Workplace Geeks

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.

Promo or the RTO L@S report.

📩 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... 🧠

Promo or the RTO L@S report.

📩 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.

Promo or the RTO L@S report.

📩 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.

Promo or the RTO L@S report.

📩 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...

Promo or the RTO L@S report.

📩 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.

Promo or the RTO L@S report.

📩 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.

Promo or the RTO L@S report.

📩 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 another WORKTECH Events special, this time previewing not one, but two brilliant upcoming October 2025 conferences: WORKTECH25 New York and San Francisco.

✨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 a sneak peek at some of the most thought-provoking sessions coming your way, with three conversations with featured speakers from both events:

Co-founder of Future Forum, and Work Forward CEO Brian Elliott explores the data behind the Flex Index, the world’s most comprehensive look at how companies are actually implementing flexible work. With a clear-headed, evidence-based take, Brian reveals why the most extreme models - whether fully remote or fully office-bound - are the hardest to implement succesfully, and what well-considered hybrid can look like in practice.

Prof. Gail Brager from UC Berkeley discusses her new book Experiential Design Schemas, co-authored with architect Prof. Mark DeKay. Together, they propose a 'design-strategic approach' to help workplaces move from generic experience toward delight, positivity and sensory richness.

Geniant's CXO for Space, and returning WORKTECH favourite, architect David Dewane shares the latest evolution in his three-part series on workplace transformation. In this instalment, he explores the potential of measuring individual human flourishing — and how doing so could radically shift how we define, design and deliver workplace experience at team and organisational level.

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

🎧 Dialogue editing by David Crackles

Promo or the RTO L@S report.

📩 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

Following a cracking chat with MillerKnoll's Ryan Anderson in the last episode, this time the Geeks sit down with Mark Catchlove, genuine workplace gentleman and Director of Insight at MillerKnoll, for a fascinating dive into the work and legacy of Robert Propst — Herman Miller’s pioneering Director of Research during the 1960s.

Design polymath Propst’s seminal 1968 book, The office: A facility based on change, was ahead of its time. Designed as a field manual for workplace change, it tackled everything from change, human-centered design, visual display, privacy and involvement, conversation and interaction, health and movement, the role of technology, and leadership culture. And all in a surprisingly slim volume.

In this educational chat Chris, Ian and Mark explore:

• How Propst became Director of Research for Herman Miller
• Mark's involvement in bringing Propst's legacy back to life
• Why The Office is still essential reading for anyone shaping workplace experience
• What today’s workplace strategists can learn from Propst’s provocations
• What a gorilla has to do with expression and personalisation
• Whether it's fair to call Propst 'the inventor of the cubicle' or not...

And to top it off, Dr Dan Wakelin from Isovist is back with Ian on reflection section duties. Yay!

Want to read it for yourself? The office isn't available digitally, and physical copies are increasingly hard to find. Good job that we have three free copies available for you lucky listeners, courtesy of MillerKnoll.

YES! What do I have to do to get one? Leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. Go to the Workplace Geeks page on the iPhone or the desktop app, then scroll down to rate AND review the show. Lemon squeezy.

Winners will be selected and announced in a future episode.

🎧 Dialogue editing by David Crackles

Promo or the RTO L@S report.

📩 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

Four episodes in and the Geeks are cooking on gas! For this one, we're joined by the wise and insanely amiable Ryan Anderson, VP of Global Research and Planning at workplace furniture giant MillerKnoll, home of Herman Miller, Knoll, and a host of other iconic design brands.

Ryan has lived and breathed workplace for over three decades in a wide range of roles. It's no surprise then that his thoughtful, considered perspectives on workplace design, strategy, experience and technology step beyond conventional wisdoms and overtraded ideas. We caught up with Ryan to talk furniture, industry research, post-pandemic strategies and how MillerKnoll's new concept of Relationship-Based Work developed after some recent research with Workplace Unlimited (and Audiem!) called Enticing Office. Highlights include:

• The Grand Rapids, Michigan furniture legacy and how it shaped Ryan’s career
• What the sector got wrong pre-pandemic, and how to do better now
• The problem with trying to solve complex workplace challenges with cookie-cutter solutions
• Key insights from Dr Nigel Oseland and Gary Raw’s Enticing Office research
• The importance of place-attachment for the 'return to office'
• Why 'life stage' and 'career stage' might be better thinking tools than generic generational classifiers
• Designing for meaningful human interaction, not just work activities

Also featuring a rich Reflection Section with the always-fabulous Esme Banks Marr (BVN Architecture) exploring age demographics, the sociology of workplace interaction and motivation theories, with a healthy level of constructive critique!

🎧 Dialogue editing by David Crackles

Promo or the RTO L@S report.

📩 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