Google’s Downtown West: Fostering Thriving Communities in the New Era of Work 

Alexa Arena, Senior Director, Google

Downtown West is set to become one of Google’s biggest campuses in the world, with 7.3 million sq. ft of office space and over 500,000 sq. ft dedicated to shops, restaurants, and housing. The mixed-use mega-campus envisions an inclusive new part of downtown San Jose – representing a commitment to place-making, housing (including affordable housing), economic development, and environmental sustainability. In this session, Alexa Arena will share latest insights on this pioneering project and the role it will play in the future of work and urban living in San Jose and beyond. 

Making our cities more human through collaborative design

Thomas Heatherwick, Designer & Founder of Heatherwick Studio

In this exclusive interview, leading international designer Thomas Heatherwick of Studio Heatherwick explains how the modern city lost its soul and what we can do to create more human, diverse and optimistic places for people. Heatherwick discusses his latest project in Tokyo and reveals how the pandemic has ironically widened his network of collaboration.

The 12 Building Blocks Of The New Workplace 

Caroline Morris, Associate, Project Manager, Clive Wilkinson Architects & Amber Wernick, Associate, Clive Wilkinson Architects

After a year of uncertainty in the pandemic, two things are clear – the office will live on, and we will not be returning to the way things were. The COVID-19 remote working experiment has put into focus what can – and can’t – be done without a physical workplace. The powerful social and collaborative benefits the workplace offers have also made themselves painfully clear as many of us have been forced to get by without them. This is an opportunity to transform and redefine the workplace – what parts we have outgrown and should be discarded and what new opportunities we can embrace. Our team has created the New Workplace Kit of Parts – 12 reimagined spaces to support and enhance new ways of working in the post-COVID-19 workplace. 

Routes to Revival : What will make the difference in the return to the office? 

Jeremy Myerson, Director, The WORKTECH Academy & Research Professor, RCA

In this session, Jeremy Myerson, Chairman of WORKTECH Tokyo and Director of WORKTECH Academy, reviews what workplace strategies are being adopted by companies globally in a bid to bounce back from the coronavirus crisis. Who are the resolute returners to the office? And who are the choice champions of a work-from-anywhere model?

One Manhattan West 

Michael Przytula, Managing Director – Intelligent & Digital Workplaces, Accenture & Harry Morphakis, Manager, Intelligent & Digital Workplaces, Accenture

Accenture will occupy the top eight floors of One Manhattan West, bringing together in one location its more than 3,000 New York City-based employees and full breadth of capabilities. At the forefront of workplace design, the new space will provide a flexible, configurable environment that enables Accenture’s people and clients to work and collaborate in new ways, and will accommodate further growth as its business expands. 

Implementing Mixed Reality to enable the Workplace 

Andy Repton, Executive Director, Product Management & Innovation, JPMorgan Chase

 The era of virtual and augmented reality might finally be upon us. After years of promises and false starts, Covid-19 has driven a record number of workers remotely and could usher in the regular use of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) at home and in the workplace. This session will discuss how organisations can invest in virtual reality technology and virtual environments to support their future workplace strategies and enhance employee experience. 

State of the Workplace 

Philip Ross, Futurologist & CEO, Cordless Group & UNWORK

WORKTECH is founded on the  principle  that  a  harmony  of  people,  place  and,  above  all, technology should form the basis for how organisations plan the future of work. Amid the global pandemic, this vision has swum into focus as companies have pivoted to a  new  model  with  remote  working  and  a  hybrid model at  its  core.  In this session, Philip Ross will share how marginal ideas have become mainstream and by sharing an overview of emerging trends and latest innovations shaping the world of work, he will paint a portrait of the transforming landscape and share tools on how companies can embrace the New World of Work to create new paradigms for workplace 

Are Your Post-Pandemic Workplaces Ready to Support Your Post-Pandemic Workforce?

Peggie Rothe, Chief Insights & Research Officer, Leesman

Do you see COVID-19 as body-blow to real estate, or a rapid accelerant of trends already underway? Either way, it’s time to respond. It’s time to act. As business leaders rush to reappraise the role of workplace in their organisations, research from the world’s largest employee workplace experience benchmark shows how a series of simple tests can determine just how primed an organisation is for its post-pandemic workplace future. The answers to these questions shortcut leaders to where focus is most needed, where the greatest opportunities exist, and where weaknesses in legacy systems threaten to destabilise any sense of a new normality being better than before. The answers to these questions set the future-ready apart from the rest.

The Future of Hybrid Work

Shotaro Yamashita, Director, Work Style Research Lab, KOKUYO

As big tech and global companies shift towards hybrid work models, what does the future hold for workplace strategy? To answer this question, we need to think about more than just the physical office. In this session, Shotaro Yamashita presents cutting-edge case studies from around the world to highlight the changes and possibilities brought about by hybrid work.  He examines the office functions that will remain, the development of digital workplaces including the metaverse and VR, the revitalisation of local communities, shifts in worker expectations, and changes to the functions of the city.

Future Workplace: Creating a better environment than working from home

Andy Young, Partner, BIG

As communication technologies alter the geography of the workplace, Andy Young, Global Partner at leading architectural practice BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group) and Technical Director of its London office, reflects on the new purpose and design characteristics of the office building. BIG projects in Berlin, London and Mountain View, California, for Google illustrate BIG’s approach.