When I found out about the Hubs Alliance program in a “café a la fresca”, I thought: What a great opportunity to grow and enrich myself with the way of doing of other professionals from different places!
When you share with people from different spaces, nationalities, cultures, you have the opportunity to take your eyes out of your navel and open yourself to the world that opens up in front of you.
My creative mind and my ability to build relationships were the perfect ingredients to embark on this new adventure.
Decided, I look for the best dates, I ask Benjamin from The Living Room Coworking to open the doors of his space and, upon receiving his favorable response, I set the course and, go ahead!
The first thing, thinking about going to Malaga, which is such a touristic city, was to get a flight at a good price. And, next, accommodation. Malaga is a city with a great climate all year round, so it receives many people who are looking to relax in good weather.
Even so, I got the last remaining room in a hostel very well located and communicated in the Pedregal area, near El Palo.
I arrived in the afternoon. Between settling in and getting settled I wasable to watch the sunset. My first sunset on the Costa del Sol.
The next morning I headed to TLR Coworking. I was welcomed by Valeria, a lovely woman who showed me around the facilities, explained how they work in this space and showed me a mural where I could see everyone who is part of the TLR community, what they do and what they like. Later came Ben, the soul of TLR. We were able to chat, get to know each otherbetter and immediately they proposed me to participate in the event theywere having that afternoon where they were introducing all the newmembers that were joining the coworking that month of October. It was a very nice event on the terrace where I was able to get to know some of the members.
Some of the people there were immediately interested in getting to know me better, as they told me inspiring stories about their lives, their travels and how they had come to Malaga.
We shared meals and coffees. On one of those occasions, upondiscovering that I had been a hairdresser for many years, even though Iam now an emotional and laughter coach, Ben asked me a question abouthis hair, or rather, he asked me for advice. My answer, instead of having astylist's perspective I had a totally emotional one. This pleased andsurprised him so much that he came up with a brilliant idea. We offered tothe TLR community that whoever wanted could have a coffee with me todo some mini emotional counseling. This resulted in several meetings where we could share and even inspire each other.
I discovered very diverse people: artists, entrepreneurs, freelance teachers, yoga teachers, people with very technical and important jobs...
The last day was especially interesting because there was in the city ofMalaga a meeting and a conference where people from different creative spaces met. This meant that throughout the morning we received many visitors to get to know the space, so I was able to meet even more people. People who know very well the creative spaces and have very clear the idea of community and they told me how are their spaces in their cities. I was also able to share with them the things I like and value about my home space: Espacio Arroelo, in Pontevedra.
There are people with whom I am still in contact. Some of them throughsocial networks, because I am very interested in what they do and itinspires me to see them. With others I maintain a more direct contact by phone.
I have felt very welcome and very comfortable in The Living Room Coworking, I can say that I felt at home. Benjamin and Valeria are greathosts. They even made me discover a new way of making coffee and one of the best coffees I have ever tasted.
In conclusion, I think that if the Hubs Alliance improves the way of managing payments, justifications and all the bureaucracy, which overwhelmed me and caused me several problems, I would like to be able to repeat on the part of creative growth.
Baia Fernández de la Torre
