The importance of a community builder: This is how Laura Ocampo lives it

Vietnam, Cambodia, Lebanon… If we have someone with a bold and adventurous personality in CREC team, that is Laura Ocampo. When a coworker couldn’t find her in none of the spaces, that’s because she is travelling all around the world with her bag and her camera: “People say that I am the most international community builder because I speak in many languages: Catalan, Spanish, English, French, a little of Italian and a bit of Hebrew to talk with more people and discover new cultures”.

Despite she studied industrial design, she started to feel seduced by graphic design, marketing, communication… And specially, with the possibility to reinvent herself: “When I came to CREC, I loved a lot the idea of coworking as a new system. Now, I work trying to meet new coworkers. For that reason, I enjoy a lot when I book a date with a potential coworker in one of our spaces, I give him a good tour and I explain that we are not only a coworking space: we do coworking”, tells Laura.

Pictures of Vera García

“CREC Sabadell release will be a nice moment to grow up and reach new objectives”

But apart from hard work to ensure a nice environment every day, Laura focus on the future: “With Carles López, Director of CREC Coworking, we are defining a new strategy to see where we want to arrive and how we want to be in a near future. CREC Sabadell release will be a nice moment to grow up and reach new more ambitious objectives”.

However, sometimes this potential coworkers visit CREC without a basic knowledge about the role of a community builder. Then, Laura always says the same words: “My work is like the famous Nokia commercial: “Connecting people!”, jokes. For her, the community builder is the person who knows the project of every coworker and create new links between all our professional community: “We are aware of every need in relation to the space, project development… And we are always here to give personal help. Usually, when you work hard, you live sad and stressful moments… So community builders are always there to hear and try to give a good solution to every problem”.

“The best of my job is to connect our coworkers and see how their projects rise together”

And if something works well, mixing personal and professional features are our links between coworkers due to CREC Connect. The moment to find common points and personalities which could fit well together is the best one for Laura in his routine: “When a coworker comes and expose a concrete need, it’s so nice to think immediately in someone and see how they create a collaboration. And it’s also so satisfactory to connect coworkers with ex-coworkers. Recently, Ruby Cup girls needed a “B2B” professional, and I thaught about an ex-coworker. Now, they are all working together”, highlights.

Obviously, every community builders lives incredible stories working with people day by day: “Few weeks ago, when I was having a tour with a potential coworker, I saw a girl who started that morning in Poble Sec. She was Wara Revollo, of Taula per a Mèxic, one of my classmates in my school. And she came to CREC Eixample by chance! The funniest thing of this story is that, previously, I lived the same with Gemma Beltran, of Quality of Family Life. Now, we are all sharing this space like in our scholar period. Working every day with people brings to you wonderful and unexpected moments”.

Another anecdote that she specially reminds passed when she and Carmina Banchs, also community builder of CREC, proved that they have an infallible intuition creating connections: “Both, we commented that we could connect two Norwegian coworkers. Anders Orset was working in CREC for some months and Dario Chincha was doing his trial week. Then, when Carmina and I were talking in Sala B of Poble Sec about how to connect them, we saw them walking together. They meet casually in the kitchen! When we explained the story to Anders and Dario, we started to laugh. Now, they have a Whatsapp conversation with two more coworkers… And they collaborate in a professional way. Connections like that make my job more special”, stands out.

“From CREC, I highlight all the amazing projects, talent and careers of our coworkers”

For Laura Ocampo, people of CREC community are the most important value: “From CREC, I highlight all the amazing projects, talent and careers of our coworkers. It’s a fantastic networking for me, and there’s nothing more important than this, in my opinion. Working day by day with these people makes me evolve as a person”, concludes.