Five hundred and fifty people are gathered in a conference hall in Bansko, a ski resort town 150 kilometers southwest of the Bulgarian capital Sofia. This isn’t a day off for HR reps, it’s Nomad Fest, a work gathering for digital nomads, the burgeoning breed of freedom-seeking remote hipster workers who move around the world and work from their laptops, preferably by the beach or from someone promising city center at low prices. Probably the word “Fest” is to make nomads feel at home in what otherwise amounts to a corporate event to hone your skill set.
These digital nomads from 41 countries are said to have escaped the boredom and constraints of corporate life to pursue their technological dreams. But instead of starting their Zoom calls from a beach in Bali or a rooftop bar in Barcelona, where they pay for beer with bitcoins, they’re here to attend conversations about how to be better at their jobs. Not very nomadic so far. Lots of HR so far.
There are 35 million of these digital nomads around the world, a figure expected to reach more than 1 billion by 2035. Two years of closed borders due to Covid and the increase in remote work has significantly increased itchy feet among people under 45, making Nepali the mountain is as viable a workspace as the office desks they have turned their backs on. Spurred on by the pandemic, many newly hatched remote workers have flocked to Lisbon — named the best place in the world to be a digital nomad, according to a recent study by Instant Group (which cited the city’s 7,000 Wi-Fi hotspots as part of the appeal).
Nomad Fest organizer Matthias Zeitler moved to Bansko from Salzburg seven years ago. When he first suggested rural Bulgaria to telecommuting friends, “everyone said you must be completely crazy,” admits the 45-year-old, who runs four coworking spaces (stocked with free coffee and oat milk, naturally) across city. He is determined to turn Bansko into the “nomad capital of the world”, luring remote workers with the promise of low rent (£175 a month or £26,000 to buy a property), a 10 per cent tax rate and the chance to go skiing at lunchtime rest. It seems to be working: the event has grown fivefold since its 2020 launch and sold out.
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