Past Event: Workplace Trends New York
Viacom, Times Square, New York
09:15 – 17:15 + Drinks Social

Designing Environments for Wellbeing & Performance
Be part of our first event in the US! We’re delighted to be working with colleagues in the New York area to bring Workplace Trends to this great city as part of Workplace Week!
We’re firmly established in London as the pitch-free, intellectual conference on Work and the Workplace but our LinkedIn Group of 9,000+ demonstrates just how international our audience is!
Our conferences look at the up-coming real trends in working spaces for the next 10-20 years. Since our first event in 2002 we’ve been among the first to look at the now trending subjects of wellness, productivity, happiness, psychology, psychoacoustics, biophilia, agile & flexible working, cellular vs open plan, to name but a few.
We’re all about sharing knowledge and connecting people. Presentations are intelligent, research & case study driven, and our social sessions are a proven way to catch up with fellow professionals and make new contacts.
Programme
09.15 Registration and Coffee
10.00 Chairman’s Welcome and Introduction
Nigel Oseland, Workplace Unlimited
Nigel Oseland is a workplace strategist, change manager, environmental psychologist, researcher, international speaker and author. Nigel draws on his psychology background and his own research to advise occupiers on how to redefine their workstyles and rethink their workplace to create working environments that enhance individual and organisational performance and deliver maximum value.
10.20 Designing the workplace for the human nervous system
Lisa Feldman Barrett, Author, Neuroscientist, Psychologist, Northeastern University
We’re delighted to welcome Lisa who will introduce the basic concepts of human brain function and discuss their relevance for the design principles that increase innovation and performance in the workplace.
Lisa Feldman Barrett, PhD, is University Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Director of the Interdisciplinary Affective Science Laboratory (IASLab) at Northeastern University, with research appointments at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital. Her research focuses on the nature of emotion from both psychological and neuroscience perspectives. Dr. Barrett has been called “the most important affective scientists of our time” and her research has been called “groundbreaking,” “inspirational,” and “transformative.” Dr. Barrett educates the public about emotion and neuroscience in her published articles in the New York Times, Popular Science, Nautilus, Cosmo, and Time Magazine. Her TED talk, published in January 2018, has been viewed over 2M times. Her book, How emotions are made: The secret life of the brain, is published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
10.50 The art and science of workplace change management
Andrew Mawson, Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA)
Andrew will set out the research that supports the rational for transitioning to modern ways of working and the typical journey travelled by organisations he has observed over 20 years. He will propose practical new ways to accelerate sustainable behavioural transition and reveal for the first time his theory of workplace ‘addiction’, a provocative theory based on his studies into neuroscience and the way humans learn and develop patterns of thinking and behaviour.
Andrew is leader of global workplace consultants Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA). From a general management career in the IT industry, his unrelenting curiosity for the transition to new models of work led to the founding of AWA in 1992. Since then he has worked with some of the world’s leading organisations on their journey to explore and implement new forms of working and workplace. He is responsible for the development of AWA’s change processes and methodologies which have underpinned the behavioural transition of over 70,000 people to new more ‘activity based’ models for work.
His research and experience has driven him to the door of Neuroscience, which he now believes holds the key to managing change and creating multi-faceted, multi-sensory workplace experiences that enable people to be the best they can be whilst leaving an indelibly loving impression on the workplace ‘consumer’.
11.20 Viacom Case Study – Nickelodeon’s Workplace
Ellen Albert, Viacom International
As a leading entertainment brand for kids, Nickelodeon has built a diverse, global business by putting kids first in everything it does.
Nickelodeon’s new offices required a grown-up space that maintained its vibrant, expressive, and fun nature. STUDIOS Architecture created a unified look and feel for the space while crafting a unique identity for each department. Key design elements include increased exposure to views and daylight, making leadership more visible, providing formal and informal meeting and collaboration zones, and “refresh and connect” areas to foster a sense of community.
Ellen Albert, AIA, is the executive in charge of real estate, design and construction for Viacom International where she is responsible for the overall strategic direction and design implementation of Viacom’s global real estate requirements. In this position, Ms. Albert provides leadership for over 6,000,000 square feet of office, studio and production space for Viacom’s divergent businesses including the cable channels MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, CMT, Comedy Central, Paramount Network, TV Land and BET. She oversees as well all facilities and office services, building operations, and corporate dining and special events for Viacom. Ms. Albert holds a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Fine Arts and received a BA in Art History and French from Emory University.
11.50 Break
12.20 Designing for Workplace Wellness and Performance in the Age of Algorithms and Machine Learning
Arjun Kaicker, Zaha Hadid Architects
This presentation looks at how algorithms and machine learning are creating unprecedented opportunities to design workplaces that enhance wellbeing and performance. Arjun will demonstrates examples of current advanced computational analytics including tools that simultaneously balance the unique preferences of thousands of individual staff and instantaneously analyse user benefits of multiple design options. He will explore how these and other technologies can help create workplaces that are more tailor made to overall and individual wellness and performance drivers and are more adaptive to changing needs.
Arjun Kaicker is Co-Head of Workplace Analytics and Insights at Zaha Hadid Architects. Arjun has been an Architect and Workplace Consultant for 20 years and was a partner at Foster+Partners before joining ZHA in 2015
12.50 Willis Towers Watson Case Study
Jolie Frank, Willis Towers Watson
Based on the concept of “it’s ours to share not anyone’s to own,” and taking full advantage of its recent merger of equals, Willis Towers Watson leads their industry in new ways to work. The firm’s New York headquarters at 200 Liberty Street, Brookfield Place, is an open, light-filled, egalitarian environment with a variety of activity-based settings that afford ample opportunity for both head’s down work and team (and cross-team) collaboration. In this case study, Jolie outlines the thinking behind and the reality of WTW’s newly designed workspace.
Jolie has over 20 years of experience in the human resources consulting industry with expertise in HR strategy and operational excellence, compensation and benefits strategy and design. She has worked across a wide range of industries including, utilities, energy, media, financial services, pharmaceutical, professional and business services. Throughout her career, Jolie has also worked on numerous merger and acquisition transactions that have involved integration of compensation, benefits and HR service delivery models.
1.20 Lunch
2.20 Creating The Elemental Workplace
Neil Usher, Unispace
Everyone deserves a great workplace – but for the majority, this remains a distant prospect. A focus on twelve elements can enable organisations wherever they are located, whatever the nature of their business, whatever form of workstyle or aesthetic desired or funds available, to create a fantastic workplace. Updating an idea first published in mid-2014 and recently brought together in the newly published The Elemental Workplace, this session will explore why these elements are so vital, and how they can be deployed.
We’re delighted to that Neil will be signing copies of The Elemental Workplace at the event, and a complimentary copy, signed by Neil will be available for all delegates.
Neil is an internationally experienced senior property, workplace, facilities and change management leader, skilled in all areas of the property lifecycle. He has been in the property industry for 25 years and worked all over the world, originally starting in FM, and latterly as Workplace Director at Sky, passing through the music, film, engineering and mining sectors on the way including seven years as global property head for Rio Tinto. With the multiple-award-winning Sky Central in London he has recently completed the design and delivery of one of Europe’s largest, most progressive and amenity-rich agile workplaces, successfully transitioning 3,500 colleagues from traditional working environments. His role at Unispace as Executive Consultant brings this occupier-side experience to bear, encompassing strategy, business development and widening the scope of the service offer to include real estate and FM. He has an influential blog, workessence, is a regular conference and academic speaker, and his first book The Elemental Workplace was published by LID in the UK in March 2018 and in the USA in June.
2.50 Wellbeing and Performance: Stop Guessing – Start Gathering
Tim Oldman, Leesman
The era of employee first workplace experience is upon us. How prepared are you?
As the Founder of Leesman, Tim sought to offer the property market the first truly independent, unified and standardized pre and post occupancy evaluation tool. The Leesman Index is now the largest independent workplace effectiveness database containing over a quarter of a million employee responses. As CEO, Tim is responsible for the creative and strategic development of the Leesman brand in the UK and internationally, and for exploring the opportunities to develop parallel focused products for the Higher Education and Healthcare markets.
3.20 Workplaces, Technology and the City: Re-shaping the workplace
Andrew Laing, PhD., Andrew Laing Consulting, LLC
This presentation explores the implications of our technologically networked urban landscape for how we think about the future of the workplace. Technology is re-shaping our ideas of spaces, places and community. The programs for buildings, places and the city are being transformed by increasing mobility, fluidity and blurring of activities in space. By looking at examples of new kinds of hybrid environments and new ways in which space is provided, designed, and used, we can imagine new futures for the workplace.
Andrew Laing, PhD, is an independent workplace strategist with interests spanning the changing worlds of work, workplaces, technology, and cities. Since 2007 he has been a visiting lecturer at Princeton University in urban theory and architecture. Until 2016, he was the global practice leader for workplace strategy at AECOM, (formerly known as DEGW). He joined DEGW in London in 1989, founding the North American practice in 1998. He co-authored the books: The Responsible Workplace (1994) and New Environments for Working (1998) with Frank Duffy and has published many articles.
3.50 Break
4.20 The Science of Smarter Workplaces
Sally Augustin, Design With Science & Ellen Keable, Jacobs
Cognitive scientists have learned a lot about the design of spaces in which people, individually and in groups, are most likely to work to their full potential. These are places that are comfortable, communicate to employees that they are valued, and coordinate with the work to be accomplished. This session will provide practical, straightforward, science-informed insights into how workplace design actually can comfort, communicate, and coordinate. Recent research on workplace densities and control will be used to illustrate how research findings can be applied in practice and precise guidelines for usable square feet per work seat will be shared along with suggested percentage allocations of workplace areas to individuals and groups.
Comfort, communication, and coordination will also be addressed via a series of in-practice examples related to, for example: employee environmental control, areas that support privacy or concentration or both or neither, and aligning workplace design with group cultures. Science-based design essentials for effective workplaces will quickly evolve from theoretical concepts to practical tools in the course of this fast-paced presentation.
Sally Augustin is a practicing environmental psychologist and a principal at Design With Science. She has extensive experience integrating science-based insights to develop recommendations for the design of places, objects, and services that support desired cognitive, emotional, and physical outcomes. Her clients include manufacturers, service providers, and design firms in North America, Europe, and Asia. Dr. Augustin, who is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, holds leadership positions in professional organizations such as the American Psychological Association and the Environmental Design Research Association.
Ellen Keable, Associate AIA, leads change management with Jacobs Workplace Performance Strategies. Ellen brings 30 years of experience addressing the human side of workplace strategies to ensure a good fit between the physical workplace, people, and business. As an architect and social scientist, she integrates business analysis and social research with design, focusing on performance, wellness, and engagement. Ellen is the former chair of the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) and an editorial reviewer for the journal ‘Environment and Behavior’.
5.05 Chairman’s Close, followed by
5.15 Drinks Social
We are all about connecting people – so everyone is invited to join an informal drinks social after the conference at Viacom. Many a fruitful collaboration has been conceived at our events!
Registration
You can book your space at this exciting event now at the rate of just $395 for a single ticket or $750 for two delegate places. You fee includes all refreshments, digital copies of presentations and the post conference drinks social.
Who’s already registered?
Teams and individuals from these organisations have signed up to attend. Register now to join them.
- 20Chairs
- ADI Workplace Acoustics
- Advanced Workplace Associates AWA
- AFD Contract Furniture
- AgilQuest
- Akamai Technologies\
- Allwork | Business of Furniture
- Andrew Laing Consulting
- Asure Software
- Atdec
- Bala Consulting Engineers, Inc.
- CBRE
- Corporate Essentials
- Creative Office Pavilion
- Design With Science
- Designtex
- Director, Product Management
- ETat Design
- FHLBNY
- Fidelity Investments
- Fidelity Real Estate Company
- FlexLocker
- Gensler
- GlaxoSmithKline
- Goldman Sachs
- Herman Miller Inc
- International WELL Building Institute
- iOFFICE
- Jacobs
- Jacobs Buildings and Infrastructure
- Leesman
- Lemay
- Lemay + Toker
- Magenta Associates
- Manager of Workplace Strategy
- Marsh & McLennan Companies
- Nasdaq
- Northeastern University
- Robert A. Klein Consulting LLC
- Standard Chartered
- Studio CvR
- Studio Office Solutions
- Teknion
- The New York Foundling
- Transwestern
- Unispace
- University of Virginia / Glimmer Studio
- Upflex
- Viacom
- Viacom International
- Willis Towers Watson
- Workplace Trends
- Workplace Unlimited
- Workspace Association of New York (WANY)
- Workup Ergonomics LLC
- Zaha Hadid Architects
- ZGF Architects