The Future of Workspace: Insights from the GWA Annual Conference 2014

The current revolution in the new work models was the key idea of the Global Workspace Association (GWA) Annual Conference held the past September in Boca Raton (USA). Some of the best world experts were present at the Event and were unanimous on stating that work spaces are living a new paradigm. At a time where we can work anywhere, what does effectively define a workspace and what does it take for it to be successful? This was the challenge launched by the president Annette Reizburg  and which promoted quite interesting discussions.

Matthew Von Ertfelda, Vice-President of Marriot hotels, one of the most innovative brands in the workspaces domain, highlighted in his presentation that "seating is the new smoking": the spaces, as people, are becoming increasingly more dynamic and its fundamental to know who is the new consumer, his needs and habits. “We must ensure everything is working in order to captivate him and provide ergonomically and comfortable workspaces with several options”, emphasized the Marriot’s responsible who is also one of the referral  partners of Liquidspace, the worldwide leader platform of workspaces online booking. Offices, virtual offices, coworking and meeting rooms are part of this new workspaces paradigm where, flexibility is more and more a critical factor of success, as defended Amanda Ramos, Leader of Strategy and Innovation of Gensler. Several types of clients can effectively share the same space hence the success of corporate coworking spaces such as the Workbar (Boston), Grind (NY and Chicago) or the United Spaces (Stockholm). The conference participants had the chance to visit in-loco the recently inaugurated Cendyn Spaces, which is a clear example of this new Hybrid Business Centers trend. Charles Deyo, the project’s mentor shared enthusiastically his experience of this new concept of “Work City” located in Boca Raton, where coexists public, semi-public and private spaces, having a meeting point where some lectures, networking events or daily meditation sessions for the community take place.

Philip Ross, Unwork’s CEO, gave several examples of how the new technologies came to enhance and transform these new workspaces. We are facing a reality that has never existed before: we have four different generations at work and many times sharing the same space: Traditional, Baby Boomers, Generation-X and Millennial;  each one of them sees the workspace differently and has different expectations towards it. 

Mark Gilbreath, Liquidpace’s CEO spoke us about the Golden Standard of technologies: simplicity, one finger, one minute and all very visual. A practical example of this model is the book “Out of the Office”, presented by Carlos Gonçalves, Avila Business Centers’ CEO, that combines the augmented reality technology with experiences and case studies about the new work models.
The future of workspaces has already arrived. We don’t only need a place to work but a place where we feel good doing so. The die is cast for the next chapters of this revolution, which are also going to be debate themes in the next GWA Annual Conference in Denver. 

Raquel Santana

Business Centers Manager

Avila Business Center