As more flexible work patterns, flexible organisations and flexible buildings emerge in the wake of the global pandemic, what are the key drivers of change in 2022? In this opening session, Professor Jeremy Myerson, Director of WORKTECH Academy, gives a big-picture view of corporate responses to the challenge of hybrid working and looks at the key implications in terms of workplace experience, brand, sustainability and inclusion.

Now you have a Smart Building, whats’next? Leaders in the adoption of Hybrid Work technology will be the market leaders of the future. Find out how technology and insights help companies accelerate in the New Hybrid world. Hear about EDGE Amsterdam West, an eye-catching building, where history, technology, and modern architecture merge.

Workplace trends such as smart workplace technology integration, human experience enablement as well as the emergence of diverse hybrid workplace behaviours have gained rapid adoption to become mainstream in 2022. Our panel will explore the emerging Intelligent Workspace and what we can expect in the near term and longer term as we shape the future of work.

It took a COVID-19 pandemic to place our everyday health and wellbeing in the spotlight. The circumstances have convinced us that society needs to invest in preventive healthcare. And what better place to start than at the place where most people just “sit” all day: the workplace. At the Workplace Vitality Hub we will use technology as well as behavioural science to create a wealth of relevant data to inspire people to take charge of their health and to become more vital at the workplace.

How do you stimulate creativity and innovation in the workspace? Which interior concepts encourage creative interaction, and creative thinking? For the past five years De Groot has been researching creativity and innovation in relation to the workspace. De Groot will show examples of best practice from large and small companies, combining research findings with relevant practices in workspace and interior architecture.

Our way of designing a safe and healthy office has shifted from a socially distanced concept, 6 Feet Office, post-covid. Yet how do we combine the lessons learned from social distancing with human centric and neuro-diverse design to meet the design standards required by modern office workers? In our living lab we experiment with the next generation 6FO and learn what that entails.

Client-facing work is challenging at the best of times, but the sudden shift to remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic has created additional difficulties. Concerns about how employee productivity and wellbeing are negatively impacted by the unfamiliar remote work context abound. We draw on a study of skilled remote workers that was conducted before the pandemic to theorise how client-facing work can be conducted effectively. In particular we examine how client-facing employees can foster a sense of belonging when they are not co-located.

This lecture will focus on a deep discussion of hybrid work and how XR can bridge the gap between office and remote work, helping to reduce friction for collaboration and enhance colleague engagement. The session will cover the various technologies for enabling XR within the enterprise and present a case study on how Accenture has used this tooling throughout COVID-19 to connect teams across the globe.

The purpose of the office has changed. Hybrid Working is the term on everyone's lips but for many, big questions remain unanswered; How do you bring the workforce back into the office? and What should that office look like? Creating a truly effective workplace has always required a perfect balance between people, place, and technology. Given this most recent and dramatic global shift in the way we work, how do we now best drive communication, motivation, engagement with the right facilities, tech, tools to work, think and collaborate.

This session will look at some real-life examples from a corporate organisation navigating hybrid working and employee workplace experience 2.0. Interviewer, Esme Banks Marr, will be joined by EMEA Workplace Experience Lead, Macarena Mendoza to discuss both the what and the how of strategy when it comes to people, place and technology.

Have your employees returned to the office? Chances are, you’re still seeing plenty of empty desks. A recent Unispace survey of over 3,000 employees and 2,750 employers revealed a resounding 64% of European workers are reluctant to return to the workplace. What’s truly driving this reluctance? In this session, we’ll dive into the key data and findings from the Netherlands and wider-Europe, sharing practical next steps to enable both a successful return to the workplace and opportunities to maximise its value.