Are you thinking about becoming a digital nomad? We meet the CEO of Noma Collective, Daniel Thompson to hear how we can kickstart our remote work and travel lifestyle

Credit: @saskia_rabbit

Get ready to dive into the captivating tale of Noma Collective's beginnings, a game-changer in the travel scene that sprouted during the lockdown frenzy. Here, we'll take a laid-back stroll through the journey of Daniel, a 36-year-old visionary currently soaking up the vibes in Merida, Mexico. From kickstarting a secluded resort in Belize to crafting a vibrant haven for remote work aficionados, Daniel's story unfolds with charm and clarity. As we navigate through the post-COVID landscape together, we discover Noma Collective's evolution, embracing the latest in remote work infrastructure and advocating for conscious travel.

So grab a seat and join us as we venture into beloved travel hotspots, uncover the heart and soul of the Noma community, and unveil an exclusive C Word offer for adventurous souls seeking connection and exploration.

Where did the idea of Noma come from?

So, the idea of Noma was born out of lockdown. I had moved to Belize for a hotel project prior to 2020, and when everything shut down, I ended up looking after a hotel that my partner at the time had built. 

I was basically sitting in a big closed resort with 60 condos and two other people for months on end. At the same time, I was looking at things like Zoom's stock going through the roof. It all came together when one of our founding partners, Will Mercer, was searching around for a new spot to host a pop-up co-live around November 2020.

We rolled the dice with a bit of marketing spend and this idea that perhaps people wanted to come and work remotely from paradise.

It really was just, “Hey, let's put this out to the world and see if it is of interest”.

Within, I think, three weeks we had sold out the first three months and we were like, “Oh, snap, this is maybe more than just something to pass the time while we are all in lockdown!”

Does the word Noma have a specific meaning?

Playing the name game is always something that is a tough one when you're trying to start a new business.

It either comes to you instantly or you have to work through it.

When we were playing this game, we wanted to create a sense of community, and we wanted something that referenced nomads or remote work.

We had hundreds of names that we were playing around with. In the end, we put it out to the community and they voted on it.

We were originally called Umaya Village because the hotel where we started as a co-live pop-up was called Umaya. So we added the village there to give it a community feeling. As we grew and decided that we wanted to be in more than one location, we rebranded to Noma Collective.

Noma just sounded like the right type of mix; it had enough of a reference to the nomad space but wasn't obvious, like, “Hey, we're going to call our brand nomad collective.”

Credit: @saskia_rabbit

How has the brand and company developed post-Covid in a more positive remote working society?

Pre-COVID covid, we didn't exist so we are definitely a post-COVID baby. I think that when we first started, there was no infrastructure.

We all were thrown into remote work, for the majority of people, this was from one day to the next, right, we're all working from home. I think that the biggest change has been the physical infrastructure that is catching up to that massive pivot that happened in the world.

What does a remote work-ready hotel look like?

What do those destinations need?

What's the distribution of the locations?

How do we lay it out so that you can work and play all in the same place?

Do we need a slide or do we need coworking booths or both?

I always envisage this kind of Tulum hotel mixed with the Google office and this is the vision for the future of Noma’s hotels. 

How important is conscious travel to you personally but also to Noma as a company?

Conscious travel for us is really important. I also know it's something that is talked about a lot and maybe not backed up. 

For me, there are two parts to this.

One is, that people who are lucky enough to be able to live in the developed world and remote work, often don't take advantage because of fears or whatever. So the fact that people can experience new cultures, get out of the echo chambers that we live in and start to see how the other side lives. I think it gives people a lot of well-needed perspective. And that in turn, makes us more conscious. 

I know that the idea of going somewhere to find yourself may sound a bit cheesy, but I think a lot of it is perspective. Can we be more conscious travellers if we see how the other side lives? I think I think we can.

That's one side, and then the other side is that we try our best to do as much social impact on the ground in the locations where we can.

Last year we got a very small grant, to do a social impact programme in Belize. We've now been running that for a year. We do one weekly meet-up with the kids in our local community, and we also do one beach clean-up a month. That's been really promising because we have delivered something. It's small, but we've delivered it consistently.  

We've built relationships with these kids, and now we're actually about to go out and try and raise some more funds so that we can level up our social impact programme in Belize and then roll it out over the rest of the destinations.

Credit: @jackvagabondz

How would you describe your Noma community for those thinking of joining?

Noma Collective is a travel community of like-minded remote workers who are coming together to meet in the physical space to discover an adventure together.

The only thing that you need is a remote work job and to not be an arsehole. That's it.

As a community, we try our best to help each other out, be it in personal or professional life. Help each other find friendship, Investment for your new business, love or a new job if that’s needed.

Where’s your favourite place to travel and Noma location? 

So this is a really tough question, but I think I'm gonna break it into three options.

I lived in Buenos Aires for six years, so if you wanna do a city for me, it's Buenos Aires. It's always Buenos Aires. It's got a Latin flavour, but a European feel. It's relatively friendly, safe and not too expensive. And it's got nightlife to rival any city in the world. They say that New York is a city that never sleeps, but I don't believe it because you can go out to a club at four in the morning in Buenos Aires, and it'd be absolutely rammed. You get a steak at 6 a.m. So, yeah, that's that one for a city location. 

The beach location would probably be Belize. It's our headquarters. It's a natural, pristine paradise, and it's off the beaten track.

Then, for a wild card, I would say Kenya. Kenya is a super unique, immersive experience. You get to do a safari in the Masai Mara - it’s a bucket list destination.

How can C Word readers become a part of the Noma community?! 

It's really easy for you to become a Noma community member. You just need to go to the website and book an introductory call.

You'll speak to one of our vetting team and they will talk you through any questions you may have to help you understand what a Noma edition looks like. Once we are aligned you are admitted into the community and you can pick the trip you want to go on.

Then once you've come on a trip, you get entered into our alumni network, where there's a whole bunch of perks and benefits and just general value adds for the community.

Finally, as a special offer to The C Word readers, we have a $300 (USD) off voucher code that can be used on any edition in 2024!

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Founder of The C Word Magazine, Emily King is passionate about art, travel, culture, cinema, fashion, sports, dating, feminism and a whole lot more. Find her on Instagram @emlrking or freelancing at emnco.uk to help clients with marketing, brand strategy and paid media planning.