6 Lessons I Learned From a Kraków Meetup About Belonging and Community
Reflections on how one welcoming room shaped my journey and why I now help build them for others
I recently told my team about the early days of Hive, and they loved hearing about my first attempts at community building, long before I worked in animal advocacy. So I thought I’d share that story here, too.
Back in 2017, I moved to Kraków, Poland. I didn’t know many people, my Polish was fledgling (though I was proud to have rented us a flat entirely in Polish!), and my online job applications were going nowhere.
Here’s a photo of my husband Chris and me on the tram, wrapped up warm, heading off to do all the paperwork. Happy and clueless about how things worked in this new country.
To meet people, I started browsing expat Facebook groups and stumbled upon Open Coffee. It is an English-speaking professional meetup held every Thursday at 8 am in a local coworking space. I’m not a morning person, but I decided to go.
I still remember walking in for the first time, wrapped in a thick coat (it was below freezing in Kraków!), nervous to meet real local professionals. But one of the meeting hosts and the owner of the co-working space, Ewa Kucharska, greeted me with a warm smile, as if we already knew each other. That simple act made a huge impression.
Lesson #1: Create a warm and welcoming environment for everyone, especially newcomers.
At the meeting, everyone had one minute to introduce themselves. I stayed quiet through everyone’s introductions until one of the organisers, Lorenzo Brigatti, gently encouraged me to speak. I shyly explained I was a multilingual graduate and could help with translations.
Lesson #2: Always keep an eye on those who haven’t spoken and gently invite them in.
During the networking part of the meetup, people approached me, offered to let me try copywriting (which I ended up loving!), and invited me to other events. Some of those people are still my friends today.
Even though I still felt like a bit of an outsider, I loved the atmosphere so much that I started volunteering, arriving at 7:30 am to help set up. My job? Greeting people and handing out name stickers. It was awkward not to remember regulars’ names, so I quickly had to learn what everyone was called and what they did.
Lesson #3: Learn people’s names. It’s a simple act that can help grow new relationships.
Here’s a photo of some of the Open Coffee volunteer team in 2017 (myself, Lorenzo, Kamil and Jakub):
A few weeks in, after one of my short intros, Richard Lucas, the main organiser, kindly told the group:
“Sofia’d make a great employee. She shows up at 7:30 every week, unpaid and always on time.”
That meant so much to me, especially as someone who had only recently moved to the country. It taught me how volunteering can demonstrate alignment and commitment without saying a word.
Lesson #4: Volunteering is a powerful way to show your values in action, especially when you do it consistently.
Just a month later, after another of my 1-minute introductions, Matt, a CEO of a new venture, offered me an interview at the startup he led. I got the job. It turned out to be incredibly formative and played a big part in my decision to one day start something of my own.
Lesson #5: The best jobs often aren’t advertised. Don’t just apply online. Show up and be findable.
This isn’t just a story about learning community-building skills. It’s about the power of community itself. Everything that happened to me in Kraków happened because someone built the infrastructure for connection, and others showed up with kindness and generosity.
What’s even more important is that the friendships and roles I found there opened up doors for years to come. For example, the next few jobs I got were the result of the direct and indirect connections I made at Open Coffee, too. These jobs, in turn, made me qualified for my first movement job at Veganuary in 2018. That sense of belonging gave me the confidence to aim higher.
That’s why community-building is so hard to measure: one connection leads to the next, and so on. The Open Coffee team will never know how many people like me went on to do amazing things around the world.
Lesson #6: The value of community is exponential. You may never fully know your impact, but keep investing anyway.
That experience planted a seed: one day, I wanted to build a community of my own, so others like me could have an easier time finding their next impactful opportunity. That seed became Hive.
Thank you to everyone who made Open Coffee what it is, and to all the community builders creating inclusive spaces for the rest of us to thrive. 💛
Question for you: Have you ever had a community like this, one that shaped your path in ways you didn’t expect? I’d love to hear your story.
Hi, I’m Sofia Balderson. I lead Hive, a global community for people working to end factory farming. I started Notes from the Margin to share the messier, more personal reflections that don’t fit in formal updates. If you care about leading, belonging, or building something that matters (especially from the edges), you might enjoy sticking around.
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