Changing Frontiers: Global Trends for the New World of Work

Jeremy Myerson, Director, WORKTECH Academy, Professor Emeritus, Royal College of Art

Amid recurring layers of disruption, one constant now illuminates the world of work and workplace. This is a consistent line of travel towards flexible working, including its hybrid and remote variants, in the aftermath of the global pandemic. A significant majority of the workforce today express a desire for flexibility. More companies believe that supporting and enabling flexible work should be a priority. In this session, WORKTECH Academy director Jeremy Myerson draws on stories and evidence from around the Academy network to present a picture of what is happening inside organisations and office buildings around the world.

Lego: New Hybrid ‘Best of Both’ Working Model

Tim Ahrensbach, Global Workplace Strategist – LEGO Workplace Experience

In Spring this year, the LEGO Group opened its newest flagship workspace LEGO Campus in Denmark. The building is inspired by the unique LEGO values of fun, imagination and creativity and is designed to support the LEGO Group’s new hybrid working model, Best of Both. Tim shares the history and thoughts behind the space and reveals what’s next for the LEGO group’s workplace experience.

Implementing a Smart Building Solution in Our 500+ Offices Worldwide, to Save 40M$+ per year

Hans Scholten, VP Corporate Real Estate, IoT Innovation Lead, Capgemini

To make data driven decisions on the optimization of their portfolio of more than 500 offices worldwide, Capgemini implemented a smart building solution based on LoRaWan technology and sensors. The real-time sensor data also enables their employees to easily find free desks or rooms. Today contract renewals result in an average decrease of 10% in floorspace, which saves Capgemini more than 50M$ per year.

Understanding Collaboration Networks And What They Can Tell Us About The Office

Arraz Makhzani, Associate Director – Workplace Analytics, UnWork

In this talk, Arraz Makhzani, Head of Analytics at UnWork will explore how we can use novel data sources like Microsoft Viva Insights to uncover hidden patterns of collaboration at work and how we can use those to plan, optimise and return to the office in the world of hybrid working.

Digital Safari

Philip Ross, Futurologist & CEO, Cordless Group & UNWORK

As more flexible work patterns, flexible organisations and flexible buildings emerge in the wake of the global pandemic, Philip, will give a big-picture view of corporate responses to the challenge of hybrid working from around the world. Philip will introduce technology innovations and trends that he is seeing in key workplaces and discuss solutions that can make your workplace flexible, engaging, optimized and deliver the best employee experience.

Talent war: Can business win without a clear brand proposition?

Apolline Picot, Creative Director APAC, Landor & Fitch

A powerful brand proposition is more critical than ever. It shapes culture, secures clients, attracts talent – and keeps them. Brand is a key factor in real estate and workplace design decisions that deliver growth. So, how can a brand led approach give you the strategic tools to win the war?

The Culture Advantage

Dan Strode, Global Director of HR Culture & Strategy, Grupo Santander

In this practical intervention, Dan will share – through a series of case studies – why it is critical that organisations and individuals continue to learn and adapt on a daily basis, as well as embrace technology in all they do – so that they can innovative at scale and thrive in an ever changing world. The intervention will share a number of helpful hints and tips you can immediately put into practice, to enhance your business culture and stimulate innovation.

The Pilgrim’s Guide to the Workplace

Dr. Agustin Chevez, Workplace Researcher and Consultant, Honorary Fellow, The University of Melbourne

Dr. Agustin Chevez walked in isolation for 42 days from Melbourne to Sydney expecting to incubate a unique idea about workplace design. Over a million steps later, his pilgrimage delivered unique insights which he refers to as Signposts – named for their promise to point to a better place to work for both, organisations and the people who inhabit them. In his talk, Agustin will take us in a journey that revisits our assumptions about the way we use space to host the ever-evolving notion of work – an expedition leading not only to better workplaces, but a better version of ourselves.

Sustained Innovation – A Different Approach

Tom Pedersen, Founder and President, duXit

Steve Monaghan, General Partner, FinMira

Michael Glazer, Senior Consultant, People Focus Consulting

Innovation is uncertain. The simple conflict between performance today and the promise of performance tomorrow. Corporations try to innovate and learn ‘that didn’t work, let’s not do it again.’ A different approach is required. Steve and Tom will talk about their experiences of creating organizational cultures where innovation thrives.

Creative Continuum: The Design and Art of Ron Arad

Jeremy Myerson, Director, WORKTECH Academy, Professor Emeritus, Royal College of Art

Ron Arad, Industrial designer, artist, and architectural designer

Whether designing a tiny piece of jewellery or a large office tower, leading international architect and artist Ron Arad applies the same approach combining curiosity, imagination, form-giving and material invention irrespective of scale. In this exclusive interview with WORKTECH Academy director Jeremy Myerson, the much-acclaimed Israeli-born and London-based designer describes how he works, recalls his long relationship with Japan and shares the process behind recent projects from his studio.

A Four-Day Future: The Case for a Shorter Working Week

Andrew Barnes, Architect of 4 Day Week, Founder, Perpetual Guardian

In this presentation, Andrew Barnes will:
– Describe the background to 4 Day Week Global and the growing international four-day week movement
– Discuss the historical context to working time reduction, how the pandemic has disrupted societal and cultural norms, and in turn turbocharged demand
– Describe our global pilot programs and research projects, including support provided, levels of participation, and some early research findings
– Detail why organizations are trialling or introducing shorter work weeks, and how they are doing it
– Discuss what this might mean for the future of work

How To Enable Sustainable Work Life For Employees

Louise Dyrendahl, Nordic Workforce Advisory Leader, EY Consulting

Sustainable work-life is about enabling working and living conditions to support people in engaging and performing throughout an extended working life. Making work sustainable requires technical and workplace design as a prerequisite to create high-quality jobs. Organizations all over the world are transitioning back from remote working to hybrid working. The transition demands new technology, effective office space and more collaboration. This session explores how best to create effective and sustainable organizational structures and workplaces of the future. What can this mean for workplace experience, talent retention, productivity, and wellbeing? How do we measure what is great? How do we successfully work across functional real estate, human resources (HR) and information technology (IT) to deliver it?

Listening for the Story

Primo Orpilla, Co-Founder, Studio O+A

Over 31 years of designing work environments O+A developed a process for translating a company’s brand into physical spaces. It starts with listening to the client. O+A’s CEO Primo Orpilla talks about how his firm uses brand analysis, storytelling, digital collaboration, and customization to create workplaces that speak for themselves. With a growing number of projects in Asia and Australia, O+A continues to open new doors.

Worktech 22 Tokyo Wrap-up: Key considerations in designing the workplace of the future

Yuki Kanamori, WORKSTYLE RESEARCH LAB, Workplace Researcher and Editor, Kokuyo

The pandemic taught businesses around the world they need to be agile to respond to unexpected situations. In this presentation, Yuki Kanamori discusses key learnings across Worktech Tokyo 22 sessions, including the latest updates in hybrid work, technological innovation, and employee retention initiatives.

He highlights key points to consider in post-pandemic workplace strategies, based on leading examples from overseas.