nomads and a hub for regular sharing activities.
The concept of digital nomads is still relatively new for most people in China and the Chinese community. Many people, like me, are still observing from the outside. Although there are already mature digital nomad bases in China, such as Dali, Anji, and Hainan, visiting these places to see the lifestyle of digital nomads is relatively expensive for ordinary workers. Our Living Room provides a stepping stone in cities where workers gather; even if you haven't become a digital nomad, you can still live in Our Living Room to experience the lives of tenants who are already digital nomads and experience the co-living lifestyle. Even if you don't move in, you can still gain a general understanding of co-living spaces by participating in daily sharing activities.
Currently, as part of the 706 Youth Space Plan, "Our Living Room" is starting in China (Beijing/Shanghai/Shenzhen) and gradually expanding to major cities worldwide (Toronto/Tokyo/Paris, etc.).
Blue Clothes and Youzha#
ELI5: China's version of Upwork, a remote on-demand hiring platform
In addition to basic job postings and applications, Youzha focuses on personal IP and influence building, aiming to reduce the need for repetitive proof of capabilities such as memorizing scripts and solving problems. Users can build their own communities on Youzha to expand their influence and monetize their knowledge. Newcomers to freelancing can quickly enter the field by joining the communities of "experts."
The founder, Blue Clothes, has worked in several top internet companies but has always been rebellious and wanted to break free and create something of his own. After leaving Baidu, he spent about half a year independently developing a small product but was ultimately unsatisfied with the result. He realized the limitations of working alone and understood that quitting without proper preparation only added to the anxiety. When he left the big company for the second time, he already had a clear product idea (Youzha) and had gone through preliminary validation.
According to Blue Clothes, all the full-time workers at Youzha have been working without pay from the beginning until now. I truly admire their passion and determination. The first version of Youzha has already been launched, and I hope they achieve success.
Consensus#
Based on conversations with guests and attendees of multiple digital nomad conferences, I believe that there is an underlying consensus among everyone:
- Work Organization: There will be an increasing number of self-employed workers in the future, and they will not work alone but rather collaborate in new forms of non-employment and non-cooperative societies.
- Social Life: Living alone or in regular shared rentals can be lonely, but as the desire for marriage and childbirth decreases, more young people will try co-living with more shared living spaces.
- Building Transferable Skills: The awakening to the importance of accumulating "resources" that can still be utilized even after leaving a platform.
- Non-traditional forms of communities will become more prevalent and have a greater economic impact. In fact, we can already see the beginnings of this trend, with the organization of various atypical game social events that require a significant fee.
In my opinion, these consensuses may not only apply to digital nomads but also to the general population in the future.
Expectations#
- There were many valuable insights shared during this event, and the guest speakers were impressive. However, many of the sessions were held simultaneously and were not recorded, which resulted in missing out on a lot of information. The online live streaming also left something to be desired. I hope that future digital nomad conferences can be more reasonably organized.
- Through conversations with many participants, it is generally believed that it is difficult to find co-working spaces in Guangzhou that have stable internet, provide small meeting rooms, and discussion spaces. Perhaps there are some good options in digital nomad hubs like Dali and Hangzhou Liangzhu, but these places are relatively far from the city center, making it difficult for many non-local nomads to access.
- Towards the end of the conference, I happened to come across a representative from Brix Labs doing promotion. I had previously seen their job postings on LinkedIn, which were mostly related to blockchain (similar to CryptoHire), so I didn't pay much attention. However, listening to the presenter on-site, it seemed like a Chinese version of Deel + RippleMatch. After looking at their shared Feishu documents and knowledge base, I found them well-suited for newcomers to the digital nomad lifestyle. I am happy to see more organizations in China that make the digital nomad lifestyle possible.
- In addition to industry diversity, I hope that future conferences can invite speakers based on functional roles. For example, based on common functional classifications, most of the speakers at this conference seemed to be in sales and operations, with fewer representatives from other roles:
- Sales: including Xiaohongshu bloggers, travel hosts, insurance intermediaries, live streaming sales, cross-border SOHO
- Operations: including community hosts, account managers, community managers
- Marketing
- Human Resources
- Customer Service
- Legal and Compliance
- Finance & Analyst
- R&D: Engineering, Product Design, UI/UX, Research
Afterword#
I learned that the opportunity for this event came from an article published by RW Lab on their WeChat official account. Initially, it was announced that there would be a week-long digital nomad summit in Dali in mid-November. As Dali is the best place for digital nomad development in China, I had always wanted to go but couldn't due to lack of time (annual leave). Additionally, I had personal matters at home (Guangzhou), so I thought I could only watch online.
Unexpectedly, the event was not allowed to be held in Dali, so it was moved to Guangzhou, and the Guangzhou United Front Work Department even became one of the organizers. Guangzhou Daily also highlighted this event. I am delighted to see the support of local governments for digital nomads and freelancers, and I am even more fortunate to be able to attend this event in person (despite the change in organizers).