The 9th annual Workspace Association of New York (WANY) Conference took place in New York on 13th June 2014. It was held at the Steelcase Worklife Center, which has uninterrupted views of Central Park West. The conference was attended by members of the GWA (Global Workspace Association), along with workspace owners and operators, technology companies and businesses associated with the workspace industry. Instant’s Angela Bolaños, US Account Manager, attended the conference and shared her insights with us.
Conference Theme
The main theme focused on the future of serviced offices. Key presentations debated whether a traditional approach would maintain success – keeping the serviced office offering unchanged, or if serviced office providers should adopt popular trends, such as touchdown hubs and co-working environments.
Key Points
Ray Lindenberg, President and Co-Founder of the Workspace Association of New York, was one of the main speakers, and presided over the light hearted ‘television game show’ format of the event.
The conference opened with a virtual workspace tour of Cendyn Spaces, courtesy of Annette Reizburg, GWA President. Her presentation showed how they transformed the atrium of this Boca Raton centre into one amazing co-working space with furniture on wheels, allowing them to use the space for multiple purposes. The building also features a lot of natural sunlight, which is currently a huge trend for these co-working spaces.
The conference then focused on a number of strategies, such as how to become more innovative in order to meet client’s needs, formulating effective staffing solutions, and how to ensure that an office centre is run profitably.
The key idea that emerged from the presentations and discussions was: do you change your centre to adapt to all the new trends in co-working spaces, or do you stay with the traditional model and add on additional products and services? For now, many centres are thinking of new and innovative ways to stay on top of the trends while retaining their traditional serviced office space working environment.
Were you at the WANY conference? What were your key takeaways from the event? Let us know by leaving a comment below.