What a weird time to live and work – on one hand, we are facing a historical moment struggling with the pandemic but on the other, we are witnessing the new normal which, among other things, also changed our way of understanding work.
I am super excited to see people turning more to jobs that do not have a fixed schedule, fixed location or fixed employer. This is opening so many opportunities to work from anywhere in the world and gives a new meaning to the word independent.
Remote work is nothing new, but the pandemic and “forced” home offices just speed up this trend where people who never before considered it, are now aware that a lot more jobs can be done remotely and that modern technologies (most of the time it is still just good internet and a laptop ) are enabling us to chose the place of work.
Ok, so my friend works in a bank and for the last year and a half her office is here room because of covid restrictions – she needs a laptop, good internet and a comfy chair. Well, that means she can grab her laptop and go. Where? Anywhere… to a coworking space, to her vacation house, to an Airbnb or a hotel somewhere in Europe… or dare I say, the world.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the way of becoming a remote worker, digital nomad or ex-pat 🙂 Sounds fun right? Ok, now let s talk about the “how to stay” one. Obviously, you have to have a steady income, but everything else depends on you and how you going to plan your life. As locals we can help at least with making you feel welcome because maybe that will make you like your lifestyle even more.
Imagine yourself living and working in a foreign country – you are not a tourist but you are not a local – so what do you need – a community made out of locals and other remote workers with who you can share interests, hang out, do business or just grab a cup of coffee (or beer) after work.
Personally, I think Croatia is doing a very good job so if you find yourself in Croatia in 2022 this is what you can expect:
- weDNesday – Wednesday is becoming a day for digital nomad hangouts. It will start on the 16th of February in Zagreb, Split, Rijeka, Dubrovnik, Zadar and hopefully, by the end of the year it will spread nationwide: DIGITAL NOMAD ASSOCIATION CROATIA
- NomadTable – Eat, drink and meet new friends – every Friday in Split: DIGITAL NOMAD SPLIT
- Digital Nomad Valley Zadar – first Croatian DN Community located at beachfront resort: WORK REMOTELY CROATIA
- Cromads Travel Club – Every month there’s going to be activities and tours that will give you an opportunity to discover Croatia, meet new friends and get insight from locals.
CROAMADS TRAVEL CLUB & CROMADS UNIQUE CROATIAN EXPERIENCES
- NomadBase in May – a global community of creatives, entrepreneurs and remote working professionals who meet in beautiful places, collaborate and support each other and they have chosen Croatia for 2022:
NOMADBASE
- Digital Nomad Week in Zagreb in June – a vol2 of the very successful Zagreb Digital Nomad Week 2021, followed by the Digital Nomad Ambassador program and Zagreb Digital Nomad Wrap Up event:
ZAGREB DIGITAL NOMAD WEEK & ZAGREB JOLLY WRAP UP
- So much much more…so stay tuned
Be sure, this did not just happen overnight – it is a product of enthusiasts who joined to make something bigger and are continuing to spread the knowledge inviting anyone who is willing to join and share ideas to do so asap because the numbers are growing and there is so much more to do.
Shoutout to: Digital Nomad Association, Total Croatia News, Saltwater Nomad, Zagreb Tourist Board, Dubrovnik Tourist Board, Heshta content agency, and so many others who were persistent enough to just say YES ( #whereisdean )