Workspace Design Show announces an inspiring speaker line-up

The Workspace Design Show will take place in February, with this year’s theme being Destination Workplace: Places Where People Want To Be. With one of the highlights from the inaugural 2022 edition being the show’s talks programme, which was well received by the workplace design community, this has been built on going forward.

Confirmed speakers for 2023 hail from a raft of stakeholder groups, from developers to architects and their blue-chip clients. These include architects and designers such as Collin Burry, Design Principal with Gensler; Christos Passas, Director, Zaha Hadid Architects, Katrina Kostic Samen, Director and Head of Workplace Strategy & Design, KKS Savills, and Grant Kanik, Partner, Foster + Partners. Other industry professionals speaking include Kate Smith, Executive Director, Head of Workplace Strategy at CBRE, Scott Rominger, Creative Director at WeWork, Kael Gillam, Principal Lighting Designer at Hoare Lea and June Koh, Total Workplace, Partner, Workplace Strategy Lead EMEA, Cushman & Wakefield.

Image credit: Workspace Design Show

International furniture specialist The Furniture Practice are curating the Talks Lounge once again this year, as well as collaborating with architectural firm BDP on the newly added talks space. The spaces are set to feature iconic brands including Vitra, Fredericia, Arper, Andreu World, and Moroso amongst others. Panel sessions will include the likes of Ed Hoban, Associate Director and Head of Workplace at The Furniture Practice, as well as Matt Davies, Director of Sustainability.

In a series of talks, interviews and discussions, the Sustainability Works programme will bring together a selection of key figures behind the workplace market’s leading sustainable initiatives, projects and product developments. Confirmed speakers include Natalie Smith, Principal, Perkins&Will, Georgia Elliott-Smith, Managing Director at Element 4 and UN Special Junior Envoy for Youth and the Environment. Curated by Mick Jordan and the Works editorial team, it is a response to sustainability’s place at the top of the workplace agenda.

Workspace Design Show will also be hosting the Occupiers Forum – ‘The view from HQ’. Among the speakers from corporate organisations are Anita Glenn, Head of Workplace Design, AstraZeneca, Michelle Harwood, EMEA Real Estate Director, Norton Rose Fulbright LLP, Ash Kaur, Workplace Design Lead for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Oracle, and Suzan Dixon, Head of Workplace Europe & Americas, Standard Chartered. This gives visitors the opportunity to hear perspectives from current senior workplace end users, exploring the present and future demands of high-profile firms.

The Finishes and Interiors Sector Conference (FIS) will take place over both days of Workspace Design Show too. The first day will focus on the compliance and the fit-out process: creating the best possible environments to put the wow factor into buildings, while the second day will focus around creating destination workspaces: places where people want to be. Among those presenting their thought leadership are Jamesina Sainsbury, Director of Consultancy, MCM, Andrew Parkin, Partner – Global Head of Acoustics, Cundall, Vidhi Sharma, Creative Director, Future Workspaces Group.

The complete speaking programme at Workspace Design Show will cover a range of unmissable topics around workplace design and strategy featuring speakers with a diverse range of perspectives.

Hotel Designs is proud to return in 2023 as an official media partner for Workspace Design Show. Editor Hamish Kilburn will be on the main stage on February 27 at 15:20 to moderate a discussion on when workspace hospitality and residential design collide.

Main image credit: Workspace Design Show