On Tuesday 27 March Spica attended the inaugural Copenhagen Worktech 19 event run by Unwired and hosted in the innovative and trendy Rebel Work Space office. The event attracted some of the best tech & workplace design companies all looking at the big topic of what the future of work will look like.
Speakers addressed the key drivers of workplace change and new ways of working supported by IOT technology. My main take-away from this conference was the overarching necessity for collaboration. Not just between different companies, but between the fundamental lifeforce of any business, People. Drawing views from across HR departments, the Facilities team, Workplace experts and feedback from the employees is essential. This all needs to be driven from the top, without strong leadership that sees the need to be adaptive on the way they think of what “work” is and what a “workplace” should be, the good ideas will ultimately fail.
We could all learn something from the Nordic approach.
Agile working and home working were also addressed, whether it’s a good thing or not the jury’s out but ultimately a workplace will always be needed. Office workers need a place to collaborate and even with video conference technology, you can’t replace a face to face meeting or even a quick chat to share ideas. There is also a basic human need of belonging, a sense of community which the right kind of workplace can provide in spades.
My first visit to the Nordics, and chatting about how work fit’s into their lives, I feel a real appreciation for how they view work as a part of life, but only a part – and we shouldn’t forget that. The old adage of ‘work to live’ rather than ‘live to work’ very much applies, and it works, the Nordic countries are consistently the happiest demographic when it comes to work/life balance. I think we could all learn something from the Nordic approach.
Ultimately be happier and more productive in our workplaces.
Now to the tech – our feel from the event was that finally, the tech companies are starting to focus on the why rather than the how. There was hardly any discussion on hardware, connectivity or platforms which was refreshing, to say the least. The focus was clearly on why we are collecting this data, what can we do with it and what’s the business outcome. Our presentation “Beyond the Blue Dot” from Paul Collins (Spica CTO) and Christian Lundquist (Senion CEO) seemed to resonate with the delegates.
Drawing on a sizeable case study, they were highlighting the coupling of mobile app technology with Indoor Positioning and putting IoT sensor data in the hands of the employees shows how ‘work-tech’ can really support the way we work. This can enable us to stay focused on the important things and ultimately be happier and more productive in our workplaces.
Our jobs are going to look dramatically different.
Leading onto productivity, the final speaker – a Futurist; livening the crowd by walking on stage to Robbie Williams – Let me entertain you; discussed how we’re never going to be more productive than the AI robots of the future. So maybe soon we can stop worrying about productivity at work and focus on living good lives because when the AI revolution happens in years to come, our jobs are going to look dramatically different. Someone asked if Futurists might eventually be replaced with robot Futurists, resulting in a chuckle from the audience and to which he replied ‘I had better find a hobby.’
We would love to hear your thoughts on what you think the future of workplaces will bring for you and your teams. Let us know either by clicking the ‘Contact Us’ button or leave us a message on LinkedIn or Twitter.
