For decades, workplace comfort has been designed around averages: fixed temperatures, static standards and outdated assumptions. 
But today’s workplaces are diverse, dynamic and anything but average. This keynote challenges the idea of 'one size fits all' comfort and shows why many offices feel uncomfortable, inefficient, and energy wasteful as a result. It makes the case for a dynamic, personal approach to indoor climate; one that improves wellbeing, comfort and energy performance by designing for real people, not averages.

Blurred landlord–tenant responsibilities are becoming a major pressure point in commercial real estate. As vacancy rates climb and the gap between prime and non prime assets expands, workplace experience is emerging as a decisive factor in asset performance. This panel will explore whether experience is a landlord duty, tenant obligation or shared infrastructure, how adaptability should be valued and whether hybrid work will accelerate multi use strategies. With demand shifting toward shorter commitments, the discussion also explores how coworking, flex solutions and hybrid leases can reinforce long term tenancies, stabilise portfolios and broaden appeal. Expect an honest debate on where value is created, who captures it and how experience can redefine portfolios under pressure.

ESG frameworks and EU regulations are reshaping how workplaces are designed and evaluated. Social impact is now measured, reported, and compared. The workplace is no longer neutral; it reflects responsibility and compliance. This session explores how to turn these requirements into better decisions.

Global innovation ecosystems are becoming more interconnected, with talent, capital and knowledge flowing increasingly across borders rather than staying within single regions. At the same time, we see a shift from isolated campuses to integrated innovation districts, where physical space, community and governance are actively aligned. The key challenge moving forward is not just creating these ecosystems, but organizing them effectively—through collaboration, clear positioning and sustainable funding models.

Haskoning’s new Delft office demonstrates how a national monument can be reimagined as a contemporary workplace that supports culture, collaboration and organisational identity. The transformation of the former Mining Faculty introduces two glass‑covered atriums, 750 workspaces and a future‑ready, fully gas‑free environment, balancing heritage with modern functionality. By combining adaptive reuse with thoughtful spatial design and circular material strategies, the project offers insights for leaders shaping workplaces that must attract talent, strengthen community and remain resilient to long‑term change.

The new generation of government office buildings advances healthy buildings and the circular economy, helping to set a new standard for a more sustainable built environment. Governments uniquely commission, own and regulate buildings at scale. In a 30-minute high-speed deep dive, we explore project initiation, tendering, design and construction, using Avenue Ceramique Maastricht as a case study. A radically circular, green strategy – maximizing reuse, bio-based materials, and flexible structures – will transform 16,000 m² into a healthy, adaptive workplace by 2028.

Many organisations struggle with low office occupancy and uneven weekly patterns, yet hybrid work policies continue to be shaped mainly by C‑level, HR and workplace teams. The day‑to‑day reality, however, is determined by middle managers who coordinate presence, set expectations and navigate discomfort around accountability. This session explores why managers hesitate to steer team attendance, how this gap sustains the familiar “camel week”, and what organisational conditions are needed to support more effective, manager‑led hybrid practice. Moderator: Janet Dunning.

Every organisation is always in motion: adapting to the market, building its future, improving the way work gets done, or navigating major change.
Flux helps leaders stay continuously connected to the people who know the organisation best: the workfloor. By giving employees an ongoing voice, Flux surfaces what is working, what is getting in the way, and where untapped potential is waiting to be used.
In five minutes, Jort Verhage shows how Flux helps organisations make better-supported decisions, strengthen connection, and turn everyday employee insight into continuous progress.

The most innovative workplaces of today don't just sit in the city, they draw their energy from it. Proximity to transit, housing, culture and a vibrant mix of people and activities is what attracts knowledge workers and the organisations that employ them. Urban location promotes sustainable mobility, unlocks the potential of existing buildings, and is increasingly shaping the strategic planning of cities and campuses alike. Drawing on projects from Rotterdam to Singapore, this talk shows what it looks like when the city itself becomes the greatest workplace amenity of all.

Across the Randstad, mixed‑use innovation hubs are redefining how businesses and higher education foster innovation, social impact and community life. Both are moving into city centres and dense urban environments to stay connected to scarce talent. As campus and community merge, open, ecosystem‑driven districts are emerging where work, learning and everyday life overlap. Making these places ‘sticky’ requires new thinking around organisation, programming and long‑term stewardship.

This session traces the development of urban campuses from global shifts to practical delivery, highlighting their relevance for cities, regions, end users and investors. Through real examples such as corporate campuses embedded in local neighbourhoods and redeveloped modernist sites like Tripolis Park, it shows how placemaking, design and investment strategy bring the city‑as‑campus model to life.

Hybrid work is here to stay — but our meeting experience wasn’t designed for it. At ING, employees told us hybrid meetings felt frustrating and unequal,with rooms, behaviours, and facilitation stuck in old habits. Instead of solving it with technology alone, we partnered across IT, Facilities, and Employee Experience, and grounded our approach in employee research and real pilots. This presentation shares what we learned, the gamechangers that improved hybrid meeting quality, results so far, and what’s next — including adoption, AI in meetings, and smarter booking and availability.

Drawing on insights from the State of the Workplace 2026 survey, this session explores a critical shift in workplace strategy. While hybrid working patterns have largely settled, employee engagement is declining and frustration with everyday workplace friction remains high. The data exposes a widening “performance gap” between the intent behind workplace investment and the experience employees actually have. This talk reframes the workplace not as background infrastructure, but as a strategic performance lever—and challenges leaders to rethink how space, services and technology either enable human performance or actively undermine it.

Workplace designers now have access to unprecedented volumes of information – live occupancy data from sensor systems, continuous user feedback and years of post occupancy insight. Yet much of this intelligence still has little impact on real design choices. This panel explores why data so often stalls at dashboards and reports and how architects, interior designers and workplace strategists can translate it into truly human centred outcomes. From continuous feedback loops to AI supported benchmarking, speakers share practical approaches to turning insight into action and enabling spaces to evolve in dialogue with the people who use them. Moderator: Victoria Davalos