AI is rapidly moving from something we use to something we work alongside. As tools become more capable, more autonomous and increasingly embedded in our working lives, organisations face a fundamental question: if AI becomes our co-worker, what changes?

In the opening episode of Season 5 of Workplace Geeks, Chris Moriarty is joined by author, speaker and technology strategist Dave Coplin to explore the impact AI is having on work, learning and organisational transformation.

The conversation goes far beyond the technology itself. Dave argues that many of the challenges organisations face with AI today are remarkably similar to those they faced during the rise of flexible and hybrid working. The technology may have changed, but the human challenges remain familiar.

Together they explore why AI can amplify both good and bad behaviours, the growing importance of judgement in a world where knowledge is increasingly abundant, and why the most complicated part of digital transformation is often what Dave describes as "the interface between the keyboard and the chair".

This episode explores:

• Why AI should make us more effective, not just more efficient  
• The difference between knowledge and wisdom in the age of AI  
• Why technology adoption succeeds or fails because of people  
• What organisations can learn from the flexible working revolution  
• How leaders can prepare for a future where AI becomes part of the team

Whether you're excited by AI, sceptical about the hype, or trying to work out what it means for your organisation, this is a thoughtful and practical conversation about the future of work.

📩 Subscribe for new episodes, events and workplace insight from the Geeks community.

⭐️ Enjoying the show? Follow, rate and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It genuinely helps more people discover us.

💬 Got an idea, guest suggestion, or workplace topic we should explore?

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Join the conversation using #WorkplaceGeeks
Or email us at [email protected]

Workplace Geeks is brought to you by Audiem ⚡️
Helping organisations make better workplace decisions through AI-powered insight and employee feedback.

Supported by 2468 Group ☕️

🎧 Dialogue editing by David Crackles

Five workplace leaders. Five completely different career journeys. One industry still trying to figure out what the future of work actually looks like.

Recorded live at the NEC during Workplace Leaders Top 50 2026, this special episode of Workplace Geeks brings together conversations with some of the people shaping the modern workplace across technology, banking, FM and workplace experience.

From a Pontins Blue Coat who ended up leading workplace experience at Lloyds Banking Group, to stories spanning LinkedIn, Pinterest, Hubstar and OCS, this episode explores the human side of workplace leadership and the very different paths people take into the industry.

Along the way, we get into:

• Why “return to office” might be the wrong conversation now
• The growing pressure on workplaces to earn the commute
• AI’s impact on how offices are designed and managed
• Experience-led workplaces and the rise of hospitality thinking
• Why hybrid working still feels unfinished
• The challenge of balancing cost, culture, flexibility and performance
• And what future workplace leaders should actually focus on

Featuring:

•  Joe Harris, Hubstar
• Sarah Tait, Lloyds Banking Group
• Chloe Baum, LinkedIn
• Sam Wharton, Pinterest
• Katherine Horton, OCS

Plus a preview of what’s coming up in Series 5 of Workplace Geeks, including our opening episode with Dave Coplin.

📩 Subscribe for new episodes, events and workplace insight from the Geeks community.

⭐️ Enjoying the show? Follow, rate and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It genuinely helps more people discover us.

💬 Got an idea, guest suggestion, or workplace topic we should explore?

Follow Workplace Geeks on LinkedIn
Join the conversation using #WorkplaceGeeks
Or email us at [email protected]

Workplace Geeks is brought to you by Audiem ⚡️
Helping organisations make better workplace decisions through AI-powered insight and employee feedback.

Supported by 2468 Group ☕️

🎧 Dialogue editing by David Crackles

💬 Take the survey 🗳️

Four seasons, 67 episodes, and countless workplace conversations later, we thought it was time to turn the microphone around.

This isn’t a regular episode, but it's an important request, nonetheless. We’re running the first ever Workplace Geeks Listener Survey, and we’d love your input.

Whether you’ve listened to every single episode, or only one (you heathen) your feedback will help us understand what you value most about Workplace Geeks, what we could do better, and what you’d like to hear more (or less) of.

It takes about five minutes to complete, and you’ll have the chance to enter a ✨🎁prize draw✨ to win a box of exclusive Workplace Geeks merch, including some swag we ususally only hand out to guests.

Tell us what you think, help us plan the future, and make sure the geekery only gets better.

Thank you

📩 Subscribe for new episodes, events and workplace insight from the Geeks community.

⭐️ Enjoying the show? Follow, rate and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It genuinely helps more people discover us.

💬 Got an idea, guest suggestion, or workplace topic we should explore?

Follow Workplace Geeks on LinkedIn
Join the conversation using #WorkplaceGeeks
Or email us at [email protected]

Workplace Geeks is brought to you by Audiem ⚡️
Helping organisations make better workplace decisions through AI-powered insight and employee feedback.

Supported by 2468 Group ☕️

🎧 Dialogue editing by David Crackles

The Workplace Event’s Workplace Leaders Top 50 awards are now in their third year, and once again the Geeks were honoured to sit down with winners to hear their stories. Across this four-part mini-series, we’re asking each guest the same questions and then letting the conversation unfold, uncovering how they arrived in the workplace sector, what’s shaped their journey, and what advice they’d share with others.

This episode is coming to you LIVE from the swanky London celebration, where Chris joined the party, soaked up the speakers, grabbed some BBQ, and sat down with four more of this year’s inspiring leaders.

The collective theme? Career paths. Some expected. Some bizarre. Some accidental. Some not as planned. It’s a common thread in our sector — and maybe every sector — but what shines through is just how many different routes can lead here, and how everyone is united by a shared mission: making work better.

In this episode you’ll hear from:

• Emma Armstrong, Founder at Empro
• Paul Hammond, Global Workplace Ops at Pinterest
• Gurtake Singh, Principal at Gensler
• Simon Hilton, Head of Business at Spica Technologies

These are candid conversations full of twists, turns, and personal reflections — showing that there’s no single way into the world of workplace, but plenty of reasons to stay and make a difference.

Transcript: 

 Before we go back to the episode, a quick word about Audium. When people think about workplace feedback, they tend to think about surveys, but some of the richest workplace insight is often hiding in places organizations rarely look. Take FM helpdesk tickets. Every day, employees leave thousands of comments about buildings, technology, catering, cleaning, temperature, meeting rooms, and dozens of other workplace issues. Individually, they're just tickets

📩 Subscribe for new episodes, events and workplace insight from the Geeks community.

⭐️ Enjoying the show? Follow, rate and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It genuinely helps more people discover us.

💬 Got an idea, guest suggestion, or workplace topic we should explore?

Follow Workplace Geeks on LinkedIn
Join the conversation using #WorkplaceGeeks
Or email us at [email protected]

Workplace Geeks is brought to you by Audiem ⚡️
Helping organisations make better workplace decisions through AI-powered insight and employee feedback.

Supported by 2468 Group ☕️

🎧 Dialogue editing by David Crackles

We're back with a WORKTECH Events special, this time previewing one of our favourite workplace events of the year: WORKTECH London, taking place this year on 18 and 19 November 2025. We'll be on stage too, back by (surprisingly) popular demand with our 'Workplace Geeks Mock the Workplace Week' panel show. Yay!

✨Workplace Geeks listeners - save 20% off tickets to both events using code GEEKS2025 at checkout! 🎟️

WORKTECH Events bring together the brightest minds in work, workplace, technology and innovation across a global calendar, and we’ve got an exclusive preview of three cracking sessions coming your way this November:

First up, Nicholas Janni, co-founder of Matrix Development talks to us about his professional life's passion, full-spectrum intelligence, a approach that integrates body, heart, mind, and soul. In a western world that seems to celebrate intellect above all, how can we adapt our leadership to better deal with the systemic challenges that face us?

Next up, futurist, urbanist and author Greg Lindsay challenges our appreciation of the future of work and asks, as we advance towards self-driving vehicles and a world of autonomous everything: what will AI agent-powered self-driving organisations look like, and what will that do to work as we know it? 

Finally, Tim Fendley, founder and creative director of Applied Information Group invites us to consider the idea of spatial legibility, and it's role in both our efficient navigation of complex space, and our sense of belonging.

So, if these three short chats are anything to go by, it's going to be a cracking event! See you there...

The Workplace Geeks - always caring about your workplace education... 🧠

Transcript: 

 Before we go back to the episode, a quick word about Audium. When people think about workplace feedback, they tend to think about surveys, but some of the richest workplace insight is often hiding in places organizations rarely look. Take FM helpdesk tickets. Every day, employees leave thousands of comments about buildings, technology, catering, cleaning, temperature, meeting rooms, and dozens of other workplace issues. Individually, they're just tickets

📩 Subscribe for new episodes, events and workplace insight from the Geeks community.

⭐️ Enjoying the show? Follow, rate and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It genuinely helps more people discover us.

💬 Got an idea, guest suggestion, or workplace topic we should explore?

Follow Workplace Geeks on LinkedIn
Join the conversation using #WorkplaceGeeks
Or email us at [email protected]

Workplace Geeks is brought to you by Audiem ⚡️
Helping organisations make better workplace decisions through AI-powered insight and employee feedback.

Supported by 2468 Group ☕️

🎧 Dialogue editing by David Crackles

The Workplace Event's Workplace Leaders Top 50 awards are in their third year, and the Geeks were honoured, once again, to speak to the winners. Each of this year’s four special episodes feature small but perfectly formed chats with four winners.

We start with the same questions for each guest and then see where the conversation takes us, learning about their career, how they got into the workplace sector, how it's changed, what it could do better, and what advice they have for new folks and those aspiring to advance their workplace careers.

These are human stories, personal anecdotes and revealing conversations into what these amazing workplace champions are thinking.

This third episode of the mini-series turns to the corporate side of things, featuring winners from corporate real estate, HR, and FM. The theme of customer and employee experience underpinning all the chats, in different ways. 

First, Emma Swinnerton from Cushman & Wakefield shares experience insights from a coworking and shared workspace and coworking perspective. Second, Maddie Hayes from JLL talks about embedding an experience culture througout delivery teams. Third, Sophie Robson from Sky explores how systemic DEI approaches can benefit the experience of all, and finally Christy Smith from IEM enthuses about the value of great FM!

Huge thanks to Matt Fogg and MAKO Commercial Interiors for providing the booth at the show to enable us to record there.

Transcript: 

 Before we go back to the episode, a quick word about Audium. When people think about workplace feedback, they tend to think about surveys, but some of the richest workplace insight is often hiding in places organizations rarely look. Take FM helpdesk tickets. Every day, employees leave thousands of comments about buildings, technology, catering, cleaning, temperature, meeting rooms, and dozens of other workplace issues. Individually, they're just tickets

📩 Subscribe for new episodes, events and workplace insight from the Geeks community.

⭐️ Enjoying the show? Follow, rate and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It genuinely helps more people discover us.

💬 Got an idea, guest suggestion, or workplace topic we should explore?

Follow Workplace Geeks on LinkedIn
Join the conversation using #WorkplaceGeeks
Or email us at [email protected]

Workplace Geeks is brought to you by Audiem ⚡️
Helping organisations make better workplace decisions through AI-powered insight and employee feedback.

Supported by 2468 Group ☕️

🎧 Dialogue editing by David Crackles

Back at London ExCeL for another two-day special, the Workplace Geeks hit record from the heart of The Watercooler and The Office event, an event double-header focused on workplace wellbeing, culture, and space design.

This year’s conversations dig even deeper. Chris and Ian bring you mini-interviews and reflections featuring fresh voices and provocative perspectives across workplace ESG strategy, new work models, and transformative culture design.

In this episode:

• Matthew Blair, Principal at BVN Architecture, explores the big tensions and opportunities in ESG-led design, from embodied carbon and governance complexity to the subtle power of human-centered approaches.
• Maud Santamaria, Global Workplace Lead at GWI, offers a real-world look into a four-day week trial across global offices – from measuring team productivity to managing client expectations and communicating change.
• Paula Brockwell, founder of The Employee Experience Project, argues for a revolution in how we think about culture: not as a fluffy perk, but as a lever for strategic, behavioral transformation.

Like past episodes, we’ve mixed fast-paced interviews with our own reflections to capture the buzz of the show and the ideas we encountered.

Transcript: 

 Before we go back to the episode, a quick word about Audium. When people think about workplace feedback, they tend to think about surveys, but some of the richest workplace insight is often hiding in places organizations rarely look. Take FM helpdesk tickets. Every day, employees leave thousands of comments about buildings, technology, catering, cleaning, temperature, meeting rooms, and dozens of other workplace issues. Individually, they're just tickets

📩 Subscribe for new episodes, events and workplace insight from the Geeks community.

⭐️ Enjoying the show? Follow, rate and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It genuinely helps more people discover us.

💬 Got an idea, guest suggestion, or workplace topic we should explore?

Follow Workplace Geeks on LinkedIn
Join the conversation using #WorkplaceGeeks
Or email us at [email protected]

Workplace Geeks is brought to you by Audiem ⚡️
Helping organisations make better workplace decisions through AI-powered insight and employee feedback.

Supported by 2468 Group ☕️

🎧 Dialogue editing by David Crackles

After the two  event specials showcasing 2025's Workplace Leaders Top 50 winners, the Geeks are back in the studio with a guest who - with 40 years of professional practice under his belt - is practically part of the UK workplace lore. Author, consultant and workplace historian Dr Rob Harris returns to share insights from his latest book: A History of the Office and Office Work: From Castle to Condominium (Routledge, 2025).

Rob first joined us just over a year ago to talk about London’s global office economy. This time, he takes us even further back... all the way to the 17th-century in fact, with the Great Fire of London, the insurance deals of London's coffee houses, and the financial revolution that shaped modern business. From clerical factories to corporate skyscrapers, digital revolutions to today’s networked era, Rob charts how office work, economics, and urban life have co-evolved across centuries.

In this wide-ranging and fascinating conversation, we explore:

• Why the office is an overlooked but essential part of economic and urban history
• How events like the Great Fire of London and the rise of insurance reshaped work
• The evolution from market-era offices to corporate empires and the digital age
• Bureaucracy, the management “demiurge” and the rise of white-collar culture
• Why generative AI and hybrid work are forcing us to rethink what offices are for
• And whether the future of workplace has come full circle, back to collaboration and social connection

No reflection section guest for this one, but listen out for the winners of the S4E5 competition, where MillerKnoll's Mark Catchlove gave us three reprint copies of Robert Propst's classic treatise from 1968, The Office: A Facility Based on Change

Oh, and a little Workplace Geeks mystery too...

Transcript: 

 Before we go back to the episode, a quick word about Audium. When people think about workplace feedback, they tend to think about surveys, but some of the richest workplace insight is often hiding in places organizations rarely look. Take FM helpdesk tickets. Every day, employees leave thousands of comments about buildings, technology, catering, cleaning, temperature, meeting rooms, and dozens of other workplace issues. Individually, they're just tickets

📩 Subscribe for new episodes, events and workplace insight from the Geeks community.

⭐️ Enjoying the show? Follow, rate and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It genuinely helps more people discover us.

💬 Got an idea, guest suggestion, or workplace topic we should explore?

Follow Workplace Geeks on LinkedIn
Join the conversation using #WorkplaceGeeks
Or email us at [email protected]

Workplace Geeks is brought to you by Audiem ⚡️
Helping organisations make better workplace decisions through AI-powered insight and employee feedback.

Supported by 2468 Group ☕️

🎧 Dialogue editing by David Crackles

The Workplace Event's Workplace Leaders Top 50 awards are in their third year, and the Geeks were honoured to, once again, speak to the winners. Each of this year’s four special episodes feature small but perfectly formed chats with four winners.

We start with the same questions for each guest and then see where the conversation takes us, learning about their career, how they got into the workplace sector, how it's changed, what it could do better, and what advice they have for new folks and those aspiring to advance their workplace careers.

These are human stories, personal anecdotes and revealing conversations into what these amazing workplace champions are thinking.

This episode turns towards the virtuous side of work and workplace, with a third sector and EDI focus, featuring the brilliant Krisztina Foster from World Animal Protection, the inspiring Andy Daly from Social Enterprise UK, the aspirational Sharon Slinger from Constructing Rainbows, and finally the driven Dana Pavel from Amnesty International.

To help you dig deeper, here's the remote working network Kriztina mentioned, Running Remote, Duarte that Ian mentions, and the Workplace & Facilities Charity Network LinkedIn group that Dana chairs.

Huge thanks to Matt Fogg and MAKO Commercial Interiors for providing the booth at the show to enable us to record there.

Transcript: 

 Before we go back to the episode, a quick word about Audium. When people think about workplace feedback, they tend to think about surveys, but some of the richest workplace insight is often hiding in places organizations rarely look. Take FM helpdesk tickets. Every day, employees leave thousands of comments about buildings, technology, catering, cleaning, temperature, meeting rooms, and dozens of other workplace issues. Individually, they're just tickets

📩 Subscribe for new episodes, events and workplace insight from the Geeks community.

⭐️ Enjoying the show? Follow, rate and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It genuinely helps more people discover us.

💬 Got an idea, guest suggestion, or workplace topic we should explore?

Follow Workplace Geeks on LinkedIn
Join the conversation using #WorkplaceGeeks
Or email us at [email protected]

Workplace Geeks is brought to you by Audiem ⚡️
Helping organisations make better workplace decisions through AI-powered insight and employee feedback.

Supported by 2468 Group ☕️

🎧 Dialogue editing by David Crackles

The Workplace Event's Workplace Leaders Top 50 awards are in their third year, and the Geeks were honoured to, once again, speak to the winners. Each of this year’s four special episodes feature small but perfectly formed chats with four winners.

We ask each guest the same questions to learn about their career, how they got into the workplace sector, how it's changed, what it could do better, and what advice they have for new folks and those aspiring to advance their workplace careers. These are human stories, personal anecdotes and revealing conversations into what these workplace leaders are thinking.

To kick things off, we’ve got one academic I’ve never met before, Pleun van Deurssen, one I’ve known for almost 10 years, Dr Toyin Aderiye, one leader who’s spent almost 20 years at one of the most influential tech companies on the planet, Fionnuala Byrne, and finally one who’s involvement in the workplace sector is more peripheral, but whose own workplace embraces some radical ideas, Cat How.

Huge thanks to Matt Fogg and MAKO Commercial Interiors for providing the booth at the show to enable us to record there.

Transcript: 

 Before we go back to the episode, a quick word about Audium. When people think about workplace feedback, they tend to think about surveys, but some of the richest workplace insight is often hiding in places organizations rarely look. Take FM helpdesk tickets. Every day, employees leave thousands of comments about buildings, technology, catering, cleaning, temperature, meeting rooms, and dozens of other workplace issues. Individually, they're just tickets

📩 Subscribe for new episodes, events and workplace insight from the Geeks community.

⭐️ Enjoying the show? Follow, rate and review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It genuinely helps more people discover us.

💬 Got an idea, guest suggestion, or workplace topic we should explore?

Follow Workplace Geeks on LinkedIn
Join the conversation using #WorkplaceGeeks
Or email us at [email protected]

Workplace Geeks is brought to you by Audiem ⚡️
Helping organisations make better workplace decisions through AI-powered insight and employee feedback.

Supported by 2468 Group ☕️

🎧 Dialogue editing by David Crackles