Meeting#
The conference lasted the entire weekend (November 18-19, 2023), but due to time constraints, I only attended the activities on Sunday. The activities of the day included:
Booths for digital nomads (pictured is Da Hui, founder of Dian Ya)
Debate on the theme of digital nomads
Sharing of digital nomads about their own nomadic work and life (pictured is Ying Ka, her experience illustrates well the idea of traveling on non-holidays to meet people who also "don't have to work in an office" and know how to "make money while lying down")
Guest roundtable
Discussion among participants
Overall, the schedule was very tight, with a lot of information packed in. My brain was constantly under high load. 😄
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 house suitable for multiple people to live in, and then sublet it. Compared to regular shared rentals, "Our Living Room" has a larger living room/common space. The founder's vision is to create this common space as a living room similar to "Friends", as well as a co-living space for digital nomads and a hub for regular sharing activities.
For most people in China and the Chinese community, the concept of digital nomads is still very new, and many people, like me, are still observing from the outside. It is true that there are already mature digital nomad bases in places like Dali, Anji, and Hainan, but it is relatively expensive for the average worker to go to these places to see the lifestyle of digital nomads. 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 see the lives of tenants who are already digital nomads and experience the co-living lifestyle. Even if you don't move in, you can have a general understanding of co-living spaces by participating in daily sharing activities.
Currently, "Our Living Room" is part of the 706 Youth Space Program, starting from China (Beijing/Shanghai/Shenzhen) and gradually expanding to major cities around the world (Toronto/Tokyo/Paris, etc.).
Blue Clothes and Youzhao#
eli5: China's Upwork, a remote on-demand hiring platform
In addition to basic job posting and application functions, Youzhao focuses on personal IP and influence building, aiming to reduce the need for repetitive proof of capabilities such as memorizing interview answers and solving problems. Users can build their own communities on Youzhao to expand their influence and monetize their knowledge. Novices who have just become freelancers can enter the industry faster by joining the communities of "experts".
The founder, Blue Clothes, has worked in several top internet companies, but he has always been rebellious and wanted to break free and create something on his own. After leaving Baidu, he spent about half a year independently developing a small product, but he was not satisfied with the final result. He realized the limitations of working alone and understood that quitting a job without proper preparation only adds to anxiety. When he left a big company for the second time, he already had a clear product idea (Youzhao) and had gone through initial validation.
According to Blue Clothes, all the full-time workers at Youzhao have been in a "no salary" state from the beginning until now. I really admire their passion and determination. The first version of Youzhao has already been launched, and I hope they can achieve success.
Consensus#
Based on conversations with guests and registered participants from multiple digital nomad conferences, I believe that the following consensus has been reached subconsciously:
- Work Organization: There will be more and more self-employed workers in the future, and they will not work alone but cooperate in new forms that are not employment or cooperative societies.
- Social Life: Living alone or in regular shared rentals can be lonely, but with a decrease in the desire for marriage and childbirth, more young people will start to explore co-living with more shared living spaces.
- Building Resilience: Awakening to the importance of accumulating "resources" that can still be useful even after leaving a platform.
- Non-traditional communities will play a larger economic role. In fact, we can already see the beginnings of this trend, with various atypical game and social organizations charging high fees.
In my opinion, these consensuses may not only apply to digital nomads but also to the general population in the future.
Hopes#
- There were a lot of valuable insights shared during this event, and the speakers were great, but many of the sessions were parallel and not recorded, which forced me to miss out on a lot of information. The online live streaming was also not satisfactory. I hope that future digital nomad conferences can be better 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. There may be some good options in places like Dali and Hangzhou Liangzhu, where digital nomads gather, but these places are far from the city center, making it difficult for many non-locals to access them.
- Towards the end of the conference, I happened to meet a representative from Brix Labs doing promotion. I had seen their job postings on LinkedIn before, and I thought they were specifically recruiting for web3/crypto-related jobs (similar to CryptoHire), so I didn't pay much attention. But when the presenter talked about it on-site, it seemed like a Chinese version of Deel + RippleMatch. After looking at their shared Feishu documents and knowledge base, I found them to be well done and suitable for newcomers to the digital nomad community. I am happy to see more organizations in China that make it possible for digital nomads.
- In addition to industry diversity, I hope that future conferences can invite speakers based on functional divisions. For example, based on the following common functional categories, most of the speakers at this conference seemed to be in sales and operations, with fewer representatives from other functions:
- Sales: including Little Red Book bloggers, travel hosts, insurance intermediaries, live stream sales, cross-border SOHO
- Operations: including community hosts, account operations, community operations
- 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 by RW Lab on WeChat. Initially, it was mentioned that there would be a week-long digital nomad summit in Dali in mid-November. Dali is the best place for digital nomad development in China, and I have always wanted to go, but I didn't have the time (annual leave). Also, there were some family matters at home (Guangzhou), so at that time, I just wanted to watch the event online.
Unexpectedly, the event was not allowed to be held in Dali, and it was moved to Guangzhou. Furthermore, the United Front Work Department of Guangzhou unexpectedly became the organizer, and Guangzhou Daily even highlighted the event. I am very pleased to see the support of the local government for digital nomads and freelancers. I am even more fortunate to be able to attend this event in person (even though it was due to the organizer's misfortune).