Future of Office Space Summit: 12 October 2022, Singapore

Attracting tenants, adapting to change and overcoming challenges for the new era of work

THE GREAT OFFICE REAL ESTATE RESET

COVID-19 has focused minds on exactly what the office is for and how central a role it should play in corporate strategies and budgets – as well as making the strengths and limitations of home set-ups all too apparent.

But what does the future hold for office buildings where so many spent the majority of their waking hours. How do employees and tenants feel about returning to the office? Can offices be virus-proofed and made more resilient to get through this and future pandemics? How much space, what type of space and what locations will organisations need or want in future? What will this mean for CBDs and the economy – and ultimately how will this impact office landlords, managers, REITs and fund managers.

Brought to you by the organisers of the hugely successful Future of Office Space Australia Summit, this dedicated event for the Singapore market brought together the brightest minds in the industry to explore these questions and more.

WHERE

Fairmont Hotel, Singapore
Physical & Virtual Attendance

When

12 October 2022

OUR PARTNERS

Thank you to our Speakers

ESTHER AN

Chief Sustainability Officer
CDL

VINAMRA SRIVASTAVA

Chief Sustainability Officer
CapitaLand Investment

SCOTT BARRAS

Global Head of Workplace
Standard Chartered Bank

ANNIE KOH

PhD, Prof Emeritus of Finance, LKCSB, Senior Advisor of BFI, Singapore Management University (SMU)

VIVEKK SEHGAL

Associate Director Workplace
Singtel

NATALIE CRAIG

Managing Director, C&W Services, Singapore
Cushman & Wakefield

NELE CORNELIS

Executive Director
European Chamber of Commerce

CHLOE TEO

Head of Enterprise Clients
Colliers

VIJAY NATARAJAN

AVP – Property & REITS
RHB Banking Group

ELIZABETH LAWS FULLER

Head of Growth, Southeast Asia
WeWork

SUNIL KUMAR YADAV

Head, Building Performance and Sustainability (ASEAN)
Siemens

JAN ZESACH

Workplace Lead, Real Estate & Facility Services, APAC/China/Japan, Novartis

MICHAEL E LONG

Head of Sustainability, Asia
Lendlease

MARK FARROW

IOT Program Manager
Google

HENRY CHIN

Global Head of Investor Thought Leadership & Head of Research Asia Pacific, CBRE

DEVAN VALENTI

Manager, Asia Pacific
International Well Building Institute

CAROLINE FONG

Deputy CEO, Chief Investor Relations and Sustainability Officer
Manulife US REIT

RICHARD PAINE

Head of Csuites and Head of Development Singapore
Lendlease

MICHAEL TAGGART

Executive Director, Enterprise Sales
JLL Technologies

CHRISTINE LI

Head of Research
Knight Frank Asia-Pacific

SHIRLEY NG

Deputy CEO & Head of Investment
Keppel REIT

PAUL ANSLOW

VP – Head of Business Transformation
Revantage Asia (A Blackstone Company)

PAOLO BEVILACQUA

General Manager – Real Utilities
Frasers Property Australia

CHARLES REED ANDRSON

Chief Strategy Officer
Eight Inc

DYLAN BURKE

Head of Sales Operations & Strategy, Pacific
WeWork

STEPHEN PERKINS

Senior Technical Director & Beca Technical Fellow
Beca

KELVIN TEO

General Manager (Asia)
Switch Automation

VINCENT LAU

CEO
Allocate Space

NILESH JADHAV

Founder
BtrLyf

AAYUSH JHA

CEO
Clairco 

NICOLA GREENAWAY

Founder, Managing Director
NIKAU Design Group

FIONA ALEXANDER

Senior Director, Advisory & Transactions, Workplace Strategy, Singapore
CBRE

THE PROGRAM

The Future of Office Space Summit was an exclusive event consisting of top-level content and thought leadership discussions exploring the office market. It’s where owners, managers, brokers, investors and solution providers can come together to access the most up to date and credible knowledge delivered by local and international experts.

Topics covered include:

  • Office in Flux – where’s the market heading
  • Examining the New NORMAL and what it means for office demand, design and the role of technology
  • What are the implications of hybrid work on city CBDs and the national economy?
  • What role are tenants playing in defining the new office landscape and what does this mean for office landlords, investors and agencies?
  • Leveraging CRE analytics to get valuable insights around office portfolio use and performance
  • What’s the current view of REITS and fund managers regarding office investment returns?
  • Is there evidence of a flight to quality in the office market and a longer term structural shift to certain types of office assets?
  • How is office space being reimagined and digitally armed for a new era of work?
  • The new role of the office as a cultural and collaboration hub – how can landlords enhance their buildings to support this for their tenants?
  • The impact of hybrid work on office design and location – what do tenants really want?
  • Understanding the role of technologies such as IAQ, AI, wearables, visitor management and contactless in creating offices that are safe, healthy, productive and sustainable
  • Overcoming the challenges involved in creating an effective office technology deployment strategy
  • Looking at how ESG minded tenants are driving the future of office space demand

 

Summit Program

  • Agenda12 October 2022
  • 08:30 - 09:00

    Registration & coffee

  • 09:00 - 09:05

    Chairman’s Opening Remarks

    By Leon Kantor Co-Founder & COO, FuturePlace
  • 09:05 - 09:25

    KEYNOTE ADDRESS: The future of work is more human than you think

    By Charles Reed Anderson Chief Strategy Officer, Eight Inc.

    Our industry has reached a tipping point. When combined, the emerging technologies at our disposal today can transform the Future of Work. They can automate processes that were performed by humans, making many existing jobs irrelevant. Despite this, the Future of Work is more human than you think.  

    In this presentation, Charles will explain how the global pandemic, the shift of Sustainability to the forefront of the C-suite conversation, and the Great Resignation create a unique opportunity to transform the way our companies operate and our employees work – as long as we remember that technology doesn’t exist for technology’s sake, it exists to deliver human outcomes and experiences.  

    • The need for empathy: Why ignoring the human impact of the pandemic will ensure the Great Resignation worsens.  
    • The need for engagement: Employees may like free drinks, ping pong tables and comfy chairs, but if you want them to be engaged, you need to make sure the are informed, empowered and recognised.  
    • The need for radical transparency: Employees are switching jobs at record levels. How eliminating silos and driving radical transparency can drive benefits to your business, its processes and your employees – and how that makes it easier to attract and retain talent? 
  • OFFICE IN FLUX – WHERE ARE THINGS HEADED?

  • 09:25 - 10:05

    PLENARY PANEL DISCUSSION: Examining the GREAT REALISATION and what it means for office demand, design, and the role of technology and innovation as we embrace the modern Singaporean office.

    The one constant in life is change and change is always disruptive. Covid caused massive disruption to the CBD and Commercial Real Estate, with significant economic impact. As we transition toward an endemic outcome, we also face geopolitical unrest, and climate uncertainty, with high inflation and a world recession also forecast. What is not known is how permanent this impact will be with many companies advocating for a push back to pre-covid workplace arrangements, and others adopting hybrid working policies. In this session we gather leading industry professionals to talk about the changes to office space pre and post covid, the latest innovation trends and the realisation that the evolving global landscape will continue to impact the future of Singaporean office space.

    • What are the implications of hybrid work on Singapore’s CBD and the national economy?
    • What role are tenants playing in defining the new office landscape?
    • What can landlords do to enhance their office design to attract and retain tenants?
    • Examining the role of innovation and technology plays in making office spaces clean, healthy, attractive, and more sustainable.
    • What does all of this mean for office landlords, investors and agencies and how can they work together to enhance and revitalise the CBD?
    Panellists include:
    Vivekk Sehgal Associate Director - Workplace, Singtel - Singapore
    Chloe Teo Head of Enterprise Clients, Colliers
    Mark Farrow IOT Program Manager, Google
    Nele Cornelis Executive Director, European Chamber of Commerce
    Michael Taggart Executive Director, Enterprise Sales, JLL Technologies
    Moderated by:
    Natalie Craig Managing Director, C&W Services, Singapore, Cushman & Wakefield
  • 10:05 - 10:30

    Putting the ‘H’ in ESG: How the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated investor interest in health and wellbeing

    By Devan Valenti Manager, Asia Pacific, International Well Building Institute

    The Covid-19 pandemic has impacted and upended our lives in every way. At the same time, it has influenced how businesses operate and the obligations towards protecting employees. These changes have resulted in a shift in the nature and extent of risks organisations face in the pursuit of business continuity. It is estimated that up to 40% of employees globally have considered seeking employment elsewhere, making human capital management a pain point for all organisations. Given human capital management is an organisations greatest asset (and expense), investors have taken note of these challenges, and are asking pointed questions of organisations about their response to the ‘Great Resignation’. In this keynote, Jack Noonan, Vice President at the International Well Building Institute, discusses how investors have caught onto the fact that human capital management is pivotal to success, and how organisations have had to adapt to these investor requests, and channel their efforts to retain and attract talent.  

    This presentation will cover the following topics:  

    • Why health and wellbeing are increasingly on the radar of investors  
    • The nature of social risks in the context of ESG, and why they’re demanding attention  
    • The key health and wellbeing metrics being used to influence investment decision-making processes  
    • How organisations are responding to investor requests and providing comprehensive data on health and wellbeing metrics
  • 10:30 - 11:00

    Morning tea & networking break

  • CAPITAL MARKET PERSPECTIVES

  • 11:00 - 11:20

    RESEARCH REPORT: Commercial real estate under the spotlight – six months on from returning to the office, what has changed?

    By Christine Li Head of Research, Knight Frank Asia-Pacific

    Throughout the pandemic, the attitudes and relationship we have with the workplace has continued to evolve. Expectations of the demise of offices is now grossly misplaced while the emergence of a hub-and-spoke model has not panned out. Now, the rhetoric has shifted towards hybrid working – a large grey area that spans the spectrum between the extremes of office and remote work, which can be further complicated by cultural tendencies. For occupiers, it is a tug-of-war – between maintaining productivity and sustaining a corporate identity on one end and retaining and attracting talent at the other – the outcome of which will have massive implications for landlords and investors. 

    • What does the current performance of the region’s office markets say about the adoption of hybrid working? 
    • What are the emerging occupier trends and how will leasing demand evolve in the new environment? 
    • What are the changing tenant needs/expectations of a hybrid workplace? 
    • Contrasting Grade, A with Grade B properties and the opportunities created in value-add/repurposing strategies 
  • 11:20 - 12:10

    MEET THE MANAGERS: Assessing investor perspectives on the opportunities and evolving trends across the Singaporean commercial office sector.

    Opening remarks from Henry Chin offering a global perspective prior to a discussion on the future for commercial office space. As work from anywhere becomes a focus, this could significantly affect office real estate investment trusts, or REITs, at least in the short to medium term, according to analysts. However, some are still somewhat positive on the longer-term outlook.

    We invite some of Singapore’s leading commercial fund managers to lift the bonnet and crystal ball gaze into the trends of commercial real estate from the viewpoint of global investors and trends abroad.

    • Examining the short-, medium- and long-term prospects for office space. What are the current occupancy rates, impacts on leases, price per sqm and yields?
    • Is there evidence of a flight to quality in the office market and a longer-term structural shift to certain types of office assets, and what sort of assets are in demand?
    • What can landlords do to influence the outcome of the WFH versus in-office contest?
    • How are office landlords adjusting to the push for net zero, and how much of an influence is this having on tenant office choice?
    Panellists include:
    Caroline Fong Deputy CEO, Chief Investor Relations and Sustainability Officer, Manulife US REIT
    Vijay Natarajan Analyst – Real Estate and REITs, RHB Banking Group
    Shirley Ng Deputy CEO & Head of Investment, Keppel REIT
    Moderated by:
    Henry Chin Global Head of Investor Thought Leadership & Head of Research Asia Pacific, CBRE
  • 12:10 - 12:30

    Designing for Future Change amid Uncertainty

    By Stephen Perkins Senior Technical Director & Beca Technical Fellow, Beca

    A range of powerful drivers are changing landlord and tenant requirements for today’s commercial real estate – and creating deep uncertainty on what tomorrow’s needs will be.  Digital disruption to business models, and rapidly changing workplace strategies, mean that Tenants are quite uncertain on what their future needs will be; while a strengthening business commitment to environmental sustainability is significantly raising market expectations of what a truly green building needs to be. On top of this, increasing employee demands regarding the quality of their work environment and its impact on their personal wellness, adds another variable to predicting the office building of tomorrow. 

    While no one can predict with absolute precision how workplaces will change due to these forces, savvy developers and tenants are adopting a set of design strategies that allow them to identify changing needs early, and then adapt in the future with a minimum of cost and operational disruption. Steve will discuss these strategies which include: 

    • Detailed digital data gathering and analytics to identify changing space use and building performance patterns  
    • Using construction methods that make changes easier and more cost effective to implement 
    • Building space and digital infrastructure futureproofing 
    • Climate change and pandemic response planning 
    • Building a fearless culture that invests in new engineering approaches today, to de-risk the future.
  • 12:30 - 13:30

    Lunch & Networking Break

  • TECHNOLOGY, ESG & INNOVATION – MAKING IT WORK

  • 13:30 - 14:20

    Panel discussion: Looking at how ESG is driving greater sustainability across commercial real estate

    Before Covid changed the landscape, ESG and the need for greater sustainability was coming of age. Today, tenants have taken up the baton, making it even more important for developers and landlords to design, build and operate with ESG at the forefront as the push towards Net-Zero gathers pace. 

    • Assessing the impact of ESG on Commercial Real Estate and how it has evolved over the last 24 months?
    • How is technology playing a key role in addressing sustainability issues and enabling commercial buildings to tread more lightly on the planet.
    • Examining the ethical application of technology and what this means in terms of office space.
    • Should we be assessing remote employee locations for work related ESG impact?
    • From construction to faciliites management – what can each player in the CRE ecosystem do better to drive sustainable outcomes?
    • How much of a factor is ESG when tenants are selecting office space?
    Panellists include:
    Esther An Chief Sustainability Officer, CDL
    Michael E. Long Head of Sustainability, Lendlease
    Sunil Kumar Yadav Head, Building Performance and Sustainability (ASEAN), Siemens
    Vinamra Srivastava Chief Sustainability Officer, CapitaLand Investment
    Moderated by:
    Devan Valenti Manager, Asia Pacific, International Well Building Institute
  • 14:20 - 15:00

    CRE INNOVATION TECH TALKS

    How is office space being reimagined by PropTech for the new era of work

    In this rapid-fire session, we hear from 4 forward thinking PropTech companies about how they are creating technologies for the lasting shift toward remote and hybrid work within the physical workplace.

    Panellists include:
    Kelvin Teo General Manager (Asia), Switch Automation
    Vincent Lau CEO, Allocate Space
    Nilesh Jadhav Founder, BtrLyf
    Aayush Jha CEO & Co-Founder, Clairco
    Moderated by:
    Paul Anslow VP - Head of Business Transformation, Revantage Asia, (A Blackstone Company) and Singapore Chapter Head, Asia PropTech
  • 15:00 - 15:20

    FIRESIDE CHAT: Knowledge Economy of the near future

    This fireside chat deep dives into explosive change and enabling employees and companies to be the best version of themselves. A dynamic conversation on what’s been, what is and what is coming. If you want to go far, go together. 

    • Hotdesking insights – the benefits and pitfalls of co-sharing strategy 
    • How to increase space efficiency 
    • How to increase team working in open spaces 
    • Finding the balance of standardisation with variation 
    • Design elements and hotelification in space as a service  
    Guest include:
    Nicola Greenaway Founder, Managing Director, NIKAU Design Group
  • 15:30 - 15:50

    Afternoon Coffee & Networking Break

  • 15:50 - 16:20

    INTERACTIVE ROUND TABLE SESSIONS

    These quickfire moderated 30-minute roundtable sessions enable delegates to break up into small focus groups of 20 to deep dive into topics of specific interest. This will be followed by a quick recap of each table discussion by each of the facilitators

    Roundtable 1:  ESG: Aligning purpose with people, planet, profit 

    Roundtable 2: Establishing an effective workplace strategy 

    Roundtable 3: Design is about people: Life. Work. Corporate. Portfolio.

  • THE MODERN WORKPLACE – CREATING OFFICES THAT TENANTS WANT

  • 16:20 - 17:00

    PANEL DISCUSSION: Examining the evolving role of the workplace: Creating places with form, function and purpose

    In this session we look at why companies want/need people in offices and how landlords have a role in creating places with purpose. We examine the role office buildings play in creating complex workplace ecosystems that will ultimately encourage tenants back into the CBD. While hybrid is important, getting more people back into office buildings is also key to the success and longevity of the CBD and the Singaporean economy so we examine what more can be done to address this.

    • The new role of the office as a cultural and collaboration hub – how can landlords enhance their buildings to support this role for their tenants.
    • Assessing the impact of hybrid work on office design and location – what do tenants really want?
    • What Singaporean focused amenities and end of trip facilities do employees actually want?
    • Understanding the link between employee health, wellness, productivity, and office demand.
    • From CBD to CED (Central Experience District) as Singapore shifts towards an integrated mixed-use CBD
    • Partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions – exploring the new types of partnerships emerging between traditional office landlords, brokers/agencies and “space as a service” companies as a new office market emerges.
    Panellists include:
    Elizabeth Laws Fuller Head of Growth, Southeast Asia, WeWork
    Jan Zesach Workplace Lead, Real Estate & Facility Services, APAC/China/Japan, Novartis
    Scott Barras Global Head of Workplace, Standard Chartered Bank
    Richard Paine Head of Csuites and Head of Development Singapore, Lendlease
    Moderated by:
    Annie Koh PhD, Prof Emeritus of Finance at LKCSB, Senior Advisor of BFI, Singapore Management University (SMU)
  • 17:10 - 18:00

    Cocktail Reception and Close of Summit

BENEFITS OF ATTENDING

 

 

The Future of Office Space Summit was a Hybrid event. This format combines the traditional face-to-face conference with virtual elements, allowing both in-person and virtual attendees to access the same content and networking opportunities simultaneously.

High quality curated content

With one day of expert sessions and industry leading speakers, delve into expertly curated content that you won’t find anywhere else.

Live and on-demand

Wherever you are at the time of the event, you’ll be in control. You’ll have the ability to consume all the content being delivered at your leisure through either a live stream of the physical event or on-demand.

Time efficient

If you are based outside of Singapore and for whatever reason can’t make it to the event in-person, you can save on travel time and accommodation costs while still networking with global industry professionals.

Business matchmaking live

Take part in intelligently curated meetings with like-minded individuals that share similar interests and challenges from all over the world through our AI powered matchmaking delivered via our virtual platform.

Accessible from all your devices

Get insights and network at your fingertips – all content sessions and networking activities will be accessible from your laptop, tablets or mobile devices.

Engage, interact and influence

Make the most of your experience by being a truly active participant. Whether at the event or attending virtually, you’ll have the ability to ask questions, participate in polls, and share your experience with other attendees via break-out sessions.