Events

Our 2016 Smartworking Summit Series

Our 2016 Smartworking Summit programme went to new heights, with a new all-day venue and a 250-cabaret seating auditorium that hosted a capacity c-suite audience for all three events.

New for 2016 were six more intimate round table sessions during the afternoon of each Summit that offered a deeper dive into the business-critical topics of the day.

The 15^th March Summit explored “stepping up to the workplace diversity challenge”. With organisations increasingly saying they’ve stripped the labour market, that offices are in the wrong location and are not fit for purpose. This Summit explored creating the right work space and culture for this challenge. Debating these challenges were;

Simon Morys
Head of Government ‘Whitehall Campus’ transformation

Tom Ball
CEO Near Desk

Chris Hood
Managing Director Workplace Innovation CBRE

Michael Roper
Global Vice President FM, SAP

Lucy Adams
Former BBC HR Director

Sarah Shields
Executive Director and General Manager, Dell

The 8^th June Summit explored “creating today’s place for tomorrow’s talent”. While organisations may roughly know how many employees they will have in twelve months’ time, there is no possible way of knowing what jobs they will be doing or how they will be working. With productivity down by 17% over the last decade, this Summit explored dwindling productivity and how to reverse the trend. Debating these challenges were;

Greg Searle MBE
Triple Olympic champion and Gold medal winner

Simon Hay
CEO Dunnhumby

Richard Bandell
CEO GRG

Cheryl Kennedy
Director of Digital Services, Barclaycard

Josefin Holmberg
Director Business Transformation, Thomson Reuters

Richard Copley
Head of Transformation, DWF llp

Johnny Dunford
Director of CRE, BNP Paribas

The 5^th October Summit explored “unlocking the full potential of women at work”. Put simply, WE’RE RUNNING OUT OF WORKERS. A joint study by the Department for Work & Pensions and the Office for National Statistics showed that the UK will have 13.5 million job vacancies over the next decade but only 7 million people will be leaving schools and universities during that same period. This Summit explored how this stark talent shortfall can be addressed. Debating the challenge were;

Caroline Waters OBE
Vice Chair Equalities & Human Rights Commission