Office Matters: The BCO Podcast

In this episode of Workspace Unwired, BCO chief executive Samantha McClary sits down with Knight Frank’s Betsy Brady for a look at how people working in the workspace sector have an opportunity to develop happiness.

It’s not as woo-woo as it sounds, promise.
Creating places where people want to be, to collaborate, innovate and work is crucial in developing truly functional and sustainable offices today.

Listen in to find out more about why you need to consider psychoacoustics just as much as your floor to ceiling heights and amenity if you want to give people a reason to be in the office and why understanding humans might be a better sales pitch to occupiers that some good patter on rents.

And, if you’re are at all feeling down about the future of offices – and the wider real estate sector – then you absolutely need to listen to this conversation with Betsy. She’s the perfect advert for why a career in real estate is the best career you can build.

Listen in to find out why.

In this episode of the BCO’s Workspace Unwired podcast, chief executive Samantha McClary sits down with Emma Roche, a partner in law firm Greenwoods, to discuss the changing nature of the office world from a legal perspective.

With reforms to the Landlord & Tenant Act, a mooted ban on upward only rent reviews and a wider variety of occupational agreements out there, Emma shares her views on potential fresh new legislation and gives us the lowdown on a new managed space agreement that does away with legalese and replaces it with more human and less adversarial language.

Could this be the start of something new?

Emma is more than just a leading lawyer – she’s been listed multiple times in the corporate occupier Legal 500 – she’s also a coach, grounding her practice in the teachings of philosophy.
Keep listening as we delve in to why knowing our what and why couldn’t be more important when it comes to delivering workspace that works.

In this debut episode of the BCO’s Workspace Unwired podcast, chief executive Samantha McClary sits down with Helen Hare, director of projects at GPE, to find out a little bit more about the newly installed president of the British Council for Offices.

Listen in to find out what makes Helen tick, her journey into real estate and why, if you want to be successful, picking your team well and being an ace at project management are vital skills to have.

We talk more about the value that comes from the BCO’s unrivalled access to excellence, the importance of talent in the sector, the need to close a growing skills gap, the importance of language, Helen’s responsibility as a visible role model and how the world of workspace and work places needs to be more widely recognised as contributor to growth.

There’s all that and so much more.

Enjoy.

Designing for Neurodiversity:

Research shows that members of the neurodivergent community continue to face struggles with disabling workspaces, with the British Council for Offices calling on landlords and occupiers to urgently design more inclusive office spaces.

One in seven individuals in the UK is classed as neurodivergent, yet these individuals’ needs continue to be neglected by businesses.

Those who belong to the neurodiversity community are currently underserved by and often unsupported in the current employment ecosystem. A BCO Research report published earlier this year was undertaken by Centric Lab and PLP Architecture and examines the needs of the neurodiverse workforce.

In ep. 6 of Talking Shop, BCO NextGen London's Oliver Hall sits down with one of the report authors, Araceli Camargo, lead scientist at Centric Lab and a cognitive neuroscientist focused on how people interact with urban environments.

The full BCO research report is available to download from the BCO website: https://www.bco.org.uk/Research/Publications/Designing_for_Neurodiversity.aspx

In a 15-minute rapid-fire episode, Mike Burton (Director, AECOM) and BCO NextGen's Chris Radley (Associate, Fletcher Priest) chat about lessons learned from the pandemic, resilient buildings, tech and staying creative in the field of architecture.  

Mike leads AECOM's London Building Engineering team and is responsible for major UK and international projects. Mike has over 22 years of experience in sustainable design and delivery.  

Chris commenced with Fletcher Priest in 2011 and has worked on a range of workplace, leisure and hospitality projects at all design and construction stages. His portfolio includes projects of a variety of scales, both new-build and refurbishment leading from feasibility through to construction. Chris has also trained at the Centre for Window and Cladding Technology, and put these skills to use leading the design and coordination of the BCO Award-winning Brunel Building façade and external structure.   

#bconextgen #talkingshop #bconotebook

In episode 4, 2021's NextGen Rising Star Midlands Award Winner Conor Nolan speaks to Nigel Miller, MD of Cordless Consultants and author of BCO research report, ‘Impact of technology on the Covid-19 workplace.’ They discuss which tech trends are dominating regions the UK, barriers to adoption of smart tech in buildings and how H.R, I.T & FM in commercial real estate are having to work closer together than ever.  

#bconextgen

In the latest episode of Talking Shop, Clare Bailey, author of the BCO Research report, 'Affordable Workspace: A Solution, Not a Problem' (undertaken by Savills) speaks to NextGen's Hannah Buxton. 

"Productivity is up, but innovation is down." The two discuss affordable workspace at length, SME's, building reuse, social sustainability, community and the recent workplace challenges Gen Z and Millennials have faced #remoteworking

In a varied discussion and debate, Ken Giannini (Director, MCM) and one of NextGen's Rising Stars Yohance Harper (Associate Partner, Quadrant) chat about the work they're doing, and share their thoughts on architecture, sustainability, mentoring and purpose. They also share all things inspiration, career journeys and future industry trends.

  “As a young architect, a previous boss told me to always challenge solutions from the past” – Ken Giannini  

Yohance reminds us that great architecture should make you feel something and stresses the importance of anything that helps you to grow - especially chatting to industry peers - you just never know what could come from mingling and #networking. 

 “Buildings need to be platforms for partnerships.” If you look at your career, what would you like to leave behind and be known for? For Yohance, it’s people and places.  

#bconextgen #talkingshop

In the first episode of Talking Shop with the NextGen: Gillian Stewart (BCO Scotland's Chair and MLA Director) speaks to Savannah de Savary, Founder & CEO of Built_ID + Forbes 30 under 30 Social Entrepreneur and one of BCO Nextgen’s PropTech Company of the Year Award winners. They discuss the commercial real estate industry at large, PropTech, and how we get more young people a step up the construction career ladder and more.

SHOW LESSCOVID-19 has changed the way we work. For the first time ever, the nation is working from home en masse. Office desks have been swapped for kitchen tables, meetings for video calls and suits for sweatpants.  Already, this shift is posing new questions about the future of work and, in particular, the office. 

Will working from home become the ‘new normal’? If so many people can do their jobs from home, do firms really need to take out so much office space? How can the ‘future office’ learn from our present situation? 

Richard Kauntze, Chief Executive of the BCO, speaks with Paul Patenall, BCO President and Projects Director at U+I. 

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