Torin Douglas has reported on business matters for over 40 years, including 24 years as the media correspondent for BBC News (until 2013). Before joining the BBC, he wrote for the business sections of The Times, the Independent, the Economist, the Sunday Times and Campaign, and presented LBC Radio’s media show, Advertising World. He was also one of the founding editors of Marketing Week and the launch editor of Creative Review.

Poet, columnist, enemy of all that’s difficult and upsetting. Matt’s way with words has taken him from Totnes to the All England Tennis Club via Radio 4’s Saturday Live, The Edinburgh Festival and the work section of the Guardian.

In 2016 Sir David Adjaye received a knighthood and was the only architect to make Time magazine’s list of the world’s 100 most influential people. While passionate about the transformational role of architecture, David is dismayed by the marginalisation of architects to a ‘veneer stylist’ role within construction. Often the result of this is ‘stale’ architecture, which has a negative effect on the quality and distinctiveness of the cityscape. David will explore the crucial role architecture plays in world cities and the need for a holistic approach to the built environment.

Fuelled by his Sunday Times number 1 best seller, The Joy of Work, Bruce challenges some of the norms of work and demands that we ask ourselves how is the way we’re working, not working?

While the flex space market is maturing rapidly, the dominant offerings - coworking and the serviced office - still have their limitations. Co-founder and Co-CEO of The Office Group, Olly Olsen will be challenging the flex sector to re-imagine, shape and improve the way people work through embracing emerging innovations and a new ‘third dimension’ model.

"Experience” is the new workplace metric – but how does a global organisation create a consistent and effective workplace experience across geographies, offices, and real estate models? We will share new tools and case studies where organisations challenged their assumptions, experimented with new real estate models, and integrated technology into their planning and fit-out process to transform the way they develop, design, and evolve their global workplace strategies.

How can workplace design flex and adapt to support new styles of leadership amid rapid organisational change? This panel will discuss the findings of a new report co-authored by Fourfront, The United Workplace and WORKTECH Academy which examines ways in which leadership strategy and designing for the high-performance workplace can enjoy a more symbiotic relationship.

As the world of co-working continues to grow at an even faster pace, what do corporates do if they want to build it for themselves? Tim will be sharing some insights and learnings from his collaboration with Californian based co-working business ‘RocketSpace’ about the creation of their new London campus and using those learnings in the creation of their own newly opened ‘Living Rooms’ space in their London headquarters.

Buildings are no longer passive assets. Instead, they are interfaces between people, processes and services and should be treated as active contributors in business success. A real use case from Barings explains how office buildings function as a platform for experience by offering a smart environment and people-centric solutions.

‘Intelligent Digital’ and technology enablement is core to PwC. Internally, traditional projects are being replaced with evolving workplace strategies. In this unpredictable world where agility and reacting to change quickly is essential, understanding in real time how their property portfolio is performing and using technology to solve real business ‘problems’ are key enablers in the management of PwC’s ‘Living Portfolio’.

The world of work is changing fast, with recent predictions suggesting that up to 30 percent of corporate real estate portfolios could be flexible workspace by 2030. Richard will speak about the growing trend towards flexible working, its business benefits and why so many see it as the future of the workplace.

Futurist-in-Residence to the Technology Foresight Practice at Imperial College, and the founder of nowandnext.com a website that documents global trends, Richard is an expert on all aspects of the future. He has worked with some of the world’s most impressive corporations, including Ministry of Defence, London Business School, McDonald’s, Virgin, IBM, KPMG, General Electric, and Cambridge University. Richard will be joining us to explore the idea that work is the last place people have good ideas. If this is the case can there be an argument for working from offices and not from home?