Page 5 - RC21 EDGE Summer Issue

a produced event but rather an experiment in which attendees had an active role. We asked them to set their expectation low, be an active participant and come to the table with ideas on how to improve the experience. We simply could not have achieved a true understanding of what this would look like until we brought everyone in and experienced it first-hand. Both hybrid events were a great success; we learned a great deal and are one step closer to understanding what a hybrid event experience looks like. The similarities to a hybrid workplace are significant.
I have a strong sense that this is going to be the same with the return to work. We will simply not know until people start coming back en masse, bringing their own behaviors, needs, desires and requirements—and the feedback is gathered. In many respects, most organizations lost last year, given that so few companies had people back in
the office in significant numbers. There could have been safe experiments throughout 2020 that would have been providing feedback, even if only in small amounts to management. It also would have been a great opportunity to experiment with the relevant immersive technologies that we will use in the future workplace.
From an operations perspective, answers are somewhat elusive on how fast we can take building management to the “smart building” paradigm. Until the data is in
on actual building usage so we can visualize what the space ultimately looks like, we cannot make 500,000 SF smart if we may only need 250,000 SF in the future. This transformation is truly going to require many multiple iterations of trial and error. To make matters even more
challenging, this new workplace will require time and money at a time when the real estate industry is still trying to reconcile a year and a half of empty buildings— with many tenants struggling to pay their rent.
In many of my conversations I hear, “We just can’t wait to get back to the way we were” or “I can’t wait for the day when I do not have to do another Zoom meeting.” For those people I would hope that they would not let this crisis go unused. We were forced to learn a lot and we had a glimpse into the future, one that in many cases is more efficient and effective. A future that can assist in meeting those aggressive climate change goals while at the same time providing for highly creative, stimulating, rewarding and effective workplace experiences.
In my opinion the future is a HYBRID one; a future
with the perfect combination of bricks and mortar and technology. A seamless integration of physical and virtual experiences, one that honors a person’s time as well
as the resources required to run a planet of 7.4 billion people. To physically travel just because that is the way we did business for the last 50 years is a complete waste of everything we have learned from this massive, global experiment. The corporate campus needs to treat the home office as if it is just down the hall. In person or online will not be winners unto themselves, but rather the perfect combination of both.
HYBRID is our word for 2021 at the intersection of Commercial and Corporate Real Estate, Technology, Automation and Innovation.
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