Forward> 2024 in San Francisco: Highlights, insights and soundbites

November 21, 2024

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On November 7th in San Francisco we hosted the very first Forward>, a forum to bring together senior Real Estate and Workplace leaders, in collaboration with best selling author and industry thought leader Brian Elliott.

Forward> was founded on the belief that, by connecting visionary leaders and those doing the best and most innovative work, we can accelerate change, avoid pitfalls, and improve outcomes for all.

Access the insights

To ensure every attendee could speak frankly and freely about the challenges they’re facing Forward> wasn’t publicly recorded, so to share the learnings we’ve put together a round up of the day's key takeaways, highlights and insights.

Included below are some of the top line takeaways from attendees, and you can register for the full run down here: Register for Forward> insights 

A forum to move the workplace industry forward

  • 60 Workplace and Real Estate leaders from scaled companies
  • 7 Workshop, panel discussions and fireside chats with industry experts
  • 2 Curated peer-to-peer networking sessions with senior stakeholders

As an application only event, Forward> welcomed a curated group of over 60 senior stakeholders from 1000 person+ companies, all actively innovating in global workplace strategy. 

The days varied agenda included fireside chats and panels with some of the world's biggest companies, including OpenAI, Dropbox, and Block.

Attendees were also guided through interactive workshops designed to produce practical takeaways, and enjoyed peer-to-peer networking sessions to continue the conversation with fellow attendees.

By bringing together peers from different organizations grappling with similar problems and putting them in a confidential space, attendees were able to share with each other what their challenges are, what's working and what's not, to drive a collective evolution within the industry.

What did we learn? 

The days sessions and workshops resulted in a host of best practice advice, actions and learnings. 

You can read the full breakdown in our exclusive insights download, but we’ve also pulled out some of the key attendee takeaways gathered from Forward> 2024.

Commonality of experience

Across every sector and organization, workplace leaders are struggling with similar problems, regardless of the workplace strategy they pursue.

Communication is key

Always listen to your team - build team level agreements alongside clear priorities and goals that should be shared broadly within your organization.

The importance of sharing

While the future of workplace culture and strategy may be unclear, we are all building it for the first time, which is why supporting our community and sharing findings with each other will be invaluable.

Team gatherings require strategy

There is a rapidly emerging requirement to consciously build effective in-person time, meaning facilitation and a clear strategy for team gatherings is essential.

RTO uncertainty

There’s continued uncertainty across the industry over how to successfully navigate RTO. There is no one-size-fits-all solution, so the best strategies will emerge through shared experimentation and open dialogue.

The future is flexible

Human centric decision making for hybrid or distributed teams requires a flexible real estate strategy that includes event-focused spaces and on-demand options, and can quickly adapt to changing business needs.

Looking forward…

We wanted to share a big thank you to all of our speakers and contributors for making Forward> such a success - we’re already planning next year so look out for the next edition!

Feedback

As well as enthusiastic contributions on the day, we're delighted with the feedback from attendees.

“Loved all the powerful and insightful female speakers.”
“I like that there was a mix of hearing others share their stories & challenges, and an opportunity to workshop through the challenges we're facing.”
“Great quality of speakers and differing perspectives.”
“It was wonderful to meet so many people in-person that I’ve been connecting with virtually the past year or so.”
“I really liked the flow of the sessions – it was the perfect balance of breaks/content/interaction.”

To find out more about how Desana On Demand is supporting the evolution of the workplace industry through access to on-demand workplace, book a demo with our team.

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