On Wednesday 20th November 2013 CBRE held together with American Chamber of Commerce a conference focused on the topic „The Future of Office Space“.

The conference started with a small morning briefing where all 35 attendees chatted over coffee and some snacks. The conference started shortly after the briefing. Speakers such as Bert Hesselink from CBRE, Jan Mechl from JLL, Petr Narwa from Regus, Eva Mizerová from Hays, Steven Tichý from AIG Lincoln and architect Ian Bryan summarized new trends of working and outlined how it is going to develop in the near future.

From perspective of the Czech market we reviewed whether or not tenants are keen on implementing new concepts now and/or in the future. Bert Hesselink presented a case study of the CBRE New Way of Working & trends in innovative office concepts abroad. The study takes in granted new generations, a different work-life balance, explosive technical growth and, last but not least, an economic recession and how all these factors change the way organizations are using their space.

From the point of employees the speakers tried to answer what they expect from their future workplace, if their demands and expectations are changing and if they have some expectations with respect to interior design and functionality and where the Czech Republic stands compare to other countries.

During the conference we resulted that every organisation has its own angle on this issue. The new concepts of working are also called “New Way of Working”, “No limits”, “Workplace Advantage”, “Working 2.0”, “Unplugged” and “Smarter Working”. It is not a universal one size concept, which would fit to everyone, but it must be tailored to every single organisation and its work processes. The future of office space is often associated with working from home, cost savings, a paperless office and less workstations in the offices. The trend leads to the flexible collaboration. The space will be divided into more hot-desking spots, breakout areas and variety of different space types.

All speakers came to the decision that if the space is used to its full potential, the office will create a real pulsating organism using its full potential to the top. We are happy that we received many positive feedbacks from the attendees and were asked to get back to this topic next year again to discuss it even deeply.

The event was finished with a tour around the CBRE offices in Palladium. All participations had a possibility to see, how the New Way of Working functions in everyday life.

Click here to see pictures from the event.