Leap and the Net Shall Appear: How PwC was one of the first to execute its global RTW Strategy | A corporate case-study presented by PwC London

The 29-year-old London HQ of professional services firm PwC, located at Embankment Place, is globally renowned as being one of the most iconic, energy efficient and environmentally friendly offices in the UK, winning the 2019 British Council for Office’s (BCO) National Awards’ ‘Test of Time’ category and achieving the highest ever Outstanding BREEAM ranking.

Being forced to quickly close their offices due to Covid-19 virtually overnight like everyone else was easy enough for PwC to do, having long since adopted an agile working style fortified by cutting edge technology – but quite another to safely reopen. Yet amazingly, they did just that, reopening Embankment Place only 3 months later on June 22 of this year – one of the first offices to do so.

How were they able to take such a leap? By creating their own safety net. Wasting no time, PwC convened a Board-Level OpCo to act as a steering committee overseeing the collaborative planning efforts of Business Leads, Workplace Services, Procurement, and IT.

Join this multi-disciplined team to learn how they utilized real time data to inform their decision making process, and employed creative provisioning, planning and communications to so quickly welcome both employees and clients back to Embankment Place. All while ensuring the safety of staff and visitors as a top priority and maintaining the qualities that initially made it such a destination place.

Register now to avoid disappointment.

Change is tough. And now a change back from WFH to a hybrid model is going to be tough. People are frightened and need to be assured that anything but WFH will work and is safe. Adopting a sort of “reverse” change management process, we now need to assure employees that we are not only recreating infrastructure but promoting a multitude of work models that support their safety, comfort, and wellbeing.

Join AWA’s Lisa Whited and Nick Wright as they host an executive panel including special guests, David Savage, Partner Charles Russell Speechlys LLP, Claire Grayston, CAO, Morgan Stanley; and Nick Brook, Workplace Lead, Roku; as they discuss how organizations can navigate their people through this change with clear strategy and reassurance.

Doubling Down On Wellbeing – How to Support Cognitive Performance & Employee Well-Being in the New Normal

Like organizations around the world, the finance and investment firm, Ratnabali Group, located in Kolkata, India committed great time and energy to create a robust business continuity plan. Now, as it adapts that plan to thrive in its ‘new normal,’ protecting its most important asset – its people – is top of mind.

Taking the wealth of available research on workplace wellness and employee feedback into account, plus implementing the latest technology and infrastructure, Ratnabali Group has already successfully welcomed 75-80% of its employees back into the office in a model that combines remote and in-office work.

While the world of real estate is only now reversing the densification trend, Ratnabali has always prioritized space and calm. Even in the densest office zones, workstations have always been 6 feet apart. So, as the office shares the intimacy of a home, rich in history, with an elegant aesthetic of serendipity and essential contemporary workplace solutions, it was not surprising that those who recently returned to Ratnabali’s offices were happy and comfortable to do so.

And now, in addition to implementing procedures that abide by national guidelines (regarding sanitization, limited and periodic access to controlled break-out zones etc), Ratnabali places even greater importance on office ergonomics and air quality as part of its ‘return to work’ strategy.

Additionally, in order to achieve better cognitive performance and reduce stress levels (particularly in these unsettling times) Ratnabli has installed a soft armature of green that defines each zone and use phytoremediation to reduce pollutants and improve the level of oxygen in air.

Find out more about Ratnabli’s return to work strategy and hear from workplace leaders, Pankaj Gupta, Swati Hiroo and Sakhi Singhi who will take you through Ratnabali Group’s workspace ethics, and the critical steps they are continuing to take to embrace their ‘new normal’.

We’re in This Together… How to Maintain Collegiality Through Unprecedented Times

Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is a leading developer, publisher and marketer of interactive entertainment for consumers around the globe. The world-renowned gaming company develops and publishes products principally through Rockstar Games, 2K, Private Division and Social Point.

After experiencing tremendous growth in 2016, Take-Two set out to explore options for a new headquarters in New York City. Located in lower Manhattan for many years, the organization had outgrown its space and had no option to expand in its existing location.

As a result of an exhaustive search of several areas of Manhattan, Take-Two found that Bryant Park met its needs for space size, flexibility and transport, and closed on a space located at 1133 Avenue of the Americas.

Knowing that moving to midtown would change the office culture drastically, Take-Two embarked on a design journey that included feedback from employees and management. Coupled with a close collaboration with their design partners, an office environment that everyone wants to work in was created: championing an industrial-chic aesthetic with plenty of concrete, metal and glass.

In the last two years, Take-Two has grown its headquarters from approximately 60,000 square feet to 80,000 square feet – all while continuing to support a richer and more collaborative culture that employees are proud to be part of.

Then COVID happened, and the world of work as we knew it catapulted us into a new dimension.

As the pandemic shut the offices down, Take-Two’s management, facilities, real estate, IT and events teams worked hard to implement an effective plan for its approximately 300 NYC based staff to return to an office that would be safe, while still holding true to the culture the team worked so hard to create.

With collaboration still paramount to its success, Take-Two has achieved its goals of melding culture and safety without creating a hospital affect.

How have they continued to utilize collaboration and amenity space while adapting to new ways or working? Tune in to find out.

Join Larry Charlip, Vice President, Facilities Management and Corporate Real Estate to hear more about how Take-Two is maintaining company culture through unprecedented times across all ways of working; and their vision for 2021 and beyond.

An exclusive online session hosted by Snowflake in collaboration with Saltmine

Saltmine’s, Ashley, Carly and Nick will lead a lively, and very visual, session on the role of technology (both new and existing) in Snowflake’s process of overall real estate optimization. Workplace professionals are currently in a position to make long term safety, cultural, and financially responsible real estate decisions and this session will demonstrate how Snowflake is using data/technology to drive these strategic decisions. Snowflake is a hyper growth company that is taking a slightly different approach to COVID re-entry.

Also see how digital transformation is enabling the quick application of distance rings and social distancing protocols in cloud based, 3 dimensional models and automated intelligent algorithms are helping to optimize seating arrangements to provide your employees the confidence needed to safely return to the commercial office environment.

How Siemens has Adapted to a New Normal Implementing Smart Building Solutions across 600+ Locations and 100k Employees.

The term ‘smart building’ traditionally refers to construction that allows the hosted people and processes to be at their best. In 2020, the year of Covid-19, smart building technology is critical to enabling a safe return to work. Using the latest smart building innovations, all technologies, systems and processes now have the power to work together to enable this critical step and bring back people to their offices in a safe and secure way.

Join Michael de Straschnov, Head of Business Development at Siemens Western Switzerland, who will share valuable insight into the different solutions put into place to support 100,000 employees of the organization, spanning 600 locations to support their journey to a ‘new normal’.

Michael will explain how the latest systems can allow better and more efficient communication, between colleagues and equipment, using Siemen’s very own headquarters as a great example of innovation at work. The session will also consider the organization’s mid-term vision on how further developments will allow enhancing employee’s experience around the globe.

An exclusive online sponsor session hosted by leading digital experience provider, WeDigitalGarden

About the session:

Designing business and data-driven organizations is key to revamping your core business, increasing relevancy and accelerating business value delivery, while sustainably reengaging your company’s stakeholders, employees, customers and end-users.

In 2020, every business has had to be reinvented.

With the current crisis, organizations have seen their convictions and fundamentals put at risk in a matter of weeks. They have had to deal with uncertainty, in a market experiencing revolution, with limited means and tight schedules – just as if they were a start-up.

Ways of working and collaborating have changed as a result of lockdown all over the world, and time to market (TTM) requirements for new products and services are now measured in weeks rather than months.

In 2020, organizations have had to conduct an in-depth analysis of their standards to remain relevant. Agile working has become a reality and workplaces have had to adapt accordingly.

Join Fabien Obadia, Founder and Group CEO at WeDigitalGarden, to find out how organizations can better navigate this period of transformation and change with appropriate digital solutions. Fabian will discuss how organizaitons can grow their core revenue by bringing agility and cross-disciplinarity into the workplace in user-centric and data-driven ways.

A Sponsored Fringe Event hosted by Leading Workplace Manufacturer, Bisley

In our culture, ‘corporate success’ is measured by performance indicators. And yet, none of these indicators tell us whether the organization, in its actions and very presence, contributes positively to our collective utility. Companies do bring something to the table, but to what end and to who’s benefit exactly?

Even as we raise this extremely complex question, numerous abuses are being perpetrated onto the human habitat. But why would a species hurt the very space in which it dwells?

In a time when civilization has never possessed more data on its environment, the question must be asked: why doesn’t knowledge go with care?

Register your attendance here

A Sponsored Fringe Event hosted by HNI India – One of the World’s Largest Workplace Furniture Providers; and Freespace, Leading Workplace Technology Company

How to make diverse spaces adaptable, engaging, personal and safe.

Where do you want to work tomorrow?

Likely you will have many options – your home, a shared workspace, public spaces and yes, the office. In spite of the naysayers, the office is not going away; but for many, it will be different. And it will be one part of a network of places where people will meet, collaborate, build community, and culture, and grow their business.

Workspaces moving forward will need to become even more flexible, multi-purpose and offer a human-centric and safe environment for a diverse population. They will be designed to anticipate the user’s needs, help them find the right space for their personal and work needs, on demand, in real time. Every visit will be an experience – clean, fresh, inviting and exciting.

Join Eric Johnson, Senior Workplace Advisor and Lauren Gant, Human Factors and Ergonomics Manager from HNI and Raj Krishnamurthy, the CEO of Freespace while they share insights and discuss how space, technology, and the organization will integrate to create this new workspace focused on the people that use it.

Register your attendance here

A Live Virtual Event Hosted by RAW Brothers and The Art of Work

As we start to see some small and stuttering pockets of normality returning slowly to our organizations, it’s easy to believe at some stage, things could just swing back to how they were before; but we believe the momentous events of the past 6 months may mean our working lives will never be quite the same again.

If this is the case, what could this mean for the new employee deal or ‘compact’ – that psychological contract we have with those we work for and with? What expectations will we have of our new working relationships with each other and with our organizations and workplaces? How do we create a new sense of equilibrium, inclusivity and fairness? How can we prepare for the challenge of this changed – and changing – world without losing the human at the heart of this?

We’re taking a different lens to look beneath the surface of this topic and gain a better understanding of this unwritten but hugely important part of our work and lives.

RAW Brothers together with The Art of Work will provoke our thinking and encourage us to be brave. Interactive and discussion based, together we will examine this topic and share recent data from ‘Go Human’ – our new independent, socially motivated organization born out of our shared desire to capture and make sense of some of the gold dust we have noticed from the last few months.

Go Human is an independent socially motivated organization. It is a partnership between Learning and Development experts The Art of Work and Creative Consultants RAW Brothers.

Register your attendance here

Safe to say some sort of dispersed work is here to stay; now let’s make the most of it. Join AWA’s Director of Research, Karen Plum, and Senior Associate, Anne Balle to learn how using gamification techniques to influence and inform behaviors, work styles and work product can help people managers actualize team goals to create value for individuals, teams, and the enterprise.

Bringing Past and Future Together – How to Implement New Ways Of Working at one of London’s Most Iconic & Historic Organizations

What Does the ‘New Normal’ look like for one of the Most Desirable and Iconic Buildings and Workplaces in the World?

The internationally renowned Lloyds building (designed by Sir Richard Rogers) is one of the city’s most inspiring examples of high-tech architecture in full force. As one of the greatest architectural achievements of the 1980s (but ahead of its time, still to this day) the Lime Street headquarters consists of 33,510 cubic meters of concrete, 30,000 square meters of stainless-steel cladding and 12,000 square meters of glass.

Awarded Grade 1-listed status in 2011, the building achieved instant fame for its stainless-steel lifts, mounted on the outside of the building’s concrete structure, creating a modern-gothic look and feel to the exterior.

Other distinguishing features include its barrel-vaulted glass roof and a central dealing room – designed to expand or contract, to meet the needs of the market; as well as a host of treasured artefacts displayed throughout, including the iconic Lutine Bell (located in the 60-meter-high atrium) and the official Maritime Loss Book which details insured ships lost at sea (including the Titanic).

Before March 2020, more than 8,000 people would have been working within the grandeur of Lloyds at any one time.

But then London locked down, and the vast trading floors – usually bustling with energy and activity – became eerily quiet.

So how has Lloyds adapted and navigated the challenges of 2020? And what does the future hold for one of London’s most iconic workplaces, that thrives on energy, face to face business transactions and team collaboration?

Join Darren Cox, Business Partner & Stakeholder Manager in the Corporate Real Estate team, as he shares valuable insight into what the ‘new normal’ looks like for Lloyds. Find out how the iconic organization has demonstrated its unparalleled ability to adapt and respond to crisis with a ‘keep calm mentality’, implementing and embracing new, effective working practices and models that has enabled business to navigate the choppy waters of 2020.

Have it Your Way – How to Give People The Freedom to Work In a Way That Works for Them

Based in Kensal Rise in North West London, UK, Innocent Drink’s light and spacious office is reminiscent of an English fair, turfed with green grass throughout, to encompass the brand’s cheery nature. However, do not be fooled by the synthetic grass, park benches, suspended basket chairs and ping pong table at Fruit Towers.

The super-green, super economical space has been a standout example of how to achieve an inspirational and healthy working environment, infused with energy and fun.

The team embarked on a significant refurb at the end of 2019 on the office floors, to squeeze the juice of creativity further make it more flexible for community style working.

And then 2020 happened.

Innocent has had to make a big shift and adapt fast. And we’re making it happen!

Join Tim Dorsett, UK Culture and Office Manager who will talk you through Innocent’s workspace ethic pre-Covid, and the steps they are taking to embrace a ‘new normal’ at Fruit Towers; blending agile working with the zest of the physical space.

A Sponsored Fringe Event hosted by Leading Design Firm, Knoll (NYC)

Will your office feel like Saturday morning on a Tuesday afternoon? With fewer people, higher partitions, more hard surfaces and lots of signage and hand-sanitizer, the new workplace will not only look different, but will sound different than the 2019 office.

Hear from Kimberly Bombery Smith, Senior Director of Workplace Strategy, Knoll, and Victoria Cerami,  Chief Executive Officer  and acoustics expert and sound engineer, Cerami Associates, on creating an auditory experience that’s right for your organization as you phase back to the office.

How to Embrace a Cultural Shift and a Collaborative Workplace Model for the Future

EPM Group is a public services company headquartered in Medellín, Colombia.

EPM Group recently wanted to leverage the re-design of its iconic 15-story office building as an opportunity to transform its organizational culture—from one of hierarchical decision-making to a culture that fosters continuous improvement and superior customer experience.

Recognizing its 4,000 employees as EPM’s greatest asset, the project team delivered a people-centric redesign to better support well-being and performance through spaces that foster collaboration and bring value to business practices.

EPM Group partnered with Haworth to run diagnostics and collect data to identify the issues that impact human, organizational, and facilities performance.

This research forms the foundation for Haworth’s Organic Workspace® approach to space planning. Haworth’s approach for creating value-driven customized workplace solutions takes place early in the design process through a collaborative change management approach that translates workplace research and knowledge into a conceptual applied design strategy.

Change management took a two-prong approach: with managers and employees, the results shows the investment in the new office space has increased the performance of the human capital by 6.64 percent.

Now in the midst of a global pandemic, how will the company navigate the challenges and continue to endorse a collaborative culture in a world that push for social distancing? Join us to discover strategies applied.

An exclusive sponsor session hosted by FRB Consulting, with special participation of CoreNet Global Brazil Chapter and APFM (Portuguese Facilities Management Association)

Information is key in deciding the return – or not – to the physical office.

For the past several months we have all been wondering when we will be able to return to the office. However, for those responsible for making that decision, there is much more to it than the “when” or even the “how”.

The real question is what will the office be like when we return to it? What is its purpose? Why would people want to go to the office? What kind of flexibility would this great reset require in our physical places? What is the effect of these decisions in corporate RE portfolios? How might we put a crisis to good use?

The right questions will help to influence decision making. How can we make work really what we do, and not a place we go to?

Join Izabel Barros, PhD FRB Consulting Founding Partner, Renato Fusaro, President, CoreNet Global Brazil Chapter and Real Estate & Storage Lead for LatAm at Cargil and Miguel Alves Agostinho, APFM CEO and Regional Director for FMHOUSE, who will discuss what the future of work may look like in both countries once we are past the massive remote work experience of Covid-19.

An exclusive sponsor session hosted by the Institute of Workplace & Facilities Management (IWFM)

COVID-19 demanded flexibility; the near future calls for agility.

At a time when, according to latest ONS figures, COVID-19 caused almost half (47%) of people in employment to work from home, IWFM’s YouGov-powered research revealed that amongst people working remotely: almost three-quarters (73%) want more flexible working options in future; half (51%) feel that working in a corporate office now seems unnecessary.

However, this does not mean that people do not also miss aspects of the office environment; in fact, most (61% and 60% respectively) miss face-to-face collaboration and dislike the lack of a clear separation between work and home life.

And yet, despite any misgivings some workers may have about remote working, various studies have also shown that remote workers are equally or more productive than office workers.

While this may seem like a confusing picture, the lesson, in fact, is quite clear: the future of workplace is agile working, transforming work from a destination to an activity which is carried out in a variety of settings according to need.

In this special Workplace Week episode of IWFM’s ‘Navigating turbulent times’ webinar series, an expert panel will look at agile working as the imminent prevailing model for previously office-based roles. Watch live, submit your questions, and join the discussion on how agile working differs from flexible and remote working, and what it means for workers, employers, the workplace profession, and real estate.

After years of squeezing every possible dime out of the real estate portfolio (actually, a game of diminishing returns) industry professionals have discovered new opportunities to add value to their organizations in different (and more sustainable) ways.

As the notion of work continues to evolve with increasing complexity, we have seen new roles like Chief Workplace Officer and Chief Engagement Officer emerge. Now’s the time for yet another new role – the Chief Integration Officer – who acts as a liaison between the C-Suite and various knowledge pools within an organization.

Join Andrew Mawson, Managing Director, AWA and panel guests including Jonathan Evett, Head of Global Resilience at JP Morgan Chase London, Sameer Pangrekar, Director and Global Design and Strategic Projects, Twitter US, Brad Taylor, Director of People, OD & Workplace, CIPD and David Harding, former International Technology COO at Morgan Stanley, as they discuss the changing and intertwining roles of disciplines including Real Estate, IT, HR and Communications, as companies seek to create equity among workers adopting new work patterns in order to create more resiliency within their organizations.

The panel will discuss how melding their expertise not only creates new opportunities for their respective roles but results in forward thinking about space and the people who occupy it.

Sense of Place Rather Than Space – How One of the UK’s ‘Top Places To Work’ kept Company Culture Thriving Throughout 2020

The London office of the UK’s leading travel comparison site, Skyscanner (located in the Capital’s West End on the popular Tottenham Court Road) is recognized as being one of the UK capital’s ‘Coolest Office Spaces’, previously ranked sixth in The Sunday Times ‘Top Places to Work’. Bright floors, airline seat conference rooms, contemporary décor and a relaxed atmosphere make it a popular place to work for 400 of its employees.

But don’t take their word for it. According to the stats, 95% of employees believe Skyscanner prioritizes their wellbeing at work, and 91% feel their work environment is conducive to effective working. When it comes to contemporary workplace design and experience, it was blue skies ahead for this travel giant.

Fortunately, when the world of work felt the impact of the pandemic in early 2020, Skyscanner already had the tools and practices in place to support working from home. As such, over 1,000 Skyscanner employees around the world moved to working from home within just a few days.

For a company with offices across the world and energy, collaboration and social interaction rooted deep within its foundations and DNA, Skyscanner has worked hard to ensure employees were able to work business as usual as much as possible, while also finding new ways to keep their culture alive and thriving via remote means.

Join us as we hear from Esther Draper; Skyscanner’s Office Manager and Head of Workplace as she reveals how Skyscanner is continuing to adapt and evolve its practices so employees can thrive in the ‘new normal’.

An exclusive online sponsor fringe session hosted by Tarkett

As the current health crisis continues to unfold, Tarkett research reveals that office workers in the USA and Europe are becoming more concerned about their employers level of commitment to environmentally-led initiatives.

Part of a wider global piece of research, the Rethinking Workplace project clearly shows that employees are emerging from the crisis with a renewed sense of purpose and a strong desire to make a positive social impact. And environmental policy is seen as a key issue.

Join Tarkett for an exclusive panel session where an esteemed panel of experts will discuss the role of sustainability in commercial office design as the World continues to battle the Covid-19 pandemic.

Led by Roxane Spears, Vice President, Sustainability, USA and Rob Kragt, CSR communication manager EMEA, the session will explore key themes including how businesses keep sustainability front and centre, and whether collaboration and acceptance are the keys to success in the circular economy.

Register your attendance here

Getting Ahead of the Curve – How to Operationalize Dynamic Working Practices

Prior to COVID-19, some organizations were shifting to more mobile and dynamic work workplace models to suit changing organizational needs and evolving workstyles. Now, that companies are seeing how much can be accomplished in a remote or partially remote setting without significant dips in productivity – more organizations are beginning to formally plan and adopt flexible working programs for the long-term.

While organizations have made do with recent uncertain circumstances, critical components have emerged from these times that indicate the potential long-term success of adopting flexible work programs. From planning, to roll out, through to operations – and with many stakeholders involved – it’s essential that cross-functional integration and support (making a web comprised of interdependent decisions) are what’s needed to bring these programs to life.

Deloitte has advised many organizations on how to think about remote and flexible working in the long-term. Deloitte’s own, well-established flexible workplace program, was a good example to enable responses to changes around COVID-19 and for the long-term.

Join us on Wednesday 11 November for an exclusive discussion around key considerations, lessons learned, and leading practices in developing the vision for and operationalization of a successful flexible work program.

An exclusive online session hosted by International Facility Management Association (IFMA)

IFMA’s recent Delphi study (July 2020) identified Human Resources as a critical discipline poised to lead organizations through Workplace Strategy development and Workplace Transformation programs. Come join us in discussions with international HR, FM and Workplace experts who will share their experience and point of view.

Today, business leaders are having to re-imagine strategies for achieving organizational goals and their approach to managing/inspiring people. The explosion of remote or ‘distributed’ work has expanded the definition of ‘workplace’ to include both physical and virtual work environments. Daily routines around how we work, learn, socialize and rejuvenate have been disrupted and working from home (WFH) has become the new norm for knowledge workers.

How are organizations balancing crisis management, risk mitigation and delivering results along with the challenge of re-imagining the world of work? How can Workplace Strategy help accelerate the journey to achieve business goals and support workforce satisfaction and productivity?

To register please click here.

How to Implement a Radical Cultural Shift with a 20 Year Legacy

India’s leading insurance company Max Life Insurance (MLI) is listed among the ‘Best Companies to Work For’ according to GPTW (Great Place to Work® Certification).

However, despite successfully modernizing its product offering to external customers in recent years (resulting in significant growth for the organization, formally New York Life), its Gurugram-based headquarters presented an old corporate style to its internal (employee) customers.

With new technology and infrastructure transforming the world of work as we know it, change was needed at MLI to implement modern working practices that would future-proof it’s offering, increase productivity and enhance company culture for its workforce.

And so, MLI embarked on a significant re-imagination of its headquarters in 2019 to create an agile work environment that would facilitate better communication and encourage creativity and collaboration.

Over a period of six months, a series of significant changes were made to the space, leveraging the latest technology and infrastructure to better support collaborative working as well as agile working practices.

It was the timing of these changes that enabled MLI to sail through the challenges of 2020 with ease, proving that a modern workplace is far more than just the physical space.

Find out how MLI ‘maxed out’ a successful workplace transformation project; on Wednesday 11 November, and hear from Amit Mangla, SVP Facilities & Procurement, who will share their plans and vision for 2021 and beyond.

Making Decisions based on Insights – How Mintel is Utilizing its Employees’ Expertise to Determine the Future of Work.

The best experts are the ones that help find solutions based on specialist insights. But how many then use this knowledge to benefit their own organisations? Mintel, the world’s leading marketing intelligence agency, is doing this.

Headquartered in the City of London, but with offices around the world – including Chicago, Singapore and Shanghai – all the offices are designed with collaboration and creativity at their heart.

The London office was designed by Grand Designs award winner Suzanne Brewer, featuring a sushi rail of innovative FMCG products, ping pong and foosball tables, video arcade games, and floor-to-ceiling street art of innovative thinkers such as Steve Jobs and Marie Curie. Overlooking the river, the Chicago office was featured as one of Crain’s Chicago’s Coolest Offices, with a cherry-red double-decker London bus that serves as a coffee bar, shuffleboard, Wrigley Field-style bleachers and an ivy wall, and a Zen room for quiet meditation.

Long before the pandemic struck, Mintel saw how applying their own market intelligence could benefit their firm, particularly around the workplace: the environment itself, and the various ways in which their colleagues work. As a result, the agile work style already enjoyed by Mintel employees helped them to quickly – and relatively seamlessly – switch to 100% working from home.

The priority, from day one of the lockdown, was ensuring that Mintel’s culture and collaborative and creative ethos were maintained. As noted by our leading expert consumer researchers, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought forward many of Mintel’s 2030 Global Consumer Trends, and accelerated many work practice changes. A new Mintel working group is tapping into the expertise and creativity of its global workforce to help formulate the company’s Future of Work vision.

Join Liz Westcott, Managing Director, EMEA, and Jon Butcher, CEO Americas, as they share the company’s plan for work that revolves around three core components: the home, the office hub, and the ‘third place’.

The Instant Group hosts a Networking Event that Offers Insights into the Great WFH Experiment

About the session:

Within a few weeks of COVID-19 lockdown, it was clear that the office space as we once knew it was going to be transformed quickly. The ultimate work-from-home experiment has changed how we work, forcing real estate teams to rethink their portfolios and give employees more choice in where they work. In turn, this has enabled the flexible office industry. Whether for health and safety, cost savings, or adding a work-near-home option for employees, heads of real estate are finding flexible offices to be the answer to some of their key challenges.

During this event, Jaime Carey, VP Portfolio Solutions and Business Intelligence, Americas, and Michelle Bodick, Managing Director, Marketing and Sales, Americas of The Instant Group will give a state of the market update and highlight industry predictions. After the short presentation and Q&A session, attendees will be broken out into smaller networking groups. Bring a drink, a snack and join us for a lively evening.

About The Instant Group

The Instant Group is the leading workspace innovation company that rethinks workspace on behalf of its clients injecting flexibility, reducing cost, and driving enterprise performance. Instant places more than 7,000 companies a year in flexible workspace such as serviced, managed, or co-working offices including Amazon, American Express, Sky, Network Rail, Serco, Capita, Teleperformance and Worldpay making it the market leader in flexible workspace.

Register your attendance here

A Sponsored Fringe Event Hosted by Herman Miller Insight Group (UK)

We know office design affects behaviour. But to what extent? Does office design actually affect brain activity, as well as behaviour?

Join Oliver Baxter, Insight Programme Manager, EMEA, Herman Miller, who will explore the latest findings from research conducted by the Centre for Neuroeconomics Studies.
To register your interest in attending, please click here.

You will receive a link 2 days before the webinar

An exclusive online session hosted by Bristol India

Join leading furniture manufacturer Bristol India for a lively panel featuring four industry experts, spanning diverse industries and roles. As workers (and businesses alike) stare at uncertainty and unpredictability in more than one aspect of their lives, the panel will explore the importance and the nuances of designing ‘work’ that is psychologically safe for employees; towards shaping a world of work that reduces anxiety and allows workers to remain focused.

Share your questions and participate in interactive live polls as the panellists share their challenges and physical and psychological impacts of the transitions on their employees, organisational structure, work space design and business.

Register your attendance here

An exclusive online session hosted by Neowrk (Brazil)

About the session:

Real Estate and Facilities managers have had hazy perspectives on the return to corporate office spaces since the beginning of the year. With time passing on and new discoveries regarding the pandemic, the disease and the way our minds work being presented daily, we can only be certain that we will never know it all.

This online roundtable session has the goal of sharing what we have experienced in the past months and create a future perspective of next steps and upcoming changes in employee experience these changes will bring.

Join Flávio Pimentel, Neowrk executive and Head of Smart Workplace Solutions at CI&T; and guests, as they share their experiences and establish a point of view of next steps and actions to be taken into consideration in the upcoming months.

Register your attendance here

A Sponsored Fringe Event hosted by Acclaimed Danish furniture Manufacturer, Carl Hansen & Søn (NYC, U.S.)

Carl Hansen & Son will host a lively conversation featuring Brooke Mellen, Founder of Cultured Forest to enlighten you on the Japanese cultural practice of Forest Bathing or Shinrin-yoku, which has scientific data to show how nature and time outdoors has proven to help lower stress levels.

Our panel with expertise in workplace strategy, the design of well-being spaces, and have “bathed in the forest”, will join Brooke in conversation. Together, they will share their thoughts and concepts of how this practice could foster creativity and inspire the design of relaxing environments for workplace gatherings.

About Carl Hansen & Søn

At Carl Hansen & Søn, we believe that iconic design is a combination of simplicity, aesthetics and functionality brought to life through skilful work with the highest quality materials.

For over 100 years, we have specialized in providing the outstanding furniture craftsmanship that brings visionary design concepts to life.

To attend this free session please register here

We agree with *Papa (Ernest) Hemingway. And lately, the birds do seem to be chirping more, the air seems fresher, and we can get a seat on the subway. But wait, there’s more! How we work and where we work impacts on carbon. Buildings and their construction together account for 36 percent of global energy use and 39 percent of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions annually, according to the United Nations Environment Program.

In this fourth Cornerstone event, AWA will host Strategic Workplace thought-leader Chris Hood and environmental expert Mauro Cozzi of Emitwise to discuss how changes in work behaviors not only offer workers more flexibility but also reduce carbon emissions and improve the sustainability of the business.

This session will connect employees growing passion for “doing the right thing” with the realistic expectations for a more distributed workforce and will also demonstrate how organisations can easily track emissions from a range of activities to allow them to take actions to meet their long term environmental goals.

How one of New York’s Acclaimed “Coolest of Cool” Offices adapts to a Flexible Working Model

Join award winning Public Relations firm King + Company’s CEO Judith R. King and her team as they share how their firm is not only maintaining but enhancing their culture, collegiality and connectivity as they’ve transitioned over the past few months from working together in a new, “to die for” office – one that’s been published to much acclaim – to dispersed locations.

King + Company, a tightly knit firm that packs a big wallop in the PR world, created a spectacular office space customized to reflect not only the personality of the firm but its individual stakeholders. Acknowledged in the press as “the coolest of cool spaces” where everyone wanted to work, King also attracted “simpatico” sub-tenants and movie locations scouts to use their space as part of their real estate right-sizing and income-generating strategy. This gave the firm a “jump” on flexible and agile remote working that comes less naturally for others.

Yet, acknowledging from the outset that (even spectacular) space is only part of the equation, Judith had long since instituted ongoing activities to strengthen bonds among internal stakeholders. So when Covid-19 hit, dispersing employees to remote locations, Judith and team didn’t skip a beat – they just doubled down on daily check-in and touch-down activities already in place, and so essential to ensuring that individuals know what an integral part they play in the firm’s success.

In an interactive session based on the firm’s belief that “the office” is not going away, the King + Company team will share their views on:

• The importance (and purpose) of the office: before Covid-19 and going forward
• How to make people happy in their work … and is that scalable from small to large firms?
• How King + Company finds the kind of people that thrive in their environment

At King + Company, everything is special because the people are special.

Register now.

An exclusive online sponsor session hosted by International Well Building Institute (NYC, U.S.)

About the online session:

Learn more about how the International WELL Building Institute™ (IWBI™) is leading the global WELL movement to transform our buildings and communities in ways that help people thrive.

Hear from Stephen Brown, Vice President of Global Market Development and Eleftherios Zacharakis, Associate Market Solutions Europe on a suite of impactful wellness solutions tailored for buildings and budgets of any size.

To attend this free session, please click here.