I ride my bike to betahaus between 9 and 10 am in the morning, sit down in front of my laptop and „go“ to work. Pretty glamorous, isn’t it? My creative process? I’m talking to myself on the computer. Asking myself questions. „Why is the protagonist funny?“ - and answer them. „He thinks he’s smart while being a complete idiot. … He’s not funny, he’s like me."
All the parts.
I don’t. Still, I’m a social animal and go for lunch with my fellow coworkers. Sometimes I do a little market research and ask them about ideas of mine.
I wrote my novel „Romance for beginners“ in betahaus. It brought out my romantic side … just kidding. Has betahaus inspired me? You bet. Just the other day I was pitching a story to a production company about betahaus. My idea: a young hotshot working in betahaus gets involved with the German industrial military complex. He tries to sell them his brilliant software for operating drones. Of course you know how the poor guy ends up. Pretty dead, you’re damn right. It’s just fiction but still: It should be a warning for all of us!
We'll leave that to the imagination of the reader.
betahaus is a supercool place, no question about that! You might not always find a table with stable legs in this place, but you definitely find the coolest people on earth. I probably never belonged to this group, but I learned from the best. I even bought a beanie the other day!
“ You might not always find a table with stable legs in this place, but you definitely find the coolest people on earth”
I really love betahaus and its spirit. I really do! The thing I love the most: the TOURISTS. The hoards of Japanese, Scandinavian and South European tourist groups that are led through the house, staring right at my face watching me curiously while I try to come up with the best line of my career. Seriously, it doesn’t bother me, I only wish they didn’t throw bananas.
Wanna meet the novelist? Ron has had a 12-Day/Month membership for the last seven years. Catch him on one of those days and he'll be happy to share a coffee and a story with you. Just make sure to not mention bananas.
In the summer, we launched a couple of new events in Neukölln like Freelancers, Unite!, The Backyard Sessions and My friend’s BBQ.
Freelancers, Unite! developed as our productive coworking session with freelancers from in and outside the ‘haus. Once a month, we picked an important freelance topic (such as taxes, time-management, etc) and invited experts to give us insights on the topic. We saw so many new faces and had the chance to come back closer to where we started from - the freelance, grassroots culture.
Another event, which started in July (and turned out to be our favourite events) were The Backyard Sessions. Organised by our queen of Neukölln - Robbin – the Backyard Sessions are our creative evenings with live music jams, movie screenings and cocktails.
This last event was hilarious because for quite some time, nobody knew exactly who organised it or invited them. The friend was throwing a BBQ for the community in the garden and this led to all our members joining and staying after for a beer or two with us.
‘’My favourite moment this year was the second friends bbq which was actually cancelled because of the rain forecast. But despite the bad weather, people show up and it turned into a super nice intimate evening with Elizaveta and Paul giving a garden concert.’’ - Robbin (Community Manager, betahaus)
''In July, it was great how the casual after-work BBQ turned into an impromptu acoustic blues jam session with Elizavetta Barsegova and Paul, who have the voice of an angel. Actually, all of the My Friend's BBQ's and Backyard Sessions were AWESOME.’’ - Paige (Head of Marketing, betahaus)
This year we released a new event format in Kreuzberg called ‘’The betaSalon’’. It's an open panel discussion which aims to give stage to important topics and give free speech on them. The fist one we did on the EU elections, last month we talked about changemakers, but our favourite one for this season stays ‘’Mother + Founder’’ where we partnered with FemGems podcast and recorded a live podcast episode for them having Madeleine Gummer von Mohl (betahaus co-founder), Kristine Zeller (co-creater of ooshi period underwear) and Luisa Hoffman on the stage.
Every September, our co-founders take part in the Techfestival. in Copenhagen, spending a few days disconnecting from the daily life and focusing on creating a better, more human-centered tech future. This year the think tank which included our co-founders Madeleine and Max came up with the TechPledge. The Tech Pledge was made to emphasize the need for a new direction in tech. Similar to the Hippocratic oath for doctors, the Tech Pledge is a promise to make tech a force for good and ensure responsible and sustainable tech leadership. It’s a commitment to driving a new direction in technology.
One of the most exciting projects for betahausX this year (which is also continuing in 2020) is their new startup challenge called The Werder Lab - a global startup competition that aims to reimagine the way clubs like Werder work with athletes, fans and partners.
This year couldn’t end without us having our favourite events - the end-of-the-year holiday party and the BETAPITCH Global Finals. On the 6th of December we saw the 9 finalists of the regional BETAPITCH competitions pitching in front of our jury. Congrats to Troy from Hamburg for winning the big prize.
We finished the year at our Holiday Party celebrating anything and everything at betahaus | Neukölln together with our members, friends of friends and our favourite artists from Passiflora LIVE, Tapete and Kotoe.
Thank you for being with us in 2019. It's been a crazy big year for us and it wouldn't been possible without your support, trust and the hard work of our amazing team. Have an amazing holiday time and we'll see you again in 2020.
With love,
betahaus