A year ago, the Manpower Ministry turned a parking lot in one of its offices in South Jakarta into a start-up development and talent hub, later called the Innovation Room.

Ever since, the 300-square-meter coworking space complete with cozy colorful sofas, a meeting room, a lobby and of course 24-hour internet connection has always been packed with loyal young visitors.

One of these is Crisman Wise Silaban, 27, who appeared to be busy on his laptop on Aug. 13 in the Innovation Room. Not far from him, a group of people were taking part in a workshop held in the middle of the open space area, learning about branding.

“This is not only a workplace for me but a place to develop ourselves and our business,” said Crisman, the CEO of Transfree, a start-up involved in money transfer and remittance, and who is among the young people who benefit from the Innovation Room.

Crisman said he no longer needed to work nomadically from one cafe to another or using National Library space to work. Last year he was among executives of start-ups who were selected to able to work at the Innovation Room for free.

Crimson said the room provided more than just space. “Here, there are also programs for self-development and to promote our business. We are able to network with the government or with friends from other start-ups where we can collaborate. We are also linked to investors,” told Crisman.

Crisman said that since joining the Innovation Room in July 2018, Transfree has seen growth in its business performance with customers now numbering almost 500 people in Europe and Australia with around 400 transactions every month.

Crisman said the Innovation Room also provided easier access to government assistance. For instance, Transfree, through its remittance transfers, can work with people from the Manpower Ministry to get access to Indonesian migrant workers abroad.

Manpower Minister Muhammad Hanif Dhakiri said a total of 30 other start-ups had joined the Innovation Room, including fisheries e-commerce platform Aruna, retail start-up Warung Pintar and geopark tourism start-up Geotour.

During its year of operation, Hanif said the Innovation Room had facilitated start-ups in collaborating with each other while developing their businesses through many programs such as workshops, focus group discussions and assistance to support their business expansion.

“Here, in the Innovation Room, there is a collaborative ecosystem. Thus, between start-ups, they can share information and knowledge, hold workshops together to improve their business. They can also collaborate and develop new ideas together. I don’t think you can find this kind of ecosystem in any other coworking space,” said Hanif.

Talent hub: Start-up workers discuss their work in the Innovation Room managed by the Manpower Ministry in Jakarta on Wednesday. The 300-square-meter coworking space comes complete with cozy sofas, a meeting room, a lobby and 24-hour internet connection. (JP/Rainier Nathaniel)

Anjani Amitya Kirana, who runs the Innovation Room, said new start-ups would join the hub every year. The selected start-ups can join the Innovation Room as In-Wall attendees where they can join the program and use the space for working, or become Out-Wall attendees who join the programs but do not work in the Innovation Room.

However, the selected start-ups must fulfill several requirements. For example, they must have operated for at least a year with a potential income, have a specific business model that can provide employment, a plan for expanding employment opportunities and equity and have conducted market research and presented the results as a reference for planning.

“That’s why most start-ups which join the Innovation Room are already running their business but want to expand,” she said.

Aside from many programs designed for start-ups, Anjani said the Innovation Room organized many upskilling programs through workshops such as in digital marketing, social media specialization, brand strategies and many other workshops related to digital skills.

“This year we will be focusing more on [workshops] in communication skills, systems thinking, critical thinking and design thinking as well as about upgrading collective work patterns. This is open to the public, but of course, we will have curation to select the participants,” said Anjani.

The idea of the Innovation Room came about as a result of changes in the labor force where conventional professions are gradually being replaced by new jobs, especially in the digital industry. The Manpower Ministry expects that the Innovation Room could become a talent hub and talent institution where young talent can prepare and add value to themselves with new skills and abilities that industries need.

With the positive response to the Innovation Room after a year of operation, Hanif said the Manpower Ministry was planning to open other Innovation Rooms in other regions.

“In the last year we have been pretty productive [with The Innovation Room], thus in the future, we want to push the development of something similar in other regions. We are currently conducting surveys in the regions to study the possibility of building other Innovation Rooms, so young people in the regions can also enjoy this facility” said Hanif.