The Digital Nomad Life: Combining Work and Travel
Lead photo: A workshop at the home base in Medellín, Colombia, of Unsettled, a start-up that organizes 30-day co-working experiences around the world for creative people, entrepreneurs and other professionals. Credit: Juan Arredondo for The New York Times
On a recent afternoon in Medellín, Colombia, a group of 22 out-of-towners gathered to brainstorm and then met up with locals.
They weren’t on vacation. Nor had they met by coincidence. They were participants in a program run by Unsettled, a new start-up that organizes 30-day co-working experiences around the world for creative people, entrepreneurs and other professionals seeking to combine work, travel and redefining themselves living the Digital Nomad Life.
The company is one of dozens of new work-tourism programs that aim to help workers known as digital nomads navigate living and working in far-off places.
“If we could be somewhere, experiencing the world in a beautiful setting while working, challenging ourselves, growing professionally, enjoying a community of like-minded people and connecting locally, what’s stopping us?” said Michael Youngblood, 32, who founded Unsettled with another digital nomad, Jonathan Kalan, 29.
The name Unsettled “is about turning something perceived as a negative into a positive,” Mr. Kalan said. “Everybody feels unsettled at some point. If you’re unsettled by a 9-to-5 job, then why not embrace the uncertainty?”
The concept resonated with Stacey Chassoulas, a digital marketer from Johannesburg. She joined Unsettled’s program in Buenos Aires last fall “to change the rhythms of daily life” and test the waters of remote work with her partner, Tyrone Niland. Both are 36 and love to travel, but wanted to keep their jobs and home.
“I wanted to see if it was a lifestyle that would mesh with the corporate world,” said Mr. Niland, a partner at Bramel Business Solutions, a small private equity advisory firm.
Participants at the Unsettled workshop in Colombia were asked to write what they would like to accomplish and what they would like to give the community on their 30-day visit.
Credit: Juan Arredondo for The New York Times