Bansko Nomad Fest aims to attract digital nomads to Bulgaria this summer

This summer, Coworking Bansko aims to attract digital nomads and location independent professionals for a week-long conference in Bansko, Bulgaria – The Bansko Nomad Fest from June 29 till July 5

Matthias Zeitler is a partner at Coworking Bansko, a home for people that rather work together than alone in the amazing Pirin mountains in Bulgaria. He is also working on some moonshot ideas like building a 10,000m2 office park in Bansko to attract (foreign) companies to open an office there with zero local demand.

Initially, the goal was to bring 500 people together, but with COVID-19 disrupting everyone’s travel plans this year’s event will be much more cosy with about 80 attendees. The smaller size is a great opportunity to make deep connections and a test run for next year’s larger event.

🎟  Get a Last-Minute ticket for only €69 – use code “TravelMassive” for an additional 10% discount.

Why is Bulgaria a good place for digital nomads?

Me and Uwe, the founders of Coworking Bansko, were looking for a base that would have low taxation, affordable cost of living, a great climate and lots of fun stuff to do – inside the EU.

Bulgaria checked all the boxes and we decided to settle in Bansko, one of the best Bulgarian mountain resorts year-round. This was about 3 years ago and in the meantime other digital nomads have moved to Bansko as well for the same reasons.

Tell us more about Bansko Nomad Fest?

The Bansko Nomad Fest will celebrate the nomad lifestyle. We have invited over amazing speakers, will organize a lot of activities to enjoy the mountains and all participants will have the opportunity to share their passion.

We basically turn all of Bansko into a nomad playground for a week and look forward to meeting lots of old friends and to make new connections.

What inspired you to organise this conference?

We are attending a lot of nomad events and conferences to make connections and learn. All events are different but one format that we really enjoyed was a week-long takeover of a small rural spot in Spain with a few hundred nomads a few years ago.

A great atmosphere to be among so many like-minded people and enjoy a range of different activities, but the infrastructure there failed, with the next town about 30 minutes away: not enough food, bad internet, lack of facilities, difficult to get there and lots of rain made it uncomfortable for people sleeping in tents instead of proper beds.

So we thought: Bansko would be a great place for an event like this with all the infrastructure available to us here – super fast internet, lots of affordable accommodation options, tasty restaurants and a supportive ecosystem through the Coworking Space.

So we decided to invite a lot of nomads to come to us for a week and have a unique experience together.

What are your personal highlights at the event?

Seeing our list of speakers and diverse topics should be exciting. But what I personally expect to be the highlight is our Bansko Magic to bring people together. After the lockdown ended a lot of people were scared and depressed. Now is the time to make new connections and celebrate opportunities together.

We have many activities planned that will make it super easy to connect with people. And one of our partners, Nomad Soulmates, will organize some speed dating sessions that could have a lasting impact on people’s lives. Finding travel buddies, making a casual connection or finding their soulmates.

What health and safety measures will you be taking at the event?

Bulgaria has been very lucky to lockdown the country early to prevent the spread of COVID-19, including a 2-week quarantine of the whole town of Bansko in March. The result is that Bulgaria had very few infections compared to other European countries.

For several weeks now, the various restrictions are being lifted and the country is dealing very well with it. Since June 15th only some social distancing, some travel and some hygiene restrictions are left in place which we will follow strictly. Bulgaria still has a travel ban for countries that are hard hit by corona to prevent importing cases though (UK, Sweden, Spain, Belgium).

Bansko Nomad Fest is mostly an outdoors event in summer weather. For the presentations that will be indoors, the capacity of the venue is several times bigger and we will leave seats between attendees empty.

There will also be increased cleaning and sanitation in place to prevent any spreading through high-touch surfaces. We’ll ask any attendees that have any respiratory symptoms to be responsible enough to stay away from the event.

Why should digital nomads join Bansko Nomad Fest?

I see a lot of my nomadic friends and our speakers asking on their Facebook profiles: “Who is coming to Bansko Nomad Fest?” And then there are lots of their friends commenting that they either already registered or in the planning stages.

To me, it seems the question should be: “Who is not coming to Bansko this summer?” as this is the event where everyone will be this year.

– Thanks, Matthias, for the insights! See in Bansko.

🎟  Get a Last-Minute ticket for only €69 – use code “TravelMassive” for an additional 10% discount.

Connect with Matthias on Travel Massive and learn more about The Bansko Nomad Fest.