We've been doing this for a while. September is the big one.
Six years of coliving in Chiang Mai.
One month that brings it all together.
I’ve been running coliving spaces in Chiang Mai for six years. A lot of talented people pass through, and what I kept noticing is that many of them don’t just want to work here. They’re curious. They want to put down roots, learn the culture, get to know the locals. They come, they stay, they come back. And eventually, they want to give back too.
The locals notice them too. They see the same faces returning season after season. There’s curiosity on both sides, but also a language barrier, a cultural gap, and not many people whose job it is to bridge them.
CosmoLocal CNX is my attempt to pull those threads closer together.
— John Ho, Founder
Why this moment matters?
The world is hyperconnected, yet often divided
The term comes from a framework introduced by Dev Lewis, a researcher and community builder based here in Chiang Mai, in a workshop that got me thinking differently about what coliving could be.
CosmoLocal CNX is my interpretation of making that idea practical, on the ground, based on what this city actually needs.
It’s not about two types of people. It’s about two perspectives (global and local) that both exist in the same neighborhood, sometimes in the same person. Bringing them into genuine exchange doesn’t happen automatically. It takes intention, and it takes design.
That’s why the format is a full month, not a weekend. Relationships need time. Real conversations need space to develop. The longer format is deliberate, it gives both sides enough room to feel comfortable, to lower their guard, and to actually exchange ideas rather than just introduce themselves.
The Place
Wat Ket - Sanpakoi, Chiang Mai
Two years ago, I opened Alt_PingRiver — our second coliving and coworking space, right here in the Wat Ket-Sanpakoi district, along the Ping River.
That same year, we hosted a popup village that brought 700 people into this neighborhood. That’s how I got to know Arisa from Anusarn Sanpakoi next door and how the idea started forming: what if we did something more intentional with this district?
Wat Ket was once one of the most vibrant parts of Chiang Mai. It’s slowly coming back. But we want to be thoughtful about how that happens: Chiang Mai’s economy is heavily dependent on mass tourism, and we’ve seen what that does to a neighborhood.
Our goal isn’t just to activate the district. It’s to develop it in a way that’s more resilient, more rooted, and less vulnerable to the boom-and-bust that comes with volume tourism. That’s the kind of place we want September to happen in. And with.
Why cosmo local is different?
Backed by the Province
CosmoLocal CNX is the flagship event of the Nomad Friendly District (NFD), a provincial sandbox program endorsed by the Governor of Chiang Mai and supported by the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, TAT, TCEB, and the Ministry of Culture.
The NFD’s goal is to develop Wat Ket-Sanpakoi as Thailand’s first government-endorsed district for digital nomads and remote workers. Not just as a tourism offer, but as a model for how neighborhoods can benefit from the people moving through them, rather than being reshaped by them.
CosmoLocal CNX is where that vision gets tested in real life. The people who join in September aren’t just participants, they’re part of something the city is watching closely and has chosen to back.
2026
This is year one
We need all the help we can get: ideas, energy, and support from everyone willing to show up.
There’s a real risk this is misunderstood, or that the numbers don’t add up the way we hope. We’re crowdfunding resources, efforts, and ideas. We’re doing this because we believe it’s worth trying, not because we have it all figured out.
Before September, we’re running the Solopreneur Coliving Experience in May as a working prototype. Real participants, real programming, same neighborhood. What we learn from that goes directly into how we run the full month.
The Team
This is year one
Founder & Project Director
Has been running Alt_ Coliving spaces in Chiang Mai for six years, with Alt_PingRiver in Wat Ket as the home base for CosmoLocal CNX.
Event Producer
Handles logistics, production, and the operational side of making a month-long popup village actually work.
Local Community Lead
Owner of Anusarn Sanpakoi, our anchor in the Wat Ket district. The connective tissue between CLCNX and the neighborhood.
Government Relations
Manages the relationships and processes that connect CosmoLocal CNX to the NFD provincial program and its agency partners.