The future of work is being actively reshaped across the Middle East. WORKTECH26 Dubai brings together thought leaders from corporate real estate, workplace strategy, technology and HR to explore the forces redefining how organisations design, manage and experience the office. The conference programme will examine the return-to-office reset, AI-driven decision-making, smart-building innovation and the shift towards experience-led workplaces – offering insight into the key drivers of change that will shape portfolios, performance and people strategies across the region.
- Horizon52 DIFC
CONFERENCE AGENDA
Registration Opens
Conference Opens
Chairperson's Welcome
Venue Host Welcome
Keynote
Resetting the Corporate Real Estate Playbook for the Return-to-Office
After years of downsizing and consolidation, leadership teams are now enforcing stronger return‑to‑office mandates, expanding headcounts and competing for limited high‑quality space. This opening panel brings together leading voices in corporate real estate, workplace strategy and smart‑building innovation to explore the shift from density‑driven planning to experience‑led workplaces. The discussion will examine how AI and data are accelerating decision‑making, the financial implications of this new operating environment and the growing need for cross‑functional alignment.
Coffee Break and Networking
How AI Will Enable a Return to Meaningful Workplace Design
As workplaces face rising pressure to become more sustainable, efficient and culturally relevant, AI presents a chance to break free from generic design and create environments genuinely shaped by local context and human need. The challenge is pairing this design potential with clear financial returns and technology frameworks that can scale across complex portfolios. This presentation explores how AI can help deliver workplaces that are smarter, more adaptive and meaningfully connected to their environment.
Panel: AI as the New Engine of Workplace and Portfolio Strategy
AI and PropTech are rapidly transforming how organisations plan, measure and deliver real estate. From utilisation analytics across vast geographies to scalable, bookable workspace systems, data driven tools are enabling more flexible portfolios and healthier, more responsive environments. AI is reshaping the design and delivery process; deepening strategic insight, strengthening programming, reducing variation orders and smoothing coordination between designers, contractors and suppliers. This session uncovers how these technologies are creating faster, smarter and more predictable outcomes.
Innovation platform
Designing Mindful Workplaces for Belonging, Performance and Cultural Diversity
How can furniture and space design shape inclusion in practice? In this short session, Sinem Beaujean will introduce Sedus’ Inclusive Journey and show how the Mindful Office framework translates inclusion into concrete workplace solutions. She will close with direct questions designed to spark reflection and continue the conversation during the lunch activation at the Sedus space.
Lunch and Networking Break
Welcome Back
Giga, One Green Dot At A Time
Giga is a global UNICEF-ITU multilateral initiative to connect every school in the world to the internet. The Giga Connectivity Centre is located at Campus Biotech – the heart of international Geneva. It is a diverse, inclusive, collaborative space for teams to work, meet and co-create as we seek to connect every school in the world to the Internet by 2030.
The Healthy Office: Turning Workspaces into Happiness and Success Spaces
Content to be confirmed.
Session to be Announced
Designing for Utilization Extremes
Content to be confirmed.
Coffee & Networking Break
Welcome Back
Session to be Announced
Content to be confirmed.
What Culture Really Means — And How Interiors Shape It
Content to be confirmed.
Session to be Announced
Content to be confirmed.
Chair's Closing Remarks
Conference Closes
AI Accelerating Workplace Change
Artificial Intelligence is reshaping how we work, design workplaces and manage real estate and facilities. Beyond accelerating production and administrative processes, with AI agents becoming co-workers and transforming the employee experience, AI is driving workplace strategy and design, generating space utilisation analysis and scenarios, optimising layouts and streamlining collaboration between project teams and fit-out providers. Facilities management is embracing sensors and AI for predictive maintenance and adaptive environments. AI is impacting every aspect of the workplace in ways we are only starting to understand.
Flight to Quality Transforming Dubai Workplace Market
Demand for Grade A office space in Dubai is still surging as older assets face growing obsolescence. Rebuilding real estate portfolios to support return-to-office goals while facing sustained rental hikes, multinationals are moving beyond traditional office environments toward experience-driven, hospitality-inspired workplaces – balancing flexibility and longevity in an ever-changing city. Tenants demand curated amenities, wellness zones, outdoor terraces and vibrant social hubs within mixed-use developments. Real estate has evolved from a cost metric into a strategic asset for talent attraction, retention and brand differentiation.
Offices That Reflect Culture and Inspire Collaboration
Even with stricter return-to-office mandates, hybrid work is firmly established in Dubai. Employees expect autonomy in where and how they work. HR leaders aim to provide healthy environments where employees choose to spend their days in-office, co-created with them in continuous feedback loops, transitioning from traditional assigned desks to more flexible, bookable spaces with layouts that enhance well-being, creativity, collaboration and productivity. Dubai is pivoting from purely functional workplaces to culturally resonant and experience-enhancing designs that express Emirati heritage through contemporary architectural language.
