A professional coworking space in Hanoi to be launched

The stylish design to inspire the coworking community

A new working model

Coworking is a style of work that involves a shared working environment, often an office. Unlike in a typical office environment, those coworkers are usually not employed by the same organization. Typically it is attractive to work-at-home professionals, independent contractors, startup groups or people who travel frequently who end up working in relative isolation.

This is also gathering of a group of people who are still working independently, but who share values, and who are interested in the synergy that can happen from working with people who value working in the same place alongside each other.

Statistics from Google show that the worldwide searches for the term 'Coworking' on Google have reached their current peak this March. This figure has climbed by 35 per cent in comparison to the same month in the previous year - and by around 60 per cent compared to two years ago. When looking back at the last five years, the search volume for 'Coworking' has increased six fold in comparison to other queries. The trends enable a general glimpse into the development of the coworking space.

A global coworking survey conducted in 2012 by Deskmag – an online magazine about coworking space – told that 68 per cent of coworkers in the North American had reported they could improve focus while working in coworking spaces, 71 per cent could improve creativity, 62 per cent said they improved standard of work and 64 per cent told to improved ability to hit deadline. These figures explain why coworking space business is rising in the world.

Actually, there have been some companies or teams providing this business model in Hanoi, but they are all coworking-similar models including incubators for startups or coffee shops where people find a table for working or meeting with their partners. Toong makes it different by creating an inspirational working space, coupled with unique facilities including art gallery, bar, games room, mediation room for it’s members to balance their work and life, and interact with each other. At Toong, you can pay for a day or advance for a whole month depending on your own working demands.

A great space for group work.

An exceptional experience

The middle two weeks in August was the trial period at Toong, which drew the attention and received numerous positive feedbacks from many participants.

Dr. Suzette Mitchell, a gender specialist who used to work for UN Women, in a visit to Toong said that she liked Toong's nice, plain yet friendly atmosphere. In addition, she had looked at other coworking spaces online but she chose Toong because it is located in the center of Hanoi, and services & coffee are much nicer than anywhere else she had tried. Sharing the same opinion, Nguyen Duc Son, Founder of Sage Brand Communications Academy, highly appreciated the attention to details in Toong’s interior design and said it is perfectly suitable with entrepreneurs, marketers and independent workers to have a private yet connecting space while working here.

Connecting members through various events

More importantly, coworking space is not only about the physical place, but about establishing the co-working community. That is the reason why Toong has made endless efforts to create and expand its connected community. Do Son Duong, Toong’s founding chairman, is a person rarely talking about himself in the public; therefor, few people know that Duong was responsible for marketing many Hollywood blockbusters in Vietnam including Harry Potter, Quantum of Solace, Fantastic 4, X-men Origins. Later, this young man joined Richard Moore Associates, a New York-based brand consultant agency, and become its CEO in Vietnam. He, together with his associates, participated in big projects including Vietjet Air, Kangaroo, PvcomBank, Thaco. Everyday, he spends time going around, talking and connecting members at Toong’s community.

Despite that Toong has not been officially launched, a number of events on marketing, branding, design, and startups were and are going to be held at Toong. These events have drawn the interest from entrepreneurs, startups, reporters and experienced speakers both locally and internationally.

Most people going to Toong in the past two weeks agreed that the attraction of this model lies in the unique blend of the best of traditional business models to create a new definition of working space.

All will be keystones for Toong, as the first mover, to create a standard of professional coworking space in Hanoi.