We launched the WorkSpace Connect brand last year with the hope of bringing together leaders from three enterprise constituencies that are critical in supporting the employee collaboration and workplaces of the future: HR, Facilities/Real Estate, and IT. The idea is that for the knowledge workers of the new decade to really do their best work, all facets of their collaborative work must be supported by their employer: They need:
- Physical spaces that encourage them to work together without driving them crazy by simply tossing them all in a big room together to see what happens
- Technology tools that let them reach anyone with whom they need to collaborate in real time, while also providing virtual spaces where project work can flourish
- Support in these efforts from HR leaders who understand what works and what doesn’t when it comes to fostering collaboration, and who can drive informed collaboration policies
So, like, no big deal.
OK, it is a big deal… it’s big, gnarly, difficult problem that most enterprises are only beginning to grapple with, and it’s made all the more complex by the need to coordinate these three major enterprise constituencies—HR, Facilities/Real Estate, and IT.
If you are a part of one of these constituencies, and you’d like to begin strategizing—or if your need is even more urgent because your enterprise is about to embark on a major workplace project—there’s a place you can go in a few months to get an in-depth examination of the issues, and to network with peers who deal with the same challenges.
Enterprise Connect is the biggest independent conference and expo in the enterprise IT/communications space, and for 30 years it’s been serving one of the three constituencies I’ve been discussing, the technology decision-makers. These folks are experiencing major disruption within their world, as video, mobility, and team collaboration apps like Slack and Microsoft Teams displace old technologies like landline telephony and complement slightly-less-old technologies like email.
As the general manager of Enterprise Connect, I’ve seen many in this audience come to realize that, while they can ferret out and deploy the most advanced technologies, the efforts may go for naught if they occur in isolation from the workplace evolutions that Facilities/Real Estate and HR teams are driving.
So we’re bringing all three of these groups together at the next Enterprise Connect, which takes place in Orlando the week of March 30. We’ve developed a collocated one-day “WorkSpace Connect Summit” program that aims to help our longtime IT audience as well as the HR and Facilities/Real Estate folks understand the challenges they share and the benefits they could gain with a more cooperative, holistic approach to strategizing on the next generation of workplace collaboration.
This one-day summit will feature
breakout sessions designed to help decision-makers from all three of the aforementioned enterprise constituencies dive deep on some of the key issues. Our vendor-independent expert session leaders will address topics ranging from the future of the open office to the ways that enterprises can use their own data to drive better workplace decision-making.
The response to last year’s WorkSpace Connect launch has been enthusiastic—professionals across HR, Facilities/Real Estate, and IT have told us that these constituencies and this focus ideally fit the challenges they face as they try to craft strategies for the next generation of enterprise collaboration. So in 2020 we’ll be ramping up our WorkSpace Connect offerings, including (but not limited to) the upcoming one-day summit.
I hope you can join us in Orlando for a day that will be jam-packed with information and learning. You can see the WorkSpace Connect Summit program
here, and you can sign up to attend
here. I hope to see you in Orlando on March 30!
