Workplace Trends: Research Spring Summit    #wtrends19
Thursday 21 March 2019, 09:15 – 17:30
+ Registration 08:30-09:15 and Drinks Social 17:30-18:30
at The British Library, London NW1 2DB

Our workplace research-driven Spring Summit returns for 2019!
We have two sessions with invited guest speakers, our keynote and our infamous after-lunch debate. Ten further sessions are the cream of our recent call for abstracts which were blind peer reviewed by our two moderators, Nigel Oseland (Workplace Unlimited) and Mark Eltringham (Workplace Insight / WorkandPlace).
Speakers were chosen based on having excellent research content, as well as displaying great communications skills, so our audience can look forward to a stimulating and inspirational day on 21st March!
Delegates come away from our conferences brimming with ideas and inspiration. Presentations are pitch-free and especially with this event, you won’t hear so many information-packed sessions in one place anywhere else. Join our Spring Summit and become of our elite community of workplace professionals!
Registered delegates have immediate access to our conference app so they can begin connecting with fellow attendees without delay, but you can see the current list of registered companies here.
As always we will have a small supporting exhibition: our sponsors will be in attendance, plus a few selected further companies. For all their details check our exhibition page.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

This is a brief outline of our programme, click here for full details of presentations and speakers.

Keynote: An Evidence-Based Approach to Workplace Management
Rob Briner, Professor of Organizational Psychology, Queen Mary, University of London & Scientific Director, Center for Evidence-Based Management

Rob Briner is Professor of Organizational Psychology at Queen Mary, University of London and also Scientific Director of the Center for Evidence-Based Management.  His research has focused on several topics including well-being, emotions, stress, ethnicity, the psychological contract, absence from work, motivation, work-nonwork and everyday work behaviour. More…

The role of Virtual Reality and psychological tests in workplace design research
Ruth Hynes, Atkins and Michael Proulx, University of Bath

Work plays an influential role on our lives, and the quality of working environments can have considerable impact on our health and wellbeing. Atkins’ recently collaborated with the Departments of Psychology at University of Bath and Bath Spa University on new ways in which we can study psychological responses to workplace design.
Using virtual reality environments and Visual Spatial Perspective Taking (VSPT) tasks to assess cognitive responses and spatial awareness, these studies have provided further insight into the complex relationships between different spatial attributes and different methods that can be used in design research.
More…

A Biophilic Case Study: How to measure well-being and productivity in the workplace
Julia Ayuso, CBRE

In response to the challenges of how to measure the improvement of productivity and well-being through biophilic architecture design, we developed a tool that measures the predicted features that improve productivity and well-being, based on a scientific method, which has been tested by a pilot experiment. More…

People, Performance, Place – Measuring the success of workplace transformation using perceptive, observational and cognitive data.
Robin Bott, AON, and Nicola Gillen, AECOM

Workplace transformation can be a powerful vehicle to initiate culture change, inspire innovation and improve productivity. What businesses really want to know is – is it worth it, and does it have a lasting impact on the bottom line.
AECOM took the opportunity to transform its London real estate into a thriving Greater London campus community and leveraged the change as a study environment for measuring the impact of spatial and cultural transformation on performance, collaboration, wellbeing and hard metrics. More…

Indoor Environmental Qualities and the effects on human performance and productivity
Ian Baker, EMCOR

Within the workplace, how much is too much CO2? Do you know whether the energy used to lower indoor CO2 (creating more of it to pump into the atmosphere!) is beneficial? Or, are you like most organisations, not even measuring it?
And, what about the effects of temperature and humidity? More…

Location Independent // #MyLifeAsADigitalNomad
Deborah Simmons, Camino Insight Ltd

Location Independent is an in-depth qualitative study into the growing movement of Digital Nomads, and how the demand for greater working flexibility is forcing the workplace to redefine itself.
It follows a community of Nomads living and working in a different city each month for a year (March 2017-18), in Europe and Latin America. More…

After lunch debate: “The workplace profession is now just pandering to fads and fancies, and the ‘workplace’ is now done: we’ve run out of meaningful things to say”.
For the motion: Rob Harris, Ramidus Consulting
Against the motion: Katrina Kostic Samen, KKS Strategy

“I spent some time with Frank Duffy recently, releasing a stream of memories of working with him, first as an employee at DEGW during the 1980s, and then as a client while directing developer Stanhope’s research programme during the 1990s. Along with his long-term business partner, John Worthington, and thinkers including Franklin Becker, Gerald Davis, Michael Joroff and Jack Tanis, to name a few, Frank helped sketch out the grand scheme of what we now call ‘workplace’. Much of the work of their successors has involved filling in the matrix of detail within the grand scheme.
But further reflection has caused me to ask whether, in filling in the finer details, we have recently somehow lost our way? Are we, the ‘workplace profession’, instead of standing on giants’ shoulders, now just pandering to fads and fancies. Or, even more radical, might it be that ‘workplace’ is now done, and that we’ve run out of meaningful things to say?”
Rob will speak for the motion that we have lost our way in workplace design and management. Katrina will  make the case against! More…

Here and Now: Using our experience-sampling app to measure knowledge workers’ productivity
Iva Kleinová and Matúš Konečný, HB Reavis

Measuring productivity of knowledge workers, who may not have measurable work outputs, is difficult. Perceived productivity seems to be a viable proxy for understanding environmental effects on productivity. We developed and tested an experience-sampling application to measure the productivity of our employees in Bratislava, Slovakia and London. More…

Crafting Work – Crafting Workplace
Suvi Nenonen and Ursula Hyrkkänen, Tampere University of Technology

Work crafting is defined as self-initiated change behaviour that employees use with the aim to align their jobs with their preferences, motives and passions.
It is proactive work behaviour aiming to improve person’s job fit over work motivation. The places and spaces is one element for employees’ work crafting.
The presentation is based on the data gathered in the project New Ways of Work Crafting, which has investigated how the working time and workspace management practices are crafted by employees in Finnish SME-companies. More…

The relationship between environment, employee wellbeing, and productivity:
Michael Roskams, KTP Associate/PhD Student, Sheffield Hallam University & Mitie Energy

Michael will discuss his PhD research, the aim of which is to explore the relationship between the physical workplace environment, employee wellbeing, and productivity.
He will present the Environmental Demands-Resources (ED-R) Model, which is applicable for understanding the effects of the workplace environment on the job performance of knowledge workers. In addition Michael will cover the use of wireless sensors and other forms of data capture that can help predict employee wellbeing and productivity. More…

The Eight Laws of Workplace
Neil Usher, Chief Workplace Officer, GoSpace

However we look at workplace, whatever research we do, however we break down our thinking and evaluate components of the workplace, we always return to eight basic and understandable laws. They form the basis of our entire understanding of the workplace. They are not optional. It is the vital frame of reference that all practitioners, thinkers, writers and analysts need, and will help us focus on the right paths of enquiry in future rather than re-processing that which has been solved. More…

Conference Moderators and Abstract Review Team

Mark Eltringham, Workplace Insight and
Nigel Oseland, Workplace Unlimited 

Mark Eltringham has worked in the office design and facilities management sector for 25 years. He is the publisher of www.workplaceinsight.net, an online publication that explores the relationships between commercial interior design, workplace management, technology, property, human resources, the wider business world and society. The publications is now the UK’s most widely read title in its field. More…
Nigel Oseland is a workplace strategist, change manager, environmental psychologist, researcher, international speaker and published author. He 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. More…

Live Twitter Blog

Who’s Attending

Registered delegates have immediate access to our conference app so they can begin connecting with fellow attendees without delay, but teams and individuals from the companies below have already secured their seats. Will you be joining them?
3 Edges – Active Workplace Solutions – AECOM – AllSfar – Ama Design – Anglia Ruskin University – Anima Insight – AON – Arcadis – Archinova – Atkins – Baker Stuart – Barr Gazetas – Be Inspired Design – Bennetts Associates – BGIS – Blue Jelly – Bond Bryan – Boss Design – Broadway Malyan – Bureau Workspace – Camino Insight – Cartwright Pickard – CBRE – Center for Evidence-Based Management – Colebrook Bosson Saunders – Competition and Market Authority – Condeco – Croda Europe – cut-e Group ( an AON company) – Electricity Supply Board Ireland – EMARI Group Ltd – EMCOR UK – Essex County Council – Excel IT – ExcelRedstone – Flexibility.co.uk – Form Design Consultants – Future Platforms – GCUC – Global Coworking UnConference – Geraghty Taylor – GoSpace – HB Reavis – HelleNohr WorkPlaceDesign ApS – Herman Miller – Human Connections – IA Interior Architects – Il Prisma Architettura srl – iDEA – Imperial College – Inclusive Cultures – Indoor Garden Design – Interaction Associates Ltd – Islington Council – Jim Clemes – Just Practising – Kingsley Symes Consulting Ltd – KKS Strategy – Landsec – Lendlease – Loughborough University – M Moser – Mapiq – Measuremen – Middlesbrough Council – Mitie – MONTROC Consulting – Morgan Lovell – Morgan Maxwell – NATS – Osmond Ergonomics – Perkins + Will – Popbox Works – Queen Mary, University of London – Ramidus – The Remark Group – RICS Property Journal – Ropes & Gray – Saint-Gobain Ecophon – Sandy Brown – Seymour Architecture – SH + A – Sheffield Hallam University – Spaceonmove – Studio Banana – Studiofibre – Tampere University of Technology – Technical University of Madrid – The Instant Group – UCL – Unispace – University of the Arts, London – University of Bath – Woodhouse – Workagile – workessence – Work.Life – Work and Place – Workplace Insight – Workplace Futures Group – Workplace Matters – Workplace Unlimited

Drinks Social

As with all our events, everyone is welcomed to an informal drinks social immediately after the conference close. Here the discussion continues, and you can catch up with old friends and make new connections.