The History of “Live it up, Las Palmas!” – International Community in Gran Canaria

A lot of things happened since I arrived in Gran Canaria in the Summer of 2018 and started to build this amazing international community. I want to share with you the whole story of how we grew and became such an amazing community.

You are all awesome and I’m so grateful for your support and friendship!

• 2018 – July
  After having been a digital nomad for some years (traveling through South East Asia) and having lived in Cambodia for two years, I was looking for a more European destination. I decided to give Las Palmas de Gran Canaria a try for (initially) two months. I fell in love with the city within two weeks.

  

  

  

• 2018 – August
  I joined my first Coffees & Co-Working event and joined every single week after. It was by far the best way to meet new people! A weekly casual co-working and lunch session in bakeries, cafes and hotel restaurants.

  

  

  

• 2018 – November
  The organisers of Coffees & Co-Working were planning to leave the island and asked me to take over. I was a bit hesitant, because I didn’t want to be the face of a meetup, but at the same time I didn’t want the meetups to stop, so I decided to go for it. From that day on, I organised the meetups every week and I discovered that I really enjoyed hosting the meetups and connecting people.

  

  

  

• 2019 – June
  The coffees & co-working meetups were going very well, but I felt there was something missing: a 100% social meetup for every remote worker in the city. Around Summer is when most digital nomads leave the island though (including me in 2019) so I waited a few more months before taking action.

• 2019 – October
  Summer ended, lots of new people arrived, I’m all settled in my new apartment so it was time for the first social meetup at Toma Pan Y Moja.

  

• 2019 – 2020 February
  The first meetup was a big success and after trying several locations, we decide that Malasaña (a burger restaurant at the time) was the best place for the meetups. Unfortunately I was always too busy chatting with everyone, so I don’t have pictures from those meetups. If you have any, please share!

  One night, we were looking for an afterparty and we randomly found Imaginario. Back in 2019 karaoke was organised on Wednesday’s, so it was the perfect place to go to after Malasaña.

  Wednesday was thé day to go out and meet digital nomads. We would be around 50 people every meetup, with most people coming every week. After a while, people would take Thursday’s off to recover from Wednesday night.

  

  

  

  

• 2020 – March
  Everything was going great and then: lockdown. Spain went into a very strict lockdown and we were only allowed to leave our house for grocery shopping. It was announced as a two week restriction, but ofcourse it was obvious from the start that this would go on for months.

  On the first day of lockdown, Nacho Rodriguez (RePeople) asked me to help organise an online community event.

  

• 2020 – April
  During lockdown I lived alone, so I had zero offline social interaction (the lockdown meant you weren’t allowed to leave your house). I needed to connect with people online and I also realised then that I really loved and missed the community. I enjoy bringing people together and I want everyone to enjoy this island as much as I do!

  So I asked community members who would want to help me organise virtual meetups during lockdown. Several people reached out and we had a weekly schedule with yoga, a support group, co-working sessions, creative meetups, karaoke and a social Friday night.

  Looking back, this has been quite a special time, but something I hope we never have to go through again.

  

  

• 2020 – May
  In May everyone was allowed to leave their house again and bars and restaurants were open as well. I organised a dinner for ten people at the terrace of Rockabilly’s and was completely overwhelmed by being surrounded by so many people and so many people talking at the same time. After two months of being locked up alone, I really needed some time to get used to people again. I think we all did.

• 2020 – June
  In June I restarted the community meetups. Malasaña was not interested in hosting us, so the meetup would start directly at Imaginario.

  Ofcourse the meetups were different, with limited capacity and mandatory sitting down, but I still remember the first meetup so clear and it was amazing. For most remote workers this was their first social gathering since they arrived (in May or later) and it made me so happy to instantly see people connect and enjoy themselves.

• 2020 – July
  After four meetups, I had to put the meetups on hold, because of a big increase in positive covid tests and increased restrictions. It didn’t feel right to gather so many international people from all over the world, especially since back then you didn’t have to test to enter a country.

  

• 2020 – October
  After a break of a little over 2 months, I restarted our community meetups in October. With the limited capacity I needed a way to communicate to the community when the bar was full, so they wouldn’t come for nothing. That’s when I created a WhatsApp group.

• 2020 – November
  The WhatsApp group was full within a few weeks so I needed a better solution. On November 23rd I opened a Slack group which right from the start had around 200-300 daily active members.

  It was only then that I realised that in the last two years I had been building towards this point. An international community in Gran Canaria, for everyone. Yes, when I arrived there were already digital nomads here and meetups, but these meetups were usually organised by businesses like co-livings or co-workings. No one was trying to connect everyone and now I can proudly say that, looking back, it has been me.

  

  

  

  

• 2021 – January
  The Slack community grew fast and it bothered me that it was always referred to as the Slack group. We are more than just a Slack group, we are a community! That’s when I decided to brand our community and after some brainstorming I came up with Live it up, Las Palmas!.

  To live it up: ‘To spend one’s time in an extremely enjoyable way, typically by being extravagant or engaging in an exciting social life.’

  

• 2021 – February
  Slack was working well, but we were missing some features, like an event calendar and a way to save important information. I found these features and more in a different platform and moved the community to this new platform, Mighty Networks.

  

  

  

  

  

• 2021 – April
  Putting so much time and energy in the community for free, I got a few too many drinks offered at the meetups! So I opened a BuyMeACoffee account (which is still active), to receive ‘virtual drinks’.

• 2021 – June
  Despite the extra features, the new platform unfortunately never reached the level of engagement like Slack did. So at the end of the month I decided it was time to bring Slack back to life.

  The events calender and the informational content stayed active on Mighty Networks, but all community interaction would be on Slack.

  

  

  

• 2021 – September
  The meetups in Imaginario would be full within minutes and most of the evening I spent sending people home. We just really needed a bigger bar. I spoke with the owner of Bar San Remo (and ofcourse with the owner of Imaginario) and decided to move the main meetup to Bar San Remo and keep a smaller meetup including karaoke at Imaginario.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

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• 2021 – December
  All that time, I was still paying for Mighty Networks and I noticed more and more people would join, but less and less people read the articles or checked the events calendar.

  The pandemic also seemed to start its final fase (fingers crossed) and I realised it’s time the world get’s to know Live it up, Las Palmas!. For that, it’s better to have a public website instead of a private community platform, so behind the screens I started to work on a website.

• 2022 – February
  In February I (soft)launched the website www.liveitup-laspalmas.com and disabled the paid features from Mighty Networks (so I wouldn’t have to pay double). There was still zero monetisation at this time, except the donations from happy community members I would receive every now and then.

  This website is a source of information for everyone who’s on the island or is thinking about coming to the island. It’s also an easy way to find our community online. The Slack is really meant for day to day communication within the community.

  Oh, the new logo was also launched!

  

• 2022 – March
  I believe our community is essential to enjoy the island to the fullest, so this is when I really started to work on getting the word out and make everyone aware of Live it up, Las Palmas!. I also introduced Launchpass, to make the sign up process for Slack easier (and with an invite link that never expires!).

  

• 2022 – November
  In the first half of 2022 I put more energy into organising other events, besides Bar San Remo; boat parties, dinners, lunches, rooftop parties and I brought the coffees & co-working back to life.

  

  

  

  

  Only to realise that this is not the right path for me and it’s taking too much of my energy. So I decided to focus more on building partnerships with local companies, to connect them with our community and also to finally be financially compensated for the thousands of hours I had already put into building our community.
  
  I also decided to put more time into working on our community website; despite it being launched in February, I rarely posted articles and wasn’t sure what direction to go with it.

• 2023 – January
  The owners of Mazu reached out to me, asking for a collaboration and I said yes! Every Wednesday in 2023 I have been hosting this event. Please note that we discontinued this weekly event.

  

• 2023 – July
  In Summer I was one of the speakers at the Nomad City Festival in Gran Canaria. It was amazing to be given the opportunity to speak about our community and spread the love! Sadly the first minute(s) didn’t make it into the recording, but you can watch my talk below.

• 2023 – October
  These days I spend most of my time improving the website; writing new articles, sharing useful information. And ofcourse, I am still very active in Slack and I host our weekly community meetup in Bar San Remo.

• 2024 – February
  On the 26th we reached our 10.000 member mark!

• 2024 – March
  The introduction of Vendor accounts, to sustain the community’s growth and accessibility, as personal donations and affiliate fees alone cannot compensate for the significant time invested in building and managing the community.

Thank You!

Thank you for joining me on this journey through the history of “Live it up, Las Palmas!” From starting small in 2018 to reaching 10,000 members in 2024, together we’ve built an amazing international community in Gran Canaria. Your support, friendship, and enthusiasm have made this possible. As we continue to grow, I’m excited for our future together. If you have any photos or memories to share, send a message via the form below! Here’s to many more years of enjoying life together!