Fahad Bin Husne Ali has been a Seats2meet ambassador already for a very long time. Recently he decided to open his own Seats2meet location and a Permanent Future Lab in Bangladesh, and now he is going to tell us all about it.
Hi Fahad, could you please introduce yourself?
Hi! My name is Fahad Bin Husne Ali and “SHUVO” is my nickname. Shuvo means happy/good/funny in Bengali, and that’s who I am.
I live in Bangladesh. According to “official” statistics, it is one of the least innovative countries. Unofficially we are very innovative if you define innovation by improving every day. I am a backpacker and I write my budget travel stories on my blog website.
Why did you decide to become a powered by Seats2meet location?
I am an initiator of an open source technology/knowledge sharing movement called Permanent Future Lab. I have been working with many different people, with kids and students as well. We are working in schools’ and the science clubs’ locations and we have always been feeling the need for our own location. Seats2meet is a platform and ecosystem we needed for a very long time.
I have a love-hate relationship with my country. On the one hand, I don’t want to live here but on the other, I also don’t want to leave my fellow countrymen like this. I want to make a change. That is why I am trying to facilitate social and technological development of my country and I believe Seats2meet can help us with this.
I decided to start small. Currently, I am implementing S2m system here, in my village. For now, I want each of my friends to connect to S2m network, so they can learn from each other and help each other in doing what they love.
I hope, later on, we will be able to scale up and bring connectivity and serendipity to other areas of Bangladesh as well!
Could you tell us a little bit more about the Permanent Future Lab?
Permanent Future Lab is a small physical location in the style of a simplified lab (or geeky garage), where you can meet people passionate about new knowledge and technology. In the PFLab, you can also participate in talks and events about tech or even organize your own. The concept of PFLab is adopted internationally, so we are happy to be a part of the co-creation of the future by having this little tech hub at our location as well.
What is the vision of your location?
This will be the first co-working in a rural area of Bangladesh. All the co-working (still not so many in Bangladesh) focus on an old outdated method of leading business while Seats2meet is focusing on creating entrepreneurs instead of just offering an office environment.
The vision of my location is to create and to find new entrepreneurs and connect them together to create an impact and encourage entrepreneurship in my country.
What kind of atmosphere can visitors expect from your location(s)?
Well, you cannot really expect an atmosphere like every S2m location in the Netherland has. Yet we do provide a nice-looking office environment with basic facilities you may need for presentations and co-working (like projectors, etc).
Taking that this location is in the rural area of Bangladesh, one of the best facilities we provide is a generator to create electricity from an alternative power supply (usually we only get 10 out of 24 hours of electricity and it can go off anytime).
How can people book a spot at your location?
It will be soon possible through Seats2meet website, also we are going to open a location Facebook group and Facebook page, so people will be able to book spots or send requests through Facebook as well.
List a couple of interesting facts about your location(s).
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Our location is in one of the least innovative villages in the world. We don’t have electricity in many houses here. We will be working as a rural development movement as well as a first co-working location in the area.
Thank you, Fahad! We wish you best of luck with your location in Bangladesh!
