What Does it Take to Coordinate a Global Network of Local Experts?

Behind the visible impact of the Flying Labs Network is a powerful, though less visible, engine: community coordination.

WeRobotics serves as the steward of the Network. With 40+ independently run Flying Labs across Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, the Caribbean, this is no small task. Coordinating a global network of this scale requires far more than shared tools or systems. It is work that happens behind the scenes, quietly holding the Network together.

The Flying Labs Network is built on conviction in the power of local expertise. Local experts are best placed to design and implement solutions to challenges in their own communities. But building a truly collaborative and cohesive global network around this idea doesn’t happen by itself. That’s where Flying Labs Community Coordinators come in.

A Day in the Life of a Community Coordinator

At its core, network coordination is about building and sustaining meaningful connections — not just across projects, but across cultures, languages, personalities, expertises, and time zones. Community Coordinators at WeRobotics take on this complex task from day one, stepping into facilitator roles that involve designing and managing the systems that keep the Flying Labs Network thriving. 

All aimed at cultivating a culture of active collaboration and knowledge exchange among Flying Labs, this work includes:

• Organizing and facilitating regular one-to-one and regional calls (and making them engaging!)
• Co-hosting knowledge-sharing webinars 
• Facilitating sector expertise hubs
• Managing knowledge and information flow among Flying Labs and between Flying Labs and WeRobotics
• Collecting and processing feedback from Flying Labs
• Planning and supporting global and regional retreats
• Staying on top of 40+ Flying Labs’ ongoing activities and needs
• Tackling all administrative tasks relating to each Flying Labs’ social franchise license, up for renewal annually.
• Connecting Flying Labs to other WeRobotics team members for support in communication, drone and data technologies, MEL and impact, regulations, strategy, and more.

All this happens in a virtual environment, relying heavily on digital communication channels.

Navigating such a remote and culturally diverse landscape demands a blend of administrative tasks and intentional relationship-building. This allows our Community Coordinators to serve as both sounding boards and bridges in order to enable local solutions to flourish through global collaboration.

Nurturing the Diversity of the Network

One of the greatest rewards of stewarding the Network is the vantage point from which to see firsthand how unique local contexts shape local solutions. Flying Labs determine their own priorities, guided by their own capacities, expertises, and ways of working. What this means is that even when addressing similar challenges, no two Flying Labs will take the exact same approach. That diversity of thought and creativity is one of the Network’s greatest strengths.

But coordination is what makes it all work. Because diversity without coordination can lead to disconnection. The job of Community Coordinators is to create clarity out of chaos and alignment out of difference, always nudging the Network forward while respecting each Flying Labs’ independence.

And it isn’t just logistics. To be a Community Coordinator is to cultivate the right conditions for deep collaboration and open sharing — the core values that guide our interactions and shape the culture of the Network.

Glocalization in Practice

There is no shortcut to building a collaborative, inclusive, and thriving global network. You cannot automate trust. You cannot outsource care. You cannot schedule innovation. These things must be nurtured, and the nurturing is never finished.

Community Coordinators make it possible to work with local experts while building strong global connections. In doing so, they show that effective local-global collaboration is possible and powerful. It’s what makes the Flying Labs Network a living demonstration of WeRobotics’ Glocalization Model. And it's a model that we believe holds important lessons for international development as a whole.

So what does it take to coordinate a global network? It takes systems thinking and human connection. It takes patience and proactive listening. It takes spreadsheets and storytelling. It takes celebrating diversity while co-creating unity. And above all, it takes believing that collaboration is not a byproduct of good work — it is the work.