We can’t predict the future, but we can make it happen in ways that work best for us. That’s the point of Workplace Futures, the long-running annual facilities management conference.  Few events have a lifespan this long, especially without a change of name, let alone a change in ownership. I’m proud of the team that …

The Information Age has seen us embrace technology and the resulting data – collecting it, analysing it and converting it (with greater or lesser success) into strategies and decisions that deliver real benefits. In part, this is why the era we are currently living in is defined as the ‘Information Age’.  In facilities management, for …

Planning and managing for success Tuesday, 13 July 2021 Getting back to normal – whatever form that takes for individual organisations – looks like being a growing trend. That means investigation, planning and strategy development all need to be underway in good time ahead of decision-making and action. But none of this is easy in …

We live in a time of remarkable change – as new technologies, new commercial realities, new social and economic conditions all combine to shift our views of work: what it is, how it is done, where and when. An important part of this is a new focus on responsible business, sustainability for our communities, buildings …

The landmark failure of Carillion at the beginning of 2018 continues to ripple through the industry, adding to a sense of concern – or at the least, a sense of caution – together with other big issues such as Brexit and a more general political and economic uncertainty in the UK and beyond. At the …

The ability to add value is an absolute necessity if the facilities management sector is to be sustainable, profitable and ‘a good place to be’. So how does FM add value to clients and the wider community? How do we define it, measure it, report it, demonstrate it? Workplace Futures 2018 took delegates on a …

‘Work’, ‘workplace’, even ‘facilities management’ – most of us automatically think in terms of offices when we hear those words. And that’s not surprising; but it is also a long way from being a complete picture. So much of the shared experience, discussion, research and published knowledge in our sector is drawn from the office …

The world we live and work in today is drastically different to the one we knew 20, 10 or even 5 years ago – and the speed of change is increasing all the time.  Nowhere is this truer than in the workplace.  Complex factors and emerging trends – from the social to the technological – …

Convergence is a key issue for facilities management. As organisations, work and the workplace change at ever-increasing rates, FM must more and more work in concert with other key support disciplines. These disciplines include CRE, HR, IT, finance, procurement – even marketing. So what does this mean for the future of FM? The big areas …

Innovation is a big topic in FM. Clients asks for it, and providers promise it – often in a seemingly unending cycle. But what is innovation? How do you identify it, how do you measure it, how do you assess the benefits? This key concept in facilities management – increasingly central in recent years as …

We need to move on. That was the starting point for Workplace Futures 2013 – we need to take FM theory and practice to the next level. We need to stop thinking about service delivery in the old ‘tried & tested’ ways and start thinking in terms of true alignment with business objectives and real …

In 2012, the conference programme was shaped around some of the central challenges facing UK facilities management as it begins to reach some maturity.   FM is a business discipline and a vast service industry. It is a simple service delivery requirement and a mission-critical support operation. Given that vast range, what does the future …

Facilities management is a critical business discipline. It’s also a big, dynamic and often confusing marketplace. How do service managers and service buyers develop an understanding of what they need and then make sense of what’s on offer? And how do service providers explain what they can do in ways that managers and buyers can …

Facilities management is all about people: their skills, competence, commitment and ongoing development. But FM is also a business discipline and therefore about profit: a healthy bottom line is as critical to the client as it is to the supplier. The vital link between people and profit is service delivery: a robust target-driven solution capable …

In the midst of an exceptionally difficult period, Workplace Futures tackled a critical challenge for FM companies – how to get marketing strategy and tactics right in order to cope with recession now and also be well placed for an upturn when it comes. Through a combination of market research, first-hand experience and case studies delegates …

Specialists in FM, property and ICT must learn to view the workplace as an integrated whole. And facilities managers, in particular, must learn to speak the language of the boardroom. These critical messages emerged clearly from the 2008 Workplace Futures conference, designed specifically to look at emerging issues in the industry over the next five …

Property and facilities services providers are drifting out of sync with the expectations of the marketplace. Corporate clients are increasingly looking at the big picture; we’re still looking at the details. Delegates at the first Workplace Futures conference were told that fundamental change is already well underway at many large organisations. In essence, clients are …